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Session Topics: Photosynthetic Factories Novel Bioproducts New tools and Technologies in Synthetic Biology Engineering Biotic Interactions Engineering Plant Development and Morphology Engineering Primary Productivity Food and Nutritional Security Keynote Speakers: Caixia Gao, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge Christine Raines, University of Essex Invited Speakers: Yagut Allahverdiyeva-Rinne, University of Turku Yang Bai, CAS-JIC Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Science Arren Bar-Even, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology Pierre Crozet, Sorbonne University Andrew Hanson, University of Florida Sotirios Kampranis, University of Copenhagen George Lomonossoff, John Innes Center Cathie Martin, John Innes Center Alistair McCormick, University of Edinburgh Marnix Medema, Wageningen University Birger Lindberg Møller, University of Copenhagen Jennifer Nemhauser, University of Washington Paul South, Louisiana State University Matias Zurbriggen, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Conference Co-Chairs: Poul Erik Jensen, University of Copenhagen Alison Smith, University of Cambridge Organizing Committee: Tobias Erb, Max Planck Institute Patrik Jones, Imperial College London Stephane Lemaire, CNRS, Sorbonne Université June Medford, Colorado State University Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre Nicola Patron, Earlham Institute Henrik Scheller, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Patrick Shih, University of California Davis Featured Speakers Yagut Allahverdiyeva-Rinne I obtained a PhD degree in Azerbaijan. I have joined the Molecular Plant Biology group at the University of Turku as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2002. In 2009, I was awarded with a Docent title in the field of Bioenergetics. I have been acting as Principal Investigator at the Molecular Plant unit, University of Turku since 2010. Currently I am acting as a PI of the 'Photosynthetic microbes' team and as early-stage PI in the Finnish Center of Excellence “Molecular Biology of Primary Producers” (2014-2019). Since 2017 I am a tenure-track Associated Professor of Molecular Plant Biology...Read more Yang Bai My group study the interactions between plant and root microbiota, especially focusing on the host genetic regulation on root microbiome and root microbiome’s functions for plant growth and healthRead more Arren Bar-Even Completed Bachelor degree in the excellence program of the Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. Did Master’s degree in Bioinformatics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Spent several years in the biotech industry before returning to academia to complete a PhD degree in Biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science, specializing in the design principles of cellular metabolism. From 2015, head of the “Systems and Synthetic Metabolism” lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, studying the biochemical logic of metabolic pathways and their applications for...Read more Pierre Crozet Pierre is interested in the molecular mechanisms allowing Plants to modulate their metabolism changing conditions. One of the major integrators of these environmental cues is the SnRK1 complex that allows maintenance of energy homeostasis. He studied its complex post-translational regulations that allow specific signal transduction during both his Ph.D. at Université Paris-Sud and his postdoc at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal). Since 2016, he shifted towards Synthetic Biology of carbon fixation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii aiming at making this alga a better chassis,...Read more Andrew Hanson Andrew Hanson has worked for >30 years on plant and microbial metabolic biochemistry and engineering. After starting out in agribusiness research in the UK, he received postdoctoral training in France, then moved successively to the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University, to Université de Montréal, and to University of Florida. His research portfolio includes stress metabolism, amino acid and sulfur metabolism, B vitamin metabolism, metabolite damage and repair, and the application of synthetic biology to metabolic engineering. His group’s research aims to be...Read more George Lomonossoff George is a virologist who uses molecular biology to understand the assembly and properties of viruses. He uses a synthetic biology approach to create synthetic virus-like particles. He has exploited a highly efficient transient expression system to produce pharmacologically active proteins within plants. George’s research uses nanotechnology to create virus-like particles which can be used for immune recognition and vaccine development, they also make good nanoparticles for drug delivery. Creating synthetic virus-like particles Using virus-like particles for...Read more Cathie Martin Cathie’s research interests lie in using plant science to improve human diet and health. She is particularly interested in biofortification and using plant metabolic engineering to enhance foods nutritionally. Much of Cathie’s work has been undertaken in tomatoes, enriching their nutrient content with, for example, resveratrol and anthocyanin. Cathie collaborates to test these enhanced foods in intervention studies and also undertakes studies into how these modified fruits have improved shelf-life and reduced susceptibility to grey mould, Botrytis cinerea. ...Read more Alistair McCormick Alistair holds an MSc from the University of Stellenbosch and a PhD from the University of KwaZulu Natal, which he gained while at the South African Sugarcane Research Institute. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and John Innes Centre before joining Edinburgh in October 2013 as a Chancellor’s Fellow in plant molecular physiology and synthetic biology. Alistair's research interests have centred around photosynthesis and how it can be manipulated to produce novel products or improve plant productivity. ...Read more Marnix Medema Marnix Medema is an Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He obtained a BSc. in Biology (Radboud University Nijmegen, 2006) and an MSc. in Biomolecular Sciences (University of Groningen, 2008). In 2013, he completed his PhD in the groups of Eriko Takano and Rainer Breitling, also at the University of Groningen. During his PhD he spent time in the lab of Michael Fischbach at the University of California, San Francisco, as a visiting research fellow. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the group of Frank Oliver Glöckner at the Max Planck...Read more Birger Lindberg Møller A promising application of my lab's research involves engineering microalgae, mosses and plant cells into production units for high value natural products. Synthetic biology research is key in reaching this goal, so my engagement in this dynamic, crossdisciplinary field is a logical extension of my plant research activities. The work within Center for Synthetic Biology is targeted towards the formation of new combinations of membrane proteins. This approach holds numerous beneficial applications, e.g. enabling us to harvest the energy of sunlight for the synthesis of valuable...Read more Jennifer Nemhauser Jennifer Nemhauser is a Professor of Biology at the University of Washington and an HHMI Faculty Scholar. She is fascinated by the premise that regulation of a small number of cellular functions—division, growth, differentiation, communication, death—makes multicellular life possible. Her long-term objective is to use plant signaling pathways to program each of these core functions in a synthetic context and then to use this information to rationally engineer crops. In the process, she hopes to learn a great deal about the principles shaping cell signaling networks and how evolution has re...Read more Matias Zurbriggen Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen, Born in 1979, has been head of the Institute of Synthetic Biology since October 2015, a specialist in the field of molecular biology, organic chemistry, engineering, nanobiotechnology and information technology, at the HHU in Düsseldorf and is a member of the excellence cluster CEPLAS. He works with his team to develop and apply innovative synthetic biology and optogenetics techniques to understand signal processes and regulatory networks under temporal and spatial control. The research focus is on the study of light and the hormonal signaling pathways in...Read more
Yagut Allahverdiyeva-Rinne I obtained a PhD degree in Azerbaijan. I have joined the Molecular Plant Biology group at the University of Turku as a postdoctoral research fellow in 2002. In 2009, I was awarded with a Docent title in the field of Bioenergetics. I have been acting as Principal Investigator at the Molecular Plant unit, University of Turku since 2010. Currently I am acting as a PI of the 'Photosynthetic microbes' team and as early-stage PI in the Finnish Center of Excellence “Molecular Biology of Primary Producers” (2014-2019). Since 2017 I am a tenure-track Associated Professor of Molecular Plant Biology...Read more
Yang Bai My group study the interactions between plant and root microbiota, especially focusing on the host genetic regulation on root microbiome and root microbiome’s functions for plant growth and healthRead more
Arren Bar-Even Completed Bachelor degree in the excellence program of the Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. Did Master’s degree in Bioinformatics at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Spent several years in the biotech industry before returning to academia to complete a PhD degree in Biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science, specializing in the design principles of cellular metabolism. From 2015, head of the “Systems and Synthetic Metabolism” lab at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, studying the biochemical logic of metabolic pathways and their applications for...Read more
Pierre Crozet Pierre is interested in the molecular mechanisms allowing Plants to modulate their metabolism changing conditions. One of the major integrators of these environmental cues is the SnRK1 complex that allows maintenance of energy homeostasis. He studied its complex post-translational regulations that allow specific signal transduction during both his Ph.D. at Université Paris-Sud and his postdoc at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal). Since 2016, he shifted towards Synthetic Biology of carbon fixation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii aiming at making this alga a better chassis,...Read more
Andrew Hanson Andrew Hanson has worked for >30 years on plant and microbial metabolic biochemistry and engineering. After starting out in agribusiness research in the UK, he received postdoctoral training in France, then moved successively to the MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University, to Université de Montréal, and to University of Florida. His research portfolio includes stress metabolism, amino acid and sulfur metabolism, B vitamin metabolism, metabolite damage and repair, and the application of synthetic biology to metabolic engineering. His group’s research aims to be...Read more
George Lomonossoff George is a virologist who uses molecular biology to understand the assembly and properties of viruses. He uses a synthetic biology approach to create synthetic virus-like particles. He has exploited a highly efficient transient expression system to produce pharmacologically active proteins within plants. George’s research uses nanotechnology to create virus-like particles which can be used for immune recognition and vaccine development, they also make good nanoparticles for drug delivery. Creating synthetic virus-like particles Using virus-like particles for...Read more
Cathie Martin Cathie’s research interests lie in using plant science to improve human diet and health. She is particularly interested in biofortification and using plant metabolic engineering to enhance foods nutritionally. Much of Cathie’s work has been undertaken in tomatoes, enriching their nutrient content with, for example, resveratrol and anthocyanin. Cathie collaborates to test these enhanced foods in intervention studies and also undertakes studies into how these modified fruits have improved shelf-life and reduced susceptibility to grey mould, Botrytis cinerea. ...Read more
Alistair McCormick Alistair holds an MSc from the University of Stellenbosch and a PhD from the University of KwaZulu Natal, which he gained while at the South African Sugarcane Research Institute. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge and John Innes Centre before joining Edinburgh in October 2013 as a Chancellor’s Fellow in plant molecular physiology and synthetic biology. Alistair's research interests have centred around photosynthesis and how it can be manipulated to produce novel products or improve plant productivity. ...Read more
Marnix Medema Marnix Medema is an Assistant Professor of Bioinformatics at Wageningen University, The Netherlands. He obtained a BSc. in Biology (Radboud University Nijmegen, 2006) and an MSc. in Biomolecular Sciences (University of Groningen, 2008). In 2013, he completed his PhD in the groups of Eriko Takano and Rainer Breitling, also at the University of Groningen. During his PhD he spent time in the lab of Michael Fischbach at the University of California, San Francisco, as a visiting research fellow. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the group of Frank Oliver Glöckner at the Max Planck...Read more
Birger Lindberg Møller A promising application of my lab's research involves engineering microalgae, mosses and plant cells into production units for high value natural products. Synthetic biology research is key in reaching this goal, so my engagement in this dynamic, crossdisciplinary field is a logical extension of my plant research activities. The work within Center for Synthetic Biology is targeted towards the formation of new combinations of membrane proteins. This approach holds numerous beneficial applications, e.g. enabling us to harvest the energy of sunlight for the synthesis of valuable...Read more
Jennifer Nemhauser Jennifer Nemhauser is a Professor of Biology at the University of Washington and an HHMI Faculty Scholar. She is fascinated by the premise that regulation of a small number of cellular functions—division, growth, differentiation, communication, death—makes multicellular life possible. Her long-term objective is to use plant signaling pathways to program each of these core functions in a synthetic context and then to use this information to rationally engineer crops. In the process, she hopes to learn a great deal about the principles shaping cell signaling networks and how evolution has re...Read more
Matias Zurbriggen Prof. Dr. Matias Zurbriggen, Born in 1979, has been head of the Institute of Synthetic Biology since October 2015, a specialist in the field of molecular biology, organic chemistry, engineering, nanobiotechnology and information technology, at the HHU in Düsseldorf and is a member of the excellence cluster CEPLAS. He works with his team to develop and apply innovative synthetic biology and optogenetics techniques to understand signal processes and regulatory networks under temporal and spatial control. The research focus is on the study of light and the hormonal signaling pathways in...Read more