In a world where the demand for a sustainable bio-economy is growing steeply, Synthetic Biology might represent a way to find innovative solutions to solve many challenges such as sustainable production of chemicals and materials, revolutionizing the food industry, etc.

This year, BioMarket Insights, organizer for more than 10 years of one of the main events covering the bio-economy (World BioMarkets), organized a new dedicated event, SynbioMarkets 2019, which took place at Ewerk in Berlin the 18th and 19th of November.

In the German capital, experts in synthetic biology coming from industry, academia and governmental institutions gathered to share the latest news, debate challenges and solutions regarding Synthetic Biology applied to the bio-economy. Kostas and Stefano from our Steering Committee had the opportunity to attend the event and bring the voice of EUSynBioS into the discussions.

The event spanned two days, and was structured into series of short talks followed by discussion panels, tackling a large variety of different topics. Different Roundtables took place where experts could guide discussions between smaller amounts of people (similar to the breakout sessions at our Symposia). The uncomplicated and fast rhythm of the event made time fly, despite the impressive amount of presenters.

Just to mention some highlights, giants such as BASF and Bayer explained how they are investing in SynBio based solutions, Ginkgo Bioworks how they are utilizing large scale automation in their labs. Twist Bioscience showed us how they are delivering cheap DNA synthesis to the market and how they are working on using DNA as an archiving technology. The US Department of Energy shared how they are supporting researchers and industry with their cutting edge facilities.

Prof. Christopher Preston made us ponder that SynBio technologies might enable deliberate planet-shaping, rather than the accidental planet shaping that humans have caused so far. Finally, a panel of SynBio Stars gave space to some fresh startup businesses. As many more really interesting talks took place, we suggest you to check out the Agenda of the event to find out who are the players in the field that you should follow closely in the near future.

Overall, the atmosphere created by BioMarket Insights encouraged lots of networking between very different players operating in the SynBio field. We definitely recommend our community to attend the next event that will take place again in Berlin in 2020. Hopefully see you there!