2025 Event Programme

Bio

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.

Bio

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. 

Bio

The Rt Hon Lord Willetts FRS, HonFREng is Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology and of the UK Space Agency. Lord Willetts served as Minister for Universities and Science (2010-2014). He has held a range of Board positions across the Space and Science sector. He was a Board member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), and Chair of the British Science Association.

Lord Willetts is a visiting Professor at King’s College London and an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.

Bio

The Rt Hon Lord Willetts FRS, HonFREng is Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology and of the UK Space Agency. Lord Willetts served as Minister for Universities and Science (2010-2014). He has held a range of Board positions across the Space and Science sector. He was a Board member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL), and Chair of the British Science Association.

Lord Willetts is a visiting Professor at King’s College London and an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.

Bio

Adrian joined Colorifix Ltd in 2021 and is Head of Regulation. In his day to day activities he works across the company with scientists, and the commercial and implementation teams to drive the company’s mission in building a global business by navigating the regulatory compliance challenges.

In the Civil Service, he worked with Sir David King on the GM Science Review and Lord Sainsbury on the development of regulations centred around nanotechnology and represented the UK & EU in the Climate Change adaptation negotiations under the UNFCCC. Adrian did his PhD at the University of Nottingham and post doctoral research at Michigan State University, USA, on the biochemistry and molecular biology of acyl carrier protein and its role in fatty acid metabolism in plants.    

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.

Bio

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.

Bio

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. 

Bio

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. 

Bio

Dr Alicia Showering is the CEO and Co-Founder of BugBiome, an agtech start-up discovering bioinsecticides from microbes. She holds a PhD focused on how microbes and their metabolites influence insect attractiveness. BugBiome has developed a phenotypic screening platform powered by engineering biology to identify microbial strains that modulate insect behaviour, enabling the discovery of novel insecticides for sustainable crop protection. 

Bio

Joe Price is the Founder of Evolutor. Evolutor builds and deploys unique genetic toolkits and lab hardware to leverage the power of top-down evolutionary microbe development in new ways.

The team’s technological philosophy is built on the fact that biology is fundamentally not an engineered system. Despite the major advancements in synthetic biology, it remains true that only an extremely marginal portion of microbial diversity is directly engineerable. By better harnessing evolution, Evolutor seeks to make the bottleneck of un-engineerability entirely obsolete.

To achieve this ambition, Evolutor is generating microbes into a small number of targeted verticals. Their flagship bacteria are evolved to rapidly convert end-of-life tyres into fermentation feedstock for new biopolymer and biochemical production. Beyond this flagship, Evolutor will scale to target other challenging wastestreams as they expand core microbe evolution technology into construction of the world’s first automated evolutionary biofoundry.

Bio

Harsh Amin is the CEO and Chief Scientific Officer at Ivy Farm Technologies, where he has led the company’s transformation since 2023 from a research-focused startup into a commercially driven food production business. He also serves as CEO and Board Member of a stealth-mode biopharmaceutical company.

With over 15 years of leadership experience in the biotech and biopharma sectors, Harsh has held key roles at ReNeuron, Evox Therapeutics, and Lonza. He has a strong track record of translating scientific innovation into commercial platforms, with expertise spanning regenerative medicine, exosome-based therapeutics, CHO biology, and cell line development.

His academic research at University College London and Imperial College London focused on stem cell biology and musculoskeletal disorders. Harsh brings a multidisciplinary approach across cell biology, media development, analytical sciences, and translational medicine.

Outside of work, he enjoys playing cricket with his two children, both avid fans of the Indian and English cricket teams.

Bio

Kyoko leads Kyomei in pioneering molecular farming, transforming crop leaf biomass to sustainable bio-factories for food ingredient production. With over 15 years of expertise in plant science, particularly leveraging diverse techniques to study protein stability, proteolysis, and protein–chemical interactions, she has contributed to approaches enabling high-yield production of complex molecules in plants. Kyoko earned her PhD in Applied Biological Chemistry from the University of Tokyo and spent over five years at the University of Oxford’s Department of Plant Sciences, where she explored plant proteins and small molecule interactions using proteomics and chemical biology. During her academic tenure, she was recruited by Syngenta to develop a screening platform bridging discovery and real-world agriculture. Her research background and passion for sustainable food solutions inspired her entrepreneurial journey with Kyomei. At SynbiTECH 2025, she will share insights on advancing molecular farming to build resilient, low-carbon food systems.  

Bio

David Venables, PhD, is serial biotechnology entrepreneur and leader. He has taken companies from creation through to acquisition or IPO and products from early development to commercialisation. 

He is CEO of Laverock Therapeutics, a gene-silencing company with a uniquely powerful technology for the development of programmable advanced therapies to tackle major diseases, where he has led the company through foundation, seed funding and corporate development.  

He was previously President, AskBio Europe, having joined following the acquisition of Synpromics, where he was CEO and led the company through two rounds of funding prior to acquisition. He was VP-CMC for Nightstar Therapeutics, a gene therapy company acquired by Biogen, CEO of Antara Therapeutics, where he raised private funding and led an IPO in Australia, and CEO of Ark Therapeutics. 

David serves on the Boards of Concinnity Genetics, Axol Biosciences and NovalGen. He is also an Honorary Professor at Edinburgh University supporting company collaboration and entrepreneurship in The College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. 

Bio

Pedro is a cancer biologist and entrepreneur with a long-standing interest in the studying and targeting of the tumour microenvironment (TME). He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he initially developed new 3D models to study angiogenesis in solid tumours. Pedro then moved to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, for a Postdoctoral Fellowship studying spatial interactions between stromal components and immune cell infiltration in solid tumours. His observations made him decide to build innovative solutions to tackle this problem, leading him to return to the UK and co-found Neobe, engineering bacteria to remove barriers to drug infiltration in cancer patients. He has since grown the company and raised £3.5M in equity and non-dilutive funds, enabling the establishment of its engineered bacterial therapeutics platform, with two assets currently in pre-clinical development. 

Bio

Prantar Tamuli is the founder of Tattva, a biotechnology platform leveraging systems biology and cellular intelligence of cyanobacteria to develop carbon-negative engineered living materials. He is the recipient of the Manton Prize 2020 from the British Phycological Society for the invention of a novel solid-state cyanobacterial biomanufacturing technique.

He is an interdisciplinary scientist and a PhD scholar at the Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering, University College London, where his research focused on native phenotypic programming, solid-state photobioreactor engineering, and the process intensification of photosynthetic living material production for industrial applications. Prior to bioengineering, he worked for over a decade as a professional architect designing large-scale, ecologically regenerative infrastructure. His trajectory spans synthetic biology, bioprocess engineering, and sustainable construction, forming the basis of Tattva’s long-term vision: to create a biologically grown built environment through programmable microbial systems that replace extractive materials with regenerative, living materials. 

Bio

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. 

Bio

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.

Bio

Tim Davies is the Biologicals Technology Leader and a Distinguished Laureate at Corteva Agriscience focusing on the development and improvement of bioprocesses for the manufacture of crop protection products.  Tim took this role in 2022, having previously held the roles of Bioprocess Science and Technology Leader and Program Leader for Fermentation Technology at Corteva since 2021 and 2019 respectively.     

Tim has a BSc in Microbiology from the University of London and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.  Specialising in anaerobic fermentation technology he continued his professional development under Prof Lars Ljungdahl at the University of Georgia (UGA).  Having led Bioprocess development science at Aureozyme, a Georgia based technology start-up, Tim became director of the Bioexpression and Fermentation Facility at UGA in 2001.  In this role he collaborated with almost 200 different companies and research institutions over 10 years.  Concurrently he was a partner at Downstream Biotech Consulting Inc. and consulted for clients in the USA and Europe. 

In 2011 Tim became CTO of Green Biologics in the UK.  During his tenure GBL became the first industrial biotech company in 60 years to develop and implement a new ABE manufacturing process, retrofitting a Minnesota ethanol plant for acetone and butanol production and achieving commercial sales in 2017.  Tim then founded Rubus Scientific Ltd., specialising in technical strategy development, biomanufacturing development and scale up where he was Director until joining Corteva. 

Tim has been active in professional organizations, in particular the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.  He was on the SIMB Board from 2010-2016 and was President in 2015.  He was Program Chair of the SIMB Annual Meeting in Toronto in 2009 and has been Program Chair of the RAFT fermentation conference three times.  In 2019 he won the Charles Porter Award.  Tim has served on the Board and Scientific Advisory Boards of several companies and organizations.  He is currently on the SIAB for the DOE-funded Center for Bioenergy Innovation, the board of Heartland Bioworks (Midwest USA) and is a member of the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum (IBLF, UK).   

Bio

Muriel Dewilde studied bioengineering at the University of Leuven in Belgium and worked 10 years as a process engineer at the European wheat plants of Tate & Lyle and Tereos, starting-up new industrial lines and coordinating pilot projects.

She became Business Development Manager at the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant in Ghent, Belgium in 2010, at the start of its operations.

Since that time, she has managed a myriad of biotechnological scale-up projects for companies around the world in the fields of a.o. microbial proteins, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, ag tech products, fine chemicals and bioplastics.

Bio

Clive Cookson has worked in science journalism for the whole of his professional life. He left Oxford University with a First Class Honours degree in chemistry and, after training on the Luton Evening Post, joined Times Higher Education – first as science correspondent in London and then as North America editor in Washington DC. 

Clive returned to London as technology correspondent of the Times and moved to BBC Radio as science and medical correspondent. He went back to print journalism at the Financial Times first as technology editor then in 1991 as science editor, leading a writing team covering science and health, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.  In October 2023 Clive became the FT’s senior science writer. He has won numerous science journalism awards, including British Science Writer of the Year 2022.  

Bio

Fiona began her career as a science communicator covering CRISPR, climate, and biotech for space travel. She now serves as SynBioBeta’s Director of International Outreach and media covering climate, heavy industry, international investment and policy. She is also a member of the OECD’s GFTech Expert Focus Group for synthetic biology.

Bio

Christopher Voigt, PhD, is the Department Head of Biological Engineering at MIT. He is an expert in Synthetic Biology and his lab has applied genetic engineering to problems in agriculture, health, computation, medicine, chemicals/materials, national security, and infrastructure. He holds the Daniel I.C. Wang Professorship and is Co-Director of the Synthetic Biology Center.

He received his BSE in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan (1998) and PhD in Biophysics from Caltech (2002). He is a founder of Pivot Bio (microbial agricultural products), Asimov (human cell synthetic biology), and Fieldstone (national security and biotechnology). He is a Board Member of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. He serves on the science advisory boards of DSM–Firmenich, Bolt Threads, Empress Bio, Aanika, Senti Bio, Axcella, Robigo, Anthology Bio, and Twist Bioscience. He is an equity partner at DCVC Bio, Bio-innovation, and Pillar. He has been honored with a National Security Science & Engineering Faculty Fellowship (NSSEFF), Bush Fellows Research Study Team (BFRST), and is the Director of the Army Center for Synthetic Biology.

He has been honoured as a Sloan Fellow, Pew Fellow, Packard Fellow, NSF Career Award, Vaughan Lecturer, MIT TR35, Schmidt Innovation Fellow, and SynBiobeta Entrepreneurial Leadership Award.   

Bio

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.

Bio

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.

Bio

Daniel has been working on bringing technology and business together for most of his adult life. Daniel completed his bachelor’s at the University of Oxford and PhD at Imperial College London. His PhD project focused on cultivating unculturable bacteria and screening them for antibiotics. 

Daniel has an MSc in Finance from IE Business School Madrid and worked in investment banking for Barclays Capital before helping Albion Ventures evaluate spinouts from UCL. He Co-Founded Bactobio in 2020 to harness breakthroughs in genomics, machine learning, and bioengineering to cultivate previously unculturable microbes and mine them for antimicrobials for agriculture and healthcare – for a greener and safer future. 

Bio

Dr Edward Green is a microbiologist with a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from UMIST and over 25 years’ experience with anaerobic bacteria. He has pioneered technical improvements in microbial strain engineering and fermentation process development for industrial biotechnology.

Edward is also a biotech entrepreneur having founded Green Biologics in 2004, a world leading fermentation company manufacturing renewable chemicals. In 2014, he founded CHAIN Biotech, a microbiome Company developing live biotherapeutics focusing on orally delivered cancer vaccines.  In 2022, Edward joined NCIMB Ltd. as Chief Executive, a Scottish biotech company delivering innovative microbial technologies for a broad range of industrial applications.  Edward is a member of the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum and mentor for early-stage companies in the Northeast of Scotland.   

Bio

Devanand (“Dev”) Crease is a Partner in the Life Sciences team at Keltie LLP. Since completing a PhD in developmental biology, he has worked in the life sciences and chemicals specialisms for over 25 years and has established a practice focusing on provision of strategic advice to early stage and rapid growth technology companies. Dev has advised companies and clients in diverse fields of biotherapeutics, gene editing, synthetic biology, AI/ML, and computational biology. He handles all areas of IP development including patents, designs, trade secrets and know how. The Life Sciences team at Keltie LLP have advised emerging companies raising over $1 billion in funding over the past few years and are proactive in counselling companies throughout their IP journey.

Bio

Joško Bobanović [pronounced as Yoshko Bobanovich] joined Sofinnova Partners in 2010 as Partner dedicated to activities in industrial biotech. He focuses on early-stage sustainable companies in Europe and North America with applications in food, agriculture, chemicals and materials. Joško sits on the boards of Metgen, Synthace, DNA Script, Biosyntia, DMC Biotechnologies, Pyrowave, Protera, Novameat and Prometheus Materials. Joško holds a BSc. in physics from University of Zagreb, a PhD in physical oceanography from Dalhousie University and an MBA in finance and marketing from McGill University.

Bio

Richard develops new strategic business areas at Capgemini Invent, bringing together its market-leading brands and innovation services to create the next frontiers. His current focus is a new synthetic biology capability within the biotechnology revolution.

His work embraces the expertise found across the company’s brands including frog, Cambridge Consultants, and the broader group. Richard joined Capgemini Invent from its subsidiary Cambridge Consultants, where he led the Wireless Division for ten years, before becoming Chief Commercial Officer leading global growth, client strategy, brand and marketing.

Before joining Cambridge Consultants, he held R&D and general management roles in both consulting and product manufacturing environments.

Bio

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. 

Bio

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.

Bio

James is the CEO of LabGenius, a next-generation antibody discovery company.

LabGenius has pioneered the development of an ML-driven antibody engineering platform that’s capable of designing, conducting and critically learning from its own experiments. As CEO, James has raised >$70M in financing from top-tier VCs (e.g. M Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Lux Capital, Obvious Ventures, Atomico and Kindred) and struck R&D deals with top pharma companies like Sanofi.

Prior to founding LabGenius, James completed a PhD at Imperial College where he developed novel methods for re-engineering protein nanocages for targeted drug delivery.

Bio

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.