Session Title

Description

Cell-Free
Systems

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of cell-free systems not only
as testing grounds for our ability to engineer and analyze biology, but also
as technologies capable of efficient and scalable synthesis of complex
biological products. This session will focus on new advances in cell-free
systems for prototyping genetic circuits, discovering and evolving enzymes,
and conducting biomolecular transformations.

Genome Editi
ng

Techniques for manipulating DNA have enabled transformative advances

for synthetic biology. This session will focus on the frontiers of genome
design and engineering, including computational algorithms, zinc finger
nucleases, TAL effector nucleases, and CRISPR-Cas9, among others.

Mammalian
Cells,
Systems and
Medicine

Synthetic biology offers the ability to go beyond traditional therapeutic

interventions and to fundamentally alter the way in which the body
maintains a healthy state and responds to disease. This session will
explore how customized cellular devices are enabling sophisticated cellbased therapeutics, microbiome reprogramming, and diagnostics.

SelfSustaining
Systems and
Photosyntheti
c Driven
Bioproductio
n

Plants and photosynthetic organisms provide a means towards sustainable

life on earth through design of bio-based system for food, materials, energy
and more. This session will discuss new advances in how to harness
natures best chemists and engineer desirable applications that address
major needs such as pharmaceutical, materials including nanomaterials,
artificial photosynthesis and water.

Biological
Circuits in
Natural and
Engineered
Systems

This session focuses on natural and engineered biological systems using

molecular circuits to implement regulation and decision-making strategies in
cells. Topics of interest include modeling, analysis, design and
implementation of biological circuits, with particular interest in cell
development and differentiation, cell-cell communication, cellular decisionmaking, gene regulation and implementation of digital and analog
computation.

Expanding
the Chemistry
of Living
Systems

The extraordinary catalytic capacity of the protein synthesis machinery has

driven extensive efforts to harness it for novel functions. For example,
pioneering efforts have demonstrated that it is possible to genetically
encode more than the 20 natural amino acids and that this encoding can be
a powerful tool to expand the chemical diversity of proteins. This session
will discuss recent advances in creating custom genetic alphabets,
changing the molecular machinery of the cell, and constructing genomically
recoded organisms.

Bio-Design

Specifying, designing, assembling, testing, and storing biological systems

and Automati
on

are defining activities in synthetic biology. Introducing formalized, efficient,

standardized, and computational approaches to perform these activities are
cornerstones of bio-design automation (BDA). BDA will allow for genetic
systems composed of hundreds of parts and the re-use and sharing of
community tools. In this session, we will explore novel, interdisciplinary
approaches in this area.

Engineering
Design Meets
Evolution

Synthetic biologists use both principles of rational and evolutionary

engineering to construct biological systems. Since rational concepts may
have practical limits in a biological context, this session will focus on efforts
to use evolutionary approaches (e.g., directed evolution) in the context of
engineering design. Topics include continuous evolution, multiplexed
evolution, and protein engineering, among others.

Enabling
Effective and scalable applications of synthetic biology require the
Technologies development of enabling technologies. These technologies may include
and Platforms generalizable platforms that can be re-used in many contexts or include a
reagent or method, that alone, or in combination with other related
technologies, may serve as a starting point for the development of new
tools or applications. This session will discuss the importance of and the
development of new standards in synthetic biology, computational
frameworks for designing molecular and cellular functions, and new
methods that enable cellular processes to be predictably engineered at the
genetic level.