International Conference on Plant Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering Technical Program

Monday, November 15

Start Time
EST

End Time
EST 

10:55 AM

11:00 AM

Welcome Remarks
Nicola Patron, Earlham Institute

11:00 AM

11:30 AM

Overcoming bottlenecks in plant gene editing
Dan Voytas, University of Minnesota

11:30 AM

11:40 AM

Stretch Break

11:40 AM

1:10 PM

Session 1: New Tools and Technologies
Gözde Demirer, University of California - Davis

11:40 AM

12:00 PM

Developing multi-targeted CRISPR and amiRNA genomic tools to overcome functional redundancy in plants
Eilon Shani, Tel Aviv University

12:00 PM

12:20 PM

Plant Cell-Based Materials for Engineering Applications
Chiara Daraio

12:20 PM

12:35 PM

Moontag: An Improved Programmable Transcription Activator for Plants
Juan Casas Mollano, University of Minnesota 

12:35 PM

12:50 PM

Study of Arabidopsis thaliana COPT1 Transporter Function Using a Plant Membrane on a Chip Platform
Barituziga Banuna, Cornell University

12:50 PM

1:10 PM

Session 1 Q&A

1:10 PM

1:20 PM

Stretch Break

1:20 PM

2:35 PM

Session 2: Bioenergy
Carolyn Lee-Parsons, Northeastern University

1:20 PM

1:40 PM

Insights into Plant Central Metabolism... (A Time and Place for Everything)
Doug Allen, DDPSC, Missouri

1:40 PM

2:00 PM

Designing plants for the bioeconomy on Earth... and beyond
Jenny Mortimer, JBEI, University of Adelaide 

2:00 PM

2:15 PM

Multilevel Modeling of Lignin Biosynthesis in Brachypodium distachyon
Jaime Barros-Rios, University of North Texas

2:15 PM

2:35 PM

Session 2 Q&A

2:35 PM

2:50 PM

Stretch Break

2:50 PM

4:00 PM

Poster Session

Tuesday, November 16

Start Time

End Time

9:00 AM

9:30 AM

Reconstructing plant natural product pathways in yeast: Synthetic biology tools to control subcellular biocatalysis
Claudia Vickers, CSIRO

9:30 AM

9:40 AM

Stretch Break

9:40 AM

11:10 PM

Session 3: Natural Products and Plant Metabolic Engineering
Fernando Geu-Flores, University of Copenhagen

9:40 AM

10:00 AM

Complex metabolic engineering of plant factories – from scientific curiosity to industrial application
Asaph Aharoni, Weizmann Institute

10:00 AM

10:20 AM

Making Green Drugs: tapping into nature without tapping it out
Jing-Ke Weng, MIT

10:20 AM

10:35AM

A Previously Unknown Biosynthetic Capacity of Chalcone Synthase Discovered By Heterologous Expression of a Putative Plant Biosynthetic Gene Cluster in Yeast
Sijin Li, Cornell University

10:35 AM

10:50 AM

Plant Synthetic Biology Approaches to Decipher Solanaceae Acylsugar Structural Effects on Insect Herbivory
Yann Ru Lou, Michigan State University

10:50 AM

11:10 AM

Session 3 Q&A

11:10 AM

11:20 AM

Stretch Break

11:20 AM

12:20 PM

Panel Discussion: Future of Biosafety and Bioremediation

Steve Strauss, Oregon State University

Elizabeth Hood, Arkansas State University

Joyce Tait, University of Edinburgh

Jonathan Menary, University of Oxford

12:20 PM

1:30 PM

Poster Session

Wednesday, November 17

Start Time

End Time

11:00 AM

11:30 AM

Conversion of E Coli to generate all biomass carbon from CO2
Ron Milo, Weizmann Institute of Science

11:30 AM

11:40 AM

Stretch Break

11:40 AM

1:25 PM

Session 4 Crop Improvement and Engineering Nutrition
Elena Caro, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

11:40 AM

12:00 AM

Enhancing iron and zinc in bread wheat
Janneke Balk, John Innes Centre

12:00 PM

12:20 PM

Improving disease resistance in plants by editing the epigenome
Rebecca Bart, Danforth

12:20 PM

12:35 PM

Transforming the food system with Inari’s SEEDesignTM platform
Mike Nuccio, Inari

12:35 PM

12:50 PM

Mechanism, Regulation, and Ecology of Bacterial Auxin Degradation By the Genus Variovorax in the Complex Root Microbiome
Jonathan Conway, Princeton University

12:50 PM

1:05 PM

Synthetic Genetic Circuits to Modify Plant Root Structure
Jennifer Brophy

1:05 PM

1:25 PM

Session 4 Q&A

1:25 PM

1:30 PM

Closing Remarks