Team:KU Leuven/Symposium

Symposium

iGEM Symposium Day on Synthetic Biology, Cell Systems and Ethics in Biochemistry


Details


DATE:
07.09.2015 10:00 – 19:00
VENUE:
KU Leuven Campus Arenberg, Celestijnenlaan 200A (Computer Science) aula 00.225, Heverlee, Belgium
PARTICIPATION:
FREE but REGISTRATION is REQUIRED. Please, register here: Registration form


PROGRAM


KU Leuven iGEM 2015 Symposium
on Syntetic Biology, Cell Systems and Ethics in Biochemistry
Leuven 07.09.2015
9:00-10:00 Registration and welcome tea/coffee
Morning Block 10:00-10:10 Welcome words by Prof. Johan Robben
10:10-10:35 Home speaker: Vera van Noort
Center for Microbial and Plant Genetics
"Lessons from systems biology of a minimal organism for synthetic biology"
10:35-11:35 Keynote speaker: Victor Dillard
Chief Operating Officer & Founder, Desktop Genetics
"Through synthetic biology to entrepreneurship"
Presentation by the iGEM Teams
11:40-11:50 iGEM Paris-Saclay: "SafetE.coli"
11:55-12:05 iGEM TU Eindhoven: "Click Coli"
12:05-13:05 Lunch Break, networking
Early Afternoon Block 13:05-14:05 Keynote speaker: Sebastian Maerkl
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, LBNC
"Cell-Free synthetic biology"
14:00-14:25 Home speaker: Yves Peeters
Laboratory of Biochemistry: Molecular and Structural Biology
"Directed evolution of polymerases using synthetic biology methods"
Presentation by the iGEM Teams
14:35-14:45 iGEM Amsterdam: "[Photo]Synthetic Romance"
14:50-15:00 iGEM TU Darmstadt: "Building with light/Labsurfing"
15:05-15:20 iGEM KU Leuven: "Spot E.Shape"
15:25-15:50 Tea/Coffee break
Evening block 15:50-16:00 Introduction of the debate experts: Prof. Bart De Moor (KU Leuven), Prof. Johan Robben (KU Leuven), Dr. Stijn Bruers (UGent), Prof. Vera van Noort (KU Leuven), Prof. Sebastian Maerkl (EPFL), Victor Dillard (Desktop Genetics). Moderator: Prof. Piet Van der Meer (Ugent/VUB)
16:00-17:00 A debate on the ethics in synthetic biology and biochemistry
17:00-17:10 Closing words
17:10-19:00 Wok and Talk Chinese dinner reception
19:30 Leuven Kermis – Visit to Leuven Centrum for interested people


Speakers


Sebastian Maerkl, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, The Laboratory of Biological Network Characterization (LBNC)
Sebastian Maerkl's lab conducts research at the interface of engineering and biology and is active in the areas of systems biology, synthetic biology and molecular diagnostics. They are driven by the desire to learn how to rationally design and engineer biological systems. Sebastian Maerkl’s research aims to develop new microfluidic technologies and apply them to solve biological problems. His rare expertise allows him to combine the design of new tools with advanced research in biology. Sebastian Maerkl is internationally recognized for his many outstanding contributions. Particularly in combining synthetic biology and computational systems with microfluidics, he demonstrated that the expression of genes in vivo can be provided based on the binding energy profiles in vitro. His studies will focus on five areas: the bioengineering of biosystems, the engineering of transcriptional regulatory networks, the engineering of genes and genomes, the engineering of biological systems de novo and the development of a new generation of diagnostic devices.





Victor Dillard, Chief Operating Officer & Founder, Desktop Genetics
Victor obtained his masters in chemical engineering with honours at Imperial College London before completing a specialist biotechnology and business masters with distinction at the University of Cambridge. Since graduating, Victor founded Desktop Genetics with a vision to change modern biotech R&D and enable rapid and accurate end-to-end genome engineering experiments through their proprietary software platform. Within two years of founding Desktop Genetics, Victor has raised over $600,000 of private equity and grant financing, and delivered over $400,000 of revenue. Today, Victor heads the company's business development and operations and is leading the product and technology expansion into CRISPR and genome editing.





Vera van Noort, Center for Microbial and Plant Genetics
The research group led by Vera van Noort is interested in understanding biological systems as a whole. They try to achieve this through computational analysis of large-scale data generated by the ever growing number of new technologies that can systematically measure the behaviour of multiple cellular components, such as biochemical activities, biophysical properties, subcellular localization and interaction. They use and develop new methods to integrate, visualize and query the large amounts of information available and in such a way come to new biological discoveries. A particular focus of the group is proteomics and post-translational modifications.








Yves Peeters, Laboratory of Biochemistry, Molecular and Structural Biology
After completing his master thesis at KU Leuven, Yves obtained an IWT fellowship for his PhD work in the field of synthetic biology. His primary interest goes to DNA polymerases and their modifications towards creation of artificial nucleic acids.









PARTICIPATING iGEM TEAMS





DRINKS AND FOOD

Beverages, lunch sandwiches and dinner-reception will be provided for all the participants free of charge.



MAP





Contact

Address: Celestijnenlaan 200G room 00.08 - 3001 Heverlee
Telephone n°: +32(0)16 32 73 19