Biofoundry Week
September 15-20, 2025
The Global Biofoundry Alliance (GBA) Annual Meeting 2025 brings together innovators, researchers, and industry leaders to advance biofoundry development worldwide. The meeting highlights the contributions of our member biofoundries, as well as the GBA's five core working groups:
- Software
- Business Model, Sustainability, and Value Proposition
- Outreach, Industry, Policy, Security, and Public
- Metrology, Reproducibility, and Data Quality
- Grand Challenge and Demonstration Projects
These groups, alongside invited speakers, will showcase new tools, best practices for sustainable operation, emerging policy frameworks, shared data standards, and collaborative demonstration efforts. Join us to explore the latest in biofoundry innovation, connect with GBA members, and engage with leading sponsors.
Day of Arrival: September 17, 2025
Venue: Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Conference Room 612
| 6:00 - 9:00 pm | Welcoming Reception - Greeting from the NSF iBioFoundry Director Huimin Zhao - NSF iBioFoundry Tours - Poster Session & Vendor Display - Buffet & Drinks - Networking |
Day 1: Thursday, September 18, 2025
Venue: I Hotel & Illinois Conference Center
| 8:15 - 8:45 am |
Breakfast |
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| 8:45 - 9:00 am | Opening Remarks Gene Robinson, PhD Director, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) Welcoming Remarks Steven L. Miller Chair Professor Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Bioengineering Director, NSF AI Institute for Molecule Synthesis Director, NSF iBioFoundry Director, NSF Global Center for Biofoundry Applications University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Welcoming Remarks Lars Nielsen, PhD Chair, Global Biofoundry Alliance Professor, Senior Group Leader, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland |
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| 9:00 - 9:30 am | DJ Kleinbaum, PhD Co-Founder, Emerald Cloud Labs |
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| 9:30 - 10:30 am | Panel - NSF BioFoundries Program BioF:GREAT Lance Wells, PhD Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Georgia Director, BioF:GREAT iBioFoundry Huimin Zhao, PhD Steven L. Miller Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Director, NSF iBioFoundry CREATE BIOFOUNDRY Mark Blenner, PhD Thomas & Kipp Gutshall Career Development Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Delaware Director, GREATE BIOFOUNDRY AIRFoundry Daeyeon Lee, PhD Russell Pearce and Elizabeth Crimian Heuer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Pennsylvania Director, AIRFoundry ExFAB Ian Wheeldon, PhD Professor Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Riverside Co-Director, ExFAB |
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10:30 - 11:00 am |
Coffee Break |
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| 11:00 am - 12:00 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Member Session I |
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| London Biofoundry (United Kingdom) Marko Storch, PhD Director Biofoundry Operations, Co-Director Imperial Drug Discovery Hub, SynBioVen Investment Team, Imperial College London |
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| VTT Biofoundry (Finland) Jussi Jäntti, PhD Principal Scientist, Research Team Leader, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland |
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| Kobe Biofoundry (Japan) Akihiko Kondo, PhD Professor Chemical Science and Engineering, Director of Biorefinery Center Kobe University Team Leader, Cell Factory Research Team, Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Kobe University |
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| K-Biofoundry (South Korea) Seung-Goo Lee, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Molecular Energy Engineering Track, University of Ulsan, South Korea |
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| 12:00 - 1:00 pm |
Lunch & Networking |
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| 1:00 - 2:00 pm | Panel - Biofoundry Funders |
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| Lisa Guay, PhD Technology Manager, Bioenergy Technologies Office, Chemical Metabolic Engineering & Synthetic Biology, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Shing Kwok, PhD Program Manager, Biological and Environmental Research (BER), Office of Science, U.S Department of Energy (DOE) Sridhar Raghavachari, PhD Program Director, Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI), U.S. National Science Foundation Paul Raterron, PhD Program Director, Office of the Director (OD), Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE), National Science Foundation Todd Anderson, PhD Director, Biological Systems Science Division, U.S. Department of Energy |
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| 2:00 - 3:00 pm |
Panel - NSF Global Center for Biofoundry Applications Introduction of NSF Global Center for Biofoundry Applications Huimin Zhao, PhD Steven L. Miller Chair Professor Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Professor Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Bioengineering Director, NSF AI Institute for Molecule Synthesis Director, NSF iBioFoundry Director, NSF Global Center for Biofoundry Applications University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Haseong Kim, PhD Research Thrust Co-Leader, K-Biofoundry Emma Frow, PhD Governance Thrust Co-Leader, Arizona State University India Hook-Barnard, PhD Outreach Thrust Co-Leader, Chief Executive Officer of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium Kenichi Yoshida, PhD Education and Workforce Development Thrust co-Leader, Kobe Biofoundry |
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| 3:00 - 4:00 pm | Organized Transfer to IGB for Ribbon Cutting and Group Photo | |
NSF iBioFoundry Ribbon Cutting & Inauguration of National Institute for Biofoundry Applications (NIBA) at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology |
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| 4:00 - 5:00 pm | Remarks Gene Robinson, PhD Director, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology |
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| Susan Martinis, PhD Vice Chancellor for Research & Innovation |
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| Rashid Bashir, PhD Dean, Grainger College of Engineering |
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| Ribbon-Cutting and Inauguration Ceremony |
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| Huimin Zhao, PhD Director, NSF iBioFoundry |
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| Sridhar Raghavachari, PhD NSF Program Director, Directorate for Biological Sciences |
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| Lawmaker |
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| 5:00 - 8:00 pm | Poster Session & Vendor Display | |
| NSF iBioFoundry Tours Buffet Dinner, Drinks and Networking |
Day 2: Friday, September 19, 2025
Venue: I Hotel & Illinois Conference Center
| 8:15 - 8:45 am | Breakfast |
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| 8:45 - 9:15 am | C1 Biofoundry: A Commercial Launchpad for Biomanufacturing Sustainable Chemicals & Materials Michael Koepke, PhD Chief Innovation Officer, LanzaTech |
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| 9:15 - 9:45 am | The Future of Biofoundries in the World of AI Will Serber VP and General Manager, Automation, Ginkgo Bioworks |
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| 9:45 - 10:45 am | Vendor Presentations |
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| Tools to Drive DBTL Efficiently, De-Risk Scale-Up, and Prioritize High-Quality Data (Enabling smarter biomanufacturing decisions through automation, precision, and robust data integrity.) Maria Savino, PhD, MBA, Global Segment Development Manager Beckman Coulter Life Sciences |
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| Innovative Lab Automation Technologies Advancing Synthetic Biology Dr. Hille Tekotte, Senior Product Applications Specialist, Thermo Fisher Scientific |
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| Eduard Abeliuk, PhD CEO and Founder, TeselaGen |
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| 10:45 - 11:00 am | Coffee Break |
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| 11:00 am - 12:30 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Member Session II |
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| Estonian Biofoundry (Estonia) Vallo Varik, PhD Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Bioengineering, University of Tartu |
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| Concordia Genome Foundry (Canada) Nicolas Gold, PhD Senior Advisor, Business Development & Partnerships Engagement, Concordia University |
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| BRIGHT Biofoundry at the DTU Biosustain (Denmark) Adam Feist, PhD Research Scientist / Group Leader, University of California San Diego |
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| BVT BioFoundry (Germany) Cedric Meyer, PhD Student Institute of Biochemical Engineering, University of Stuttgart |
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| Jülich Biofoundry (Germany) Stephan Noack, PhD Group leader of Quantitative Microbial Phenotyping, Institut für Bio- und Geowissenschaften, Forschungszentrum Jülich |
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| A*STAR SPARROW Biofoundry (Singapore) Clement Scipion, PhD Scientist, Biotransformation and Engineering, A*STAR Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation (A*STAR SIFBI) |
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| 12:30 - 1:30 pm |
Lunch Break |
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1:30 - 2:30 pm |
Panel - Biofoundry Ecosystem |
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| David Ross, PhD Lead Scientist for the Living Measurement Systems Foundry, NIST |
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| India Hook-Barnard, PhD Chief Executive Officer, Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC) |
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| 2:30 - 3:30 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Member Session III |
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| DOE Agile BioFoundry (USA) Nathan Hillson, PhD Senior Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab |
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| Australian Genome Foundry (Australia) Briardo Llorente, PhD Associate Professor, Chief Scientist, Australian Genome Foundry, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University |
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| Shenzhen Biofoundry (China) Fan Jin, PhD Professor, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) |
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| Paris Biofoundry (France) Stéphane Lemaire, PhD Research Director CNRS, Department of Computational, Quantitative and Synthetic Biology, Sorbonne Université Director Paris Biofoundry, Sorbonne Université Chief Innovation Officer & Co-Founder BIOMEMORY |
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| 3:30 - 4:00 pm |
Coffee Break |
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| 4:00 - 5:45 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Member Session IV |
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| SynCTI (Singapore) Chueh Loo Poh, PhD Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, National University of Singapore |
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| Toronto Biofoundry (Canada) Radhakrishnan Mahadevan, PhD Professor of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto |
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| IDEA Bio (Australia) Lars Nielsen, PhD Chair, Global Biofoundry Alliance Professor, Senior Group Leader, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland |
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| DAMP Lab (USA) Kristen Sheldon Senior Lab Technologist, Boston University |
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| National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom) Max Ryadnov, PhD NPL Fellow, Visiting Professor King’s College London |
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| Synthetic DNA Accelerator Lab (Germany) Konrad Herbst, PhD Head of Synthetic DNA Accelerator Lab, Center for Synthetic Genomics Heidelberg-Karlsruhe-Mainz |
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| RISE High-Throughput Centre (Sweden) Payam Ghiac, PhD Senior Scientist, Leader of RISE |
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| 5:45 - 6:00 pm | Wrap-Up and Closing Remarks Huimin Zhao & Lars Nielsen |
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| 6:00 - 8:00 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Dinner, Drinks & Networking |
