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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.