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.
Day of Arrival: September 17, 2025
Venue: Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Conference Room 612
| 6:00 - 8:00 pm | Welcoming Reception - Greetings from the NSF iBioFoundry Director Huimin Zhao - NSF iBioFoundry Tours - Buffet & Drinks & Networking |
Day 1: Thursday, September 18, 2025
Venue: I Hotel & Illinois Conference Center, Chancellor Ballroom
| 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 Huimin Zhao, PhD Director, NSF iBioFoundry, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Lars Nielsen, PhD Chair, Global Biofoundry Alliance, Professor, University of Queensland Theresa Good, PhD Directorate Head of Biological Sciences (BIO), National Science Foundation (NSF) |
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| 9:00 - 9:30 am | The what and why (and how) of Cloud Labs DJ Kleinbaum, PhD Co-Founder, Emerald Cloud Labs Chair: Huimin Zhao, PhD |
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| 9:30 - 10:30 am | Panel - NSF BioFoundries Program Moderator: NSF Program Director Sridhar Raghavachari, PhD 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, CREATE 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 of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, 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 Chair: Nilmani Singh, PhD |
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| London Biofoundry (United Kingdom) Marko Storch, PhD Director Biofoundry Operations, Co-Director Imperial Drug Discovery Hub, 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) Tomohisa Hasunuma, PhD Professor, Director, Engineering Biology Research Center, Kobe University |
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| K-Biofoundry (South Korea) Seung-Goo Lee, PhD Director, Korea BioFoundry Project, Professor, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) |
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| 12:00 - 1:00 pm |
Lunch & Networking |
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| 1:00 - 2:00 pm | Panel - Biofoundry Funders Hybrid Session: Zoom and In-Person Attendance Moderator: Huimin Zhao, PhD |
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| Shing Kwok, PhD Program Manager, Biological and Environmental Research (BER), Office of Science, US Department of Energy (DOE) Sridhar Raghavachari, PhD Program Director, Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO), Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI), U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Wataru Mizunashi, PhD Deputy Senior Manager, Frontier & Open Innovation Division, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation Paul Raterron, PhD Program Director, Office of the Director (OD), Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE), National Science Foundation R. Todd Anderson, PhD Division Director for Biological Systems Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER), Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) |
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| 2:00 - 3:00 pm |
Panel - NSF Global Center for BioFoundry Applications Moderator: George Heintz Introduction of NSF Global Center for BioFoundry Applications Huimin Zhao, PhD Principal Investigator, NSF Global Center for BioFoundry Applications Haseong Kim, PhD Research Thrust Co-Leader, KRIBB Emma Frow, PhD Governance Thrust Co-Leader, Arizona State University India Hook-Barnard, PhD Outreach Thrust Co-Leader, CEO, Engineering Biology Research Consortium Kenichi Yoshida, PhD Education and Workforce Development Thrust Co-Leader, Kobe Biofoundry |
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| 3:00 - 3:30 pm | Group Photo Meeting Point: State Farm Center Staircase |
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| 3:30 - 3:50 pm |
Research Park 2.0 “Plug and Play Location for Bioprocessing" Laura Appenzeller, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Innovation, Research Park Executive Director |
Ribbon Cutting NSF iBioFoundry (by invitation) 3:30-4:00 pm, transfer to IGB 4:00-6:00 pm, Ribbon Cutting |
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| 3:50 - 5:30 pm | Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) - Tours Signup at checking, space limited to 26 people, 13 each tour. 4:00 - 4:45 pm Tour 1 4:45 - 5:30 pm Tour 2 |
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| 3:50 - 6:30 pm | Vendor Display & Poster Session |
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| 6:30 - 8:30 pm | Hors d’oeuvres, Drinks & Networking Poster Session |
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Day 2: Friday, September 19, 2025
Venue: I Hotel & Illinois Conference Center, Heritage Hall
| 8:15 - 8:45 am | Breakfast & Kickoff Opening: George Heintz |
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| 8:45 - 9:15 am | C1 Biofoundry: From Prototype to Commercial Launchpad Jeffrey Vieregg, PhD Lab Automation, LanzaTech Chair: Huimin Zhao, PhD |
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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 Chair: Huimin Zhao, PhD |
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| 9:45 - 10:45 am | Panel - Biofoundry Ecosystem Moderator: Garret Dunlap, PhD |
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| David Ross, PhD Lead Scientist, Living Measurement Systems Foundry, NIST |
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| India Hook-Barnard, PhD CEO, Engineering Biology Research Consortium |
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| Corey Hudson, PhD Head of Data, The Align Foundation |
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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 Chair: Haseong Kim, PhD |
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| National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom) Max Ryadnov, PhD Professor, Head, Engineering Biology Director, Reference Biofoundry, National Physical Laboratory |
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| Concordia Genome Foundry (Canada) Nicholas Gold, MSc Senior Advisor, Business Development & Partnerships Engagement, Concordia Genome Foundry, Concordia University |
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| BRIGHT Biofoundry at the DTU Biosustain (Denmark) Adam M. Feist, PhD Professor of Bioengineering and Group Leader, BRIGHT Biofoundry at the DTU Biosustain (Denmark) & UCSD Biofoundry (USA) |
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| BVT BioFoundry (Germany) Cedric Meyer, PhD Candidate Institute of Biochemical Engineering, University of Stuttgart |
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| Jülich Biofoundry (Germany) Stephan Noack, PhD Jülich Biofoundry, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH |
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| A*STAR SPARROW Biofoundry (Singapore) Clement Scipion, PhD Scientist, A*STAR Singapore Institute of Food and Biotechnology Innovation |
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| 12:30 - 1:30 pm |
Lunch Break |
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| 1:30 - 2:30 pm | Vendor Presentations Chair: Nilmani Singh, PhD |
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| Tools to Drive DBTL Efficiently, De-Risk Scale-Up, and Prioritize High-Quality Data 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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| Automating and Accelerating Biofoundry Innovation with TeselaGen’s AI-Enabled Design-Build-Test-Learn Platform Eduard Abeliuk, PhD CEO, TeselaGen |
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| 2:30 - 3:30 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Member Session III Chair: Nilmani Singh, PhD |
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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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| RISE High-Throughput Centre (Sweden) Payam Ghiaci, PhD (Zoom) Leader, RISE High-Throughput Centre |
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| Paris Biofoundry (France) Stéphane Lemaire, PhD Director Paris Biofoundry, Sorbonne Université |
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| 3:30 - 4:00 pm |
Coffee Break |
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| 4:00 - 6:00 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Member Session IV Chair: Haseong Kim, PhD |
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| SynCTI (Singapore) Chueh Loo Poh, PhD Director, Associate Professor, Synthetic Biology for Clinical and Technological Innovation (SynCTI), National University of Singapore |
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| Toronto Biofoundry (Canada) Celina Tufvegren Borgstrom, PhD Project Manager, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto |
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| IDEA Bio (Australia) Justin Gareth Chitpin, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow, Systems Biology at IDEA Bio, University of Queensland |
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| DAMP Lab (USA) Kristen Sheldon Senior Lab Technologist, Boston University |
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| Estonian Biofoundry (Estonia) Vallo Varik, PhD Faculty of Science and Technology, Director, Estonian Biofoundry University of Tartu |
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| Synthetic DNA Accelerator Lab (Germany) Konrad Herbst, PhD Head of Facility, Synthetic DNA Accelerator Lab, Center for Synthetic Genomics Heidelberg-Karlsruhe-Mainz, University of Heidelberg |
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| SynBiofoundry@TUM (Germany) Volker Sieber, PhD Professor, Chair, Chemistry of Biogenic Resources, TU München |
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| Shenzhen Biofoundry (China) Fan Jin, PhD (Zoom) Professor, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) |
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| 6:00 - 6:10 pm | Wrap-Up and Closing Remarks Huimin Zhao & Lars Nielsen |
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| 6:10 - 8:00 pm | Global Biofoundry Alliance Dinner, Drinks & Networking |
