BioSynSys in France
Danielle Rose - February 3, 2020
Group photo of Bio SynSys attendees - photo by Danielle Rose
If you want to learn about cell free, Bio SynSys is the place to be.
In November I had the opportunity to attend Bio SynSys in Bordeaux, France as the representative for SynBio Canada. We were invited to participate in a panel discussion featuring members from a number of Synthetic Biology Organizations (including France, Europe, Germany, and the UK). Bio SynSys is a joint effort between the German and French SynBio Organizations (including the Max Planck SynBio research group and SynBio France) to showcase the exciting research going on in these two countries.
Backdropped by beautiful French architecture ensued 3 days of inspiring talks on topics ranging from microfluidics to re-designing the plant photosynthetic pathway. Thanks to the Max Planck Institute’s focus on bottom up biology, I got a crash course in cell free systems and the awesome opportunities they open up with regards to rapid pathway optimization.
As the conference continued, I got to hear some amazing talks, but one in particular has still stuck with me. Every once in awhile when you attend an event like this you hear a talk that make you giddy with excitement at the amazing new potentials for the field that have appeared before your very eyes. The talk by Marieke Scheffen from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology was without a doubt one of these. Through her presentation she brought us through the steps her team had taken to engineer a completely novel carboxylase not found in nature in order to develop a new biosynthetic pathway. And, if this wasn’t cool enough, the newly developed tartronyl-CoA (TaCo) pathway is already being used by a partner company to improve the way that plants conduct photosynthesis, eliminating carbon waste.
It was really cool to share what we are working on in Canada at an international conference, and it was exciting to see all of the work being done across the world by other SynBio organizations. Our panel discussion resulted in an interesting chat about what is needed in the years to come with regards to education for those wishing to pursue a career in SynBio. The debate mainly came down to whether or not it was better to have a program specifically designed for engineering biology, or if the field was too multidisciplinary and broad for this to work and if we should just focus more on fostering independent learning through easier to access materials online.
As the conference drew to a close I said au revoir to the new friends I had made and headed back to Canada, armed with new ideas on how to improve our synbio community. As different as our countries are it's exciting to see how similar the synbio community is across the world, and it really inspires me for what we will be able to accomplish in the years to come.
