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This gathering of academics, industry members, business community members, and Siebel Scholars was intended to encourage greater interaction within the broad Bay Area synthetic biology community, and facilitate connections with the Siebel Scholars. The Siebel Scholars, a growing community of 700+ graduates from top programs in business, bioengineering and computer science, recently held their yearly conference on the topic of Synthetic Biology. The event introduced the forms of practice that Synthetic Biology takes within Bay Area academic and industrial organizations, and touched on the technical, economic, and social challenges to pursuing synthetic biology in the Bay Area and abroad.

The meeting began with a group discussion led by a panel of experts (academic, startups, established biotech, venture capital and non-profits) who provided their insight on the field. Panelists included:

• David Breslauer, Refactored Materials
• Zach Serber, Amyris Biotechnologies
• Douglas Crawford, Mission Bay Capital
• Holly Million, BioBricks Foundation
• Bill Shelander, Business and Entrepreneurial Development at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Nathan Hillson, Joint BioEnergy Institute

Themes for the discussion included:

• Synthetic Biology Startups
  • What are the biggest hurdles synthetic biology startups face?
  • What technologies, business plans, societal developments are taking place to facilitate biotech entrepreneurship?
• Commercialization of Synthetic Biology
  • Where is synthetic biology having the largest commercial impact today? In 10 years?
  • What are the current unmet market needs?
• Intellectual Property
• Biosafety and biosecurity

Following the panel discussion was informal discussion among Siebel Scholars, academic and industrial practitioners, and business leaders from around the Bay Area. Participants also participated in tours of the state of the art facilities at JBEI and Amyris.

This meeting was jointly sponsored by the Siebel Scholars Foundation, SynBERC, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI).

Contact Jeffrey Dietrich (jadietrich at gmail dot com) or Megan Palmer (mjpalmer at stanford dot edu) for additional information.