On 22-24 September 2021 the 4th edition of Genome Engineering and Synthetic Biology took place. 21 academics and 12 industry speakers showcased their latest – sometimes unpublished- work, which makes for a total of 33 experts in the field that attended this once again fantastic meeting.
Genome Engineering and Synthetic Biology, or GESB in short, is part of the VIB Tools & Technologies conference series. VIB’s Tools and Technologies conferences aim to provide a forum for both academic top speakers and scientists from emerging life science companies to present their latest scientific achievements and exciting technological solutions. And that’s exactly what happened on this 4th virtual edition, where we saw the accelerated progress in the Synthetic Biology field by recent developments in DNA synthesis and assembly technologies.
This edition covered topics as tissue engineering, bionanomaterials, direct evolution of pathways, protein design, CRISPR (applications), single Cell (meets CRISPR), DNA Synthesis and truly genome engineering.
Let’s have a look at some insight of the meeting:
CRISPR genome editing is the breakthrough technology of the last decades: it actually works as efficient as described in the first publications (a rarity in science) and it offers a flexible and fast way to study gene function, with many more applications to come. – Jan Cools (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, BE), speaker
NASA is a mission-oriented agency. Synthetic Biology is a way to fulfil those missions, and for human missions, particularly long-term missions, it is going to be an absolutely required technology. – Lynn Rotschild (NASA Ames Research Center, US), speaker
From editing genes to building genomes! Great way to end GESB21. We’re left with lots of food for thoughts on tissue engineering, DNA synthesis, diverse CRISPR applications and the building of genomes. Looking forward to the next edition where we can (hopefully) meet in person again! – Toon Swings (VIB, BE), organizing committee member
We can’t wait to see how the field will have evolved in two years when the next edition of this meeting will take place!
See you then!