2026 Speakers

Bio

Susan is Professor of Synthetic Biology and Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Chair in Emerging Technologies at the University of Edinburgh. She is Director of the UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology and Co-director of the Edinburgh Genome Foundry for synthetic DNA synthesis and assembly.  She also held a prestigious Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Leadership Fellowship in Synthetic Biology. In 2022, her work was recognised by the national academies of both Scotland and Wales, being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. She served as a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, Scotland’s highest level science advisory body, providing independent advice and recommendations on science strategy, policy and priorities to the Scottish Government. Her research focuses on using synthetic biology approaches for developing and controlling genetic circuits for applications in cell and gene therapies as well as metabolic engineering. She is co-founder of two early-stage start-ups using a combination of AI and engineering biology for new gene therapies and enzyme replacement therapies for rare diseases.

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Cai Linton has an MEng in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London and combines technical knowledge in tissue engineering & data science with management experience. His motivation to create a sustainable future using biotechnology led him to co-found Multus to shorten routes to market and lower entry barriers in the cultivated meat industry. Multus makes it faster and cheaper to get growth media that scales, accelerating the adoption of cellular agriculture. The company’s growth media formulations and ingredients are the building blocks of cellular agriculture and enable the affordable at-scale production of real animal products, including meat, dairy, leather, and more, using cells instead of animals.

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Ben Reeve is the Co-founder and CTO of Modern Synthesis, developing materials from microbes to replace leather and coated textiles in the fashion industry.

He has an MA from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in synthetic biology from the Ellis Lab at Imperial College London. Previously he was a founding team member and CTO of the successful materials spin-out, Puraffinity, where he helped to develop sustainable water treatment materials.

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Jen graduated from The University of Sheffield, with a first-class Masters of Biological Sciences in 2004 and a PhD in Biochemistry in 2007. With a 20-plus year progressive career in biotechnology, spanning both higher education and the commercial sector, Jen has held roles in research and development, sales and marketing, business development, and business change and transformation. Jen is currently the COO of the BBIA, and runs her own successful consultancy, FREY, which provides expert advice in business development, fundraising, stakeholder engagement, strategic partnerships, policy development, marketing & communications and project management for the biotech sector.

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Giovanni Stracquadanio is Professor of Engineering Biology at the University of Edinburgh and founder and CEO of Zythera, a preclinical company developing next-generation enzyme replacement therapies for rare lysosomal storage disorders, with Fabry disease as its lead indication. His work spans AI-driven protein design and quantitative experimental biology, aiming to deliver better therapies to patients with rare diseases.

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Paul has been working at the forefront of international synthetic biology developments since 2002 and has played a key role in developing from the outset the UK strategy for synthetic biology research, innovation and training.  

A leading figure in synthetic biology, he has played a key part in the development of synthetic biology in the UK and was a co-author of the British Government’s UK Synthetic Biology Roadmap. Paul has been a passionate advocate for synthetic biology research and translation both in Europe and internationally and has participated as a technical expert in the United Nations Convention for Biological Diversity and Biological Weapons Convention. He is also a working group member of the US NIST synthetic biology standards consortium. 

Paul’s research interests span from understanding the molecular mechanisms of human diseases and infection to the development of synthetic biology platform technologies and biosensors and he is the author of over 170 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He gives many lectures both at international scientific meetings and also public lecture – the most recent being the Ellison-Cliffe medal lecture at the Royal Society of Medicine. 

Paul co-founded and co-directs the UK’s first academic research centre for synthetic biology at Imperial College London (CSynBI) and the first R&D centre for synthetic biology SynbiCITE. 

Paul is also very active in public engagement including numerous public debates – the most recent at the Royal Institution and public displays including at the Science Museum and the first ‘pop-up’ lab at the Victoria and Albert museum. He is also an advocate for training young people and talks regularly at schools and and has successfully co-supervised Imperial undergraduate iGEM teams since 2006. 

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Richard Kitney is Professor of Biomedical Systems Engineering; Chairman of the Institute of Systems and Synthetic Biology; and Co-director of the EPSRC National Centre for Synthetic Biology and Innovation. He was Founding Head of the Department of Bioengineering, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering.

He Chaired The Royal Academy of Engineering Inquiry into Synthetic Biology http://www.raeng.org.uk/publications/reports/synthetic-biology-report . Kitney is a member of the Ministerial Leadership Council for Synthetic Biology and was one of the main authors of the UK Roadmap for Synthetic Biology http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/RCUK-prod/assets/documents/publications/SyntheticBiologyRoadmap.pdf.

Richard is recognised as a leading research worker in the field of synthetic biology and, with Professor Paul Freemont, has been responsible for developing the Imperial College Hub for Synthetic Biology  which is now recognised as one of the leading international centres in the field.

In 2013, they were successful in winning the national competition to establish the UK national industrial translation centre for synthetic biology – SynbiCITE.

Richard has published over 300 papers in the fields of synthetic biology, mathematical modelling, biomedical information systems, and medical imaging and has worked extensively in and with industry.

Kitney was made a Fellow of the World Technology Network in 1999 for his innovative work in the fields of health and medicine. He was made an Academician of the International Academy of BioMedical Engineering in September 2003 (this is the highest honour bestowed by the International Federation of BioMedical Engineering Societies). He is also a Fellow of AIMBE, the America Academy of BioMedical Engineering.

In 2006 he was made an Honorary Fellow of both The Royal College of Physicians and The Royal College of Surgeons. In June 2001, Professor Kitney was awarded The Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Information Technology in Biomedicine.

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John Heap is Professor of Engineering Biology at the University of Nottingham, and co-leads the Nottingham Engineering Biology Labs research cluster. He and his team develop enabling engineering biology technologies and apply them to design, construct, optimise and exploit engineered microbial strains and biocatalysts for biomanufacturing. He transfers his work widely to academia and industry, including by licencing and commercialising IP. John is inventor of several patent families and co-founder of three startup companies. He is a member of several industrial and academic management, funding, directors and advisory boards and committees. John is the Principal Investigator of the GlycoCell UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hub, applying engineering biology and the new GlycoForge biofoundry to unlock new effective, sustainable and scalable routes to development and production of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and new drug targets. He is Co-Lead of the new Carbon-Loop sustainable manufacturing hub (C-Loop), transforming waste streams to valuable products.

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Jeffrey leads on Engineering Biology Partnerships at the National Physical Laboratory NPL having joined their Life Sciences & Health Team in 2019. His current area of focus centres on building collaborations with EngBio partners from industry, academia and the public sector to identify the ways in which NPL’s metrology expertise and capability can support research and its translation to drive growth.

Jeffrey’s technical background is in microbiology, having studied Biotechnology at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry in quality assurance and product development roles in Australia with CSL and was responsible for the early development of the American Type Culture Collection in Europe when working with LGC. Jeffrey has worked in reference materials development roles and he has experience with precision breeding technologies focussed on Agricultural applications having led the LGC Group’s initial launch of their genomics business in Southeast Asia. Today Jeffrey is a strong advocate for the development of industry aligned standards and metrics which can enable investment and smooth the path to growth for engineering biology companies across the UK and for the role standards can play in enabling global supply chains.

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Nadav Rosenberg is the founder of Saras Capital, a tech bio micro-fund based in London. Nadav established Saras Capital in 2020 after building a successful portfolio of angel investments in early-stage technology companies and spending almost a decade as a venture partner at Entrepreneur First (EF). His primary investment focus is providing first-check backing to ambitious scientists turned tech bio entrepreneurs.

Before becoming an investor, Nadav held key operational roles at Groupon and Taboola. He was an early operator at Groupon, which went public with a valuation of $9.5 billion, and later joined Taboola as its first European employee, successfully launching its UK, France, and Germany operations before the company’s New York listing at $2.6 billion. He began his career at McKinsey & Co. and holds an MBA from INSEAD and an MSc in Economics from Birkbeck, University of London.

Saras Capital specializes in pre-seed and seed investments in computational-first scientific ventures focused on therapeutics, synthetic biology, and related technologies. The fund was an early backer of companies such as Ochre Bio, Core Biogenesis, Coding Bio, Eleven Therapeutics, Kyron Bio, and many more.

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Dr. India Hook-Barnard is Executive Director of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC). She works with leaders from across academia, industry, and government sectors to identify and shape scientific opportunities, technical feasibility, and policy issues. Her goal is to advance and accelerate engineering biology solutions across all application areas, drive innovation, and grow the bioeconomy for all.

Prior to joining EBRC, India helped launch and was the Executive Director for the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, and was Associate Director, Precision Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. India worked at the U.S.National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) where she directed standing committees, workshops, and six consensus reports, including Toward Precision Medicine (2011) and Industrialization of Biology (2015).

India was a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institutes of Health,  and earned her PhD in Microbiology-Medicine at the University of Missouri.

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Fiona is the Associate Director of Strategic Development at Holiferm, a commercial-scale UK biochemicals company. Her work focuses on business development, strategic partnerships, and developing compelling narratives to illustrate the transformative impact of the bioeconomy. She also has expertise in global bioeconomy policy and collaboration. Fiona began her career in science communication, and she previously worked as the Director of International Outreach for SynBioBeta. She was also a member of the OECD’s Expert Focus Group on Synthetic Biology.

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Ben Wilding is Co-Founder and CEO of Sun Bear Biofuture who are bioengineering the future of ingredients. His background is in business and technology, having run a software consultancy in London for 10 years and several other businesses. He holds a Masters degree in Sustainability and Behaviour Change. He leads on the company strategy, culture and collaborations with strategic partners at Sun Bear Biofuture. He is passionate about having a positive impact on the planet through biotechnology. 

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Gustaf is the CEO and Co-Founder of Scindo, a company pioneering AI-guided enzyme design to enable sustainable chemical manufacturing from renewable and upcycled feedstocks. He earned his DPhil in organic chemistry and chemical biology from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor Ben G. Davis, where his research focused on the discovery and engineering of novel enzyme functionalities for selective C–H activation and C–C bond cleavage — work that laid the foundation for Scindo’s technology platform. Prior to this, he completed his MChem at Oxford with a dissertation on the incorporation of unnatural amino acids into natural enzymes. 

Before founding Scindo, Gustaf worked in finance and private equity, including as Head of Research at a London-based PE fund specialising in the acquisition and transformation of precision engineering businesses. Combining deep scientific expertise with commercial insight, he now leads Scindo with a mission to transform the chemical industry by unlocking nature’s catalysts. 

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Nigel Scrutton is the Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of C3 Biotech. He leads the company’s scientific strategy at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and engineering. He plays a pivotal role in shaping C3’s technology platform, driving innovation in next-generation biomanufacturing, and guiding the company’s long-term vision and global impact.

Nigel is a Fellow of the Royal Society and has served as Director of the UK Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub, which he founded in 2019. Previously, he was Director of the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (2010–2019), during which time the Institute was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education (2018–2020) for its national leadership in biotechnology and biomanufacturing.

Nigel also advises the UK Government on the strategic development of biotechnology in both civilian and defence contexts.

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Dr. Mary Maxon is a Visiting Associate at Caltech’s Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy, and Chief Strategy Advisor for BEAM Circular.

Previously she was Executive Vice President at Carnegie Science and Executive Director of the Biosciences Institute at Schmidt Sciences. Dr. Maxon has also worked in the private sector, both in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, as well as the public sector, highlighted by her tenure as the Assistant Director for Biological Research at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where she was the principal author of the Obama Administration’s National Bioeconomy Blueprint. She is a member of the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy, and a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Standing Committee on Advances and National Security Implications of Transdisciplinary Biotechnology. Dr. Maxon is a Trustee of Carnegie Science, and a member of the Board of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium. Dr. Maxon also currently serves as a biotechnology subject matter expert for Eric Schmidt, a Commissioner on the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology.

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Max Ryadnov leads Engineering Biology at NPL. He is an NPL Fellow in biometrology, Professor of biophysics, Director of the UK’s reference biofoundry and holds a PhD in Chemistry.

In his role Max is responsible for pre-normative research, metrology and standardisation for industry with an emphasis on sector-agnostic advanced biomanufacturing. His team has delivered 3rd party projects with over 80 UK companies engaging at different TRLs. Max collaborates extensively with research organisations, having secured a substantial grant portfolio from UKRI, ISCF, ISPF, EURAMET, STFC and industry. Max is an active member of standardisation and metrology fora under ISO, CCQM and VAMAS. He has founded and chairs a technical working area in VAMAS, which provides international leadership in standardization activities to support the uptake of engineering biology innovations to industry. His work continues to promote science beyond the lab and is regularly covered in industry-oriented publications and by the mainstream media.

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David Tew recently retired from GSK where he was a Senior Scientific Director. David has 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry from early drug discovery through to drug development and the application of Synthetic Biology. Most recently David led a project to apply Synthetic Biology to redesign the manufacture of therapeutic oligonucleotides. This has resulted in a platform approach to therapeutic oligonucleotide synthesis and manufacture that is both scalable and more sustainable than current approaches. 

In 2018 David was appointed as The Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at Bristol University working with BrisSynBio and the Bristol Biodesign Institute. David held this position until 2022. 

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, David lead the innovation workstream for the Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre, a collaboration between AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Cambridge. 

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Following academic research in Imperial College, in Cambridge University and in Grenoble, France (as a Royal Society European Research Fellow), Lionel Clarke began his career developing environmentally-improved transport fuels with Shell, initially as global technical lead pioneering the global phase-out of leaded gasoline and, from 2000, the development of advanced biofuels as a means to reduce dependence upon fossil fuels.  Motivated by the urgency to develop effective solutions to tackle climate change and the central role that biological systems could play, he left Shell in 2014 to start his own company, BionerG, developing a biobased system for global carbon removal.  He was invited by the UK government in 2011 to chair the generation of the UK Synthetic Biology Roadmap, and subsequently to co-chair together with a senior government minister the UK’s Engineering Biology Leadership Council (EBLC), an independent advisory council, through to 2023.

Lionel Clarke is a visiting professor in the Department of Bioengineering in Imperial College and holds an honorary professorial chair in the Faculty of Chemistry in the University of Manchester.  In 2019 he was awarded an OBE by HM Queen Elizabeth for services to Synthetic Biology.

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Jess is an Account Manager for Synthetic Biology at Twist Bioscience, a role she has held since November 2023. Based in London, she supports customers across London, Cambridge, and Scotland. In this position, Jess collaborates with a diverse range of clients within the synthetic biology sector, with a particular focus on biologics and protein engineering. She is especially passionate about supporting start-ups and biotech companies, helping them leverage Twist’s industry-leading DNA synthesis solutions. Jess is always happy to connect and discuss how Twist can support innovative research and development.

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Jacob is the Founder & CEO of Epoch Biodesign, a biotech company using AI-engineered enzymes to enable textile-to-textile recycling, starting with nylon 6,6. Featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30, Jacob has secured over $50 million in funding from top-tier investors such as Lowercarbon Capital, Lululemon, and Inditex. Epoch’s room temperature process enables blended materials to re-enter the textile supply chain, producing virgin-quality monomers. Epoch is now completing construction of its 150-tonne-per-year demo facility in the UK before commissioning >20,000 tonnes of capacity in Europe.

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Giuseppe Mazza is a biomedical entrepreneur and scientist who co-founded Engitix in 2016 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since the Company’s inception. Rooted in pioneering academic research conducted alongside co-founder Professor Massimo Pinzani at the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health (ILDH), Division of Medicine, University College London (UCL), Giuseppe has transformed fundamental discoveries in extracellular matrix biology into a world-leading proprietary human ECM drug discovery platform — one now reshaping how the pharmaceutical industry approaches fibrotic and soid tumors.

Under his leadership, Engitix has grown from an early-stage spinout into a commercially validated biotechnology company, having raised over $55M across multiple financing rounds and secured landmark partnerships worth over $60M in revenues and $800M in biodollars with global leaders including Dompe, Morphic, and Takeda. Giuseppe also established Engitix’s cutting-edge laboratories and offices at WestWorks, White City, London — a purpose-built hub designed to accelerate the next generation of ECM-based therapeutics.

Prior to founding Engitix, Giuseppe was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at UCL ILDH, where he led the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory. He holds a PhD in Tissue Engineering and Organ Regeneration from UCL and retains an active affiliation with the university as Honorary Associate Professor. He also held a Director of R&D role at Promethera Biosciences (2015–2017).

Beyond his commercial and scientific work, Giuseppe has demonstrated a sustained commitment to patient communities and global health. He has served on the Steering Committee of the European Haemophilia Consortium (EHC), and in 2011 founded Associazione Icore ONLUS, a healthcare charity he led as President for six years.

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Peter Wehrheim is Head of Unit for “Bioeconomy and Food System” within the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission in Brussels.

Prior to this assignment, he worked for the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan. He is a member of the International Advisory Council to the Global Bioeconomy (IACGB). From 2010 to 2018 he was Head of Unit for Land Use and Climate Finance in Directorate-General for Climate Action.

Before 2004, Peter worked at the Universities of Bonn/DE, Maryland/US (with a Heisenberg scholarship of the German Research Foundation) and Kiel/DE. Between 1994 and 2004 he worked as a part-time consultant for the World Bank, Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI / Washington), the German Bank for Reconstruction (KfW) and other development agencies. He received his doctoral degree (and his habilitation) in agricultural economics from the University of Giessen (University of Bonn, Germany) and comes from a vinery in southern Germany.

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Christine Lang studied biology in Bochum and Brighton. She gained her doctorate in Bochum in 1985. After working as a scientist and group leader in the chemical industry, she moved to the TU Berlin in 1993, where she completed her habilitation in microbiology and molecular genetics. She is an adjunct professor of microbiology and molecular genetics. In 2001, she founded Organobalance GmbH as a company for new microbial agents and strains. In 2016 Organobalance became part of Novozymes A/S. She has been Co-Chair of the German Federal Government’s Bioeconomy Council from 2012 to 2019. She is co-chair of the think tank International Global Advisary Council on Global Bioeconomy. She heads the Biobased Future Foundation.

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Chenli Liu is a Pengcheng Distinguished Professor and President of Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Founding Directors of China State Key Laboratory for Quantitative Synthetic Biology, China National Industrial Innovation Center for Biomanufacturing (NIICB), and Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology (iSynBio), the Chief Scientist of Shenzhen Infrastructure for Synthetic Biology, the Chief scientist of Chinese Academy of Sciences Synthetic Cell Initiative, and National Natural Science Foundation of China Basic Science Center on Synthetic Cell. Liu obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Hong Kong, and postdoctoral training at MCB, Harvard University. He started his lab at SIAT in 2014. Liu lab is focused on bringing together concepts and approaches from synthetic biology together with quantitative biology. Current research interest includes synthesizing a cellular life from bottom up and engineering bacteria for solid tumor therapy. He is the recipients of several prestigious awards, e.g. “Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Science and Technology Award”, “Agilent Thought Leader Award”, “C.C. Tan Life Science Innovation Award”.

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Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro is a Professor at Imperial College London and Director of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein and the Microbial Food Hub. He leads a research group at the forefront of Engineering Biology and sustainability.

His work focuses on harnessing microorganisms to convert renewable feedstocks into high-value products, with a particular emphasis on sustainable food ingredients. His research spans microbial bioproduction, including precision, biomass and traditional fermentation, and has resulted in over 200 publications.

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Viola Bronsema has been managing director of the German Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO Deutschland e. V.) in Berlin since October 2006. She has been a member of the jury for the Research Campus Program since 2021. From 2020 to 2023, she was also a member of the German Federal Government’s Bioeconomy Council, and from 2021 to 2025, she was a member of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s Council for Technological Sovereignty.

Previously, she headed communications at Roche Diagnostics GmbH and Roche Diagnostics Europe, Middle East, Africa from 2002 to 2006, and was press spokesperson for Lilly Pharma Holding GmbH from 2000 to 2002. From 1998 to 2000, she worked as a press spokesperson and editor in the press and public relations department of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. From 1995 to 1998, she was a public relations consultant at CGC Cramer-Gesundheits-Consulting, Frankfurt, most recently as a senior consultant. She began her professional career in 1989 as a research assistant at the Center for Molecular Biology in Heidelberg.

Viola Bronsema studied biology at the Universities of Mainz and Heidelberg and completed her dissertation at the Center for Molecular Biology in Heidelberg. She also trained as a certified public relations consultant at Initiative Communication e. V. in Heidelberg.

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As the Associate Provost (Sustainability) and Professor of Environmental Engineering at Imperial College, Anna Korre’s research expertise is in the areas of modelling risk and uncertainty and the environmental and life cycle assessment (LCA) of engineering systems. She has led and directed numerous industry, UKRI and EU funded projects. A strong EDI advocate, Anna’s podcast for Life Scientific on “Capturing carbon dioxide and defying expectations” can be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00237pc.

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Fredrik Adams has built businesses in microalgae and renewable energy for which he has raised more than £125m. He previously spent ten years in technology venture capital.

Firglas has commercial scale algae cultivation to provide food-grade nutritional material for premium applications in aquaculture and to supply raw materials for ingredients and pharmaceuticals.

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Livija is the CSO at Prokarium.

Livija leads the strategic and operational development of Prokarium‘s immuno-oncology portfolio, focused on bioengineering Living Cures for solid tumors. Before joining Prokarium, she directed target and antibody discovery at Oxford BioTherapeutics. She conducted her academic research at Cancer Research UK and holds a PhD in Immunology.

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Matthew Chang is Executive Director of the National Centre for Engineering Biology, Singapore (NCEB) and Director of the SINERGY, Singapore Consortium for Synthetic Biology. He is Provost’s Chair Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), co-founded the Asian Synthetic Biology Association ASBA and the Global Biofoundry Alliance (GBA), and co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Future Council on Generative Biology.

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Ariel Lindner is Director of Research at INSERM and Director of the Systems Engineering and Evolution Dynamics unit (U1338), known as the Engaged Life Science (ELiS) Lab, at Sorbonne Université. He is also co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Sorbonne University’s Paris Biofoundry, France’s first academic biofoundry and one of Europe’s most advanced engineering biology platforms.

His research harnesses a fundamental understanding of evolution to engineer living systems, combining computational, systems and synthetic biology. Current work spans from studies of phase separation as synthetic organelles for sustainable bioproduction to cell-free synthesis of phages and synthetic cells. He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications, including in Science, Cell and Nature, is a named inventor on seven patents, and has secured over €25M in competitive funding nationally and internationally. Three start-ups were brought to life in the ELiS lab: Gourmey, Generare and BaCta.

Ariel co-founded the Learning Planet Institute in Paris, led the Paris Bettencourt iGEM team from 2007 to 2024 (World Champions in 2013) and served on the iGEM Foundation board. He coordinates the Île-de-France Bioconvergence for Health consortium, sits on the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee, and co-organiser of the SynCell Global Summit and the 2026 Global Biofoundry Alliance conference in Paris. He holds a PhD in chemical immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science.

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Dame Tamara Finkelstein is the Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She studied engineering and economics before starting her career as an economist in HM Treasury. Her career in government included leadership roles in Sure Start, Adult Social Care and the Building Safety Programme in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. Before joining the Academy in 2026 she spent six years as the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs having previously led the department’s work on EU Exit Delivery. As Head of the Government Policy Profession she worked closely with the Academy on the Policy Fellowships Programme. Tamara is a trustee of a number of community and social care charities.

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Zoe Woods is co-founder and CEO of nfin (formerly Change Bio), a UK engineering biology company building the manufacturing layer for designed proteins.

Computational tools can now design new proteins faster than industry can work out how to make them. nfin’s platform is built to close that gap, taking protein designers quickly from in silico to scale. An ARIA-funded creator under the Universal Fabricators program, nfin has partnered with customers across food, cosmetics, and materials to prototype novel protein designs. Zoe holds an MBA and an MPP from the University of Oxford and is a recipient of the WomenTech EU award for her leadership in deeptech.

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Dr. Alicia Graham is a synthetic biologist and entrepreneur dedicated to creating sustainable, science-driven solutions for industry. With a PhD from Imperial College London, Alicia‘s work has focused on engineering microbes to address key challenges in production systems. She is the co-founder of Chromi, a company developing a fermentation-based alternative to synthetic indigo, using a proprietary microbial process to produce a novel blue pigment for the textile industry.