Past Events

Over the course of three days – 19, 20 and 21st of June 2019 – the conference focused on topics and challenges for the next EU Research and Innovation Programme (2021-2027) – Horizon Europe as well as on the European Innovation Council, a very powerful instrument foreseen to strongly support European “breakthrough innovators”. The event was co-organised by the European Commission, through DG CONNECT and DG RTD, together with the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The aim was to debate about how to bridge the gap from idea to investable project, how to support breakthrough innovations and the scale-up potential with high risk for private investors. Our partner IN was there with a booth in the exhibition area to promote the innovation proposed by the FutureAgriculture approach.

The Plant Metabolic Engineering GRC was held for the first time in Europe, at the Renaissance Tuscany, Il Ciocco, Italy between June 16th and June 21st, 2019. The objective was to build stronger networks between those working on plant metabolic engineering in the USA, Europe and Asia. The meeting provides an exemplar ground for innovative research networks to blossom thanks to a collegial atmosphere, deep discussion sessions, and informal gatherings. Personnel from MPI-TM was there to represent the project FutureAgriculture.

The conference, hosted in Heidelberg (June, 3-4), covered the entire chain of innovation, from the laboratory to the field implementation: approaches that make optimal use of the evolutionarily optimized biological systems, like algae and plants, as well as novel synthetic biology solutions for CO2 fixation and conversion to value-added chemicals. The role of fundamental molecular biology in catalyzing innovation was one of the main focus areas for discussion. Partners from MPI-TM attended the event with posters and talks.

We’ve concluded 2018 with the exciting networking event MIND THE GAP, organized by our partner IN S.r.l at the last ICT Day in Vienna, Austria, on 4 December 2018. The goal was to find a common language between science and business to foster innovation.

The hot topics of our panel discussion were about the common struggles of scientists approaching business, the role of venture capitalists in this ecosystem, the best strategies to bridge the gap between early-stage disruptive technologies and the creation of successful start-ups.

Four speakers were invited to confront significant questions:
VIOREL PECA, Head of Unit Future Emerging Technologies – DG CONNECT, European Commission;
LORENZO MORETTI Associate and Venture Capital Investor Invitalia Ventures SGR;
HAROLD P. DE VLADAR CEO of Ribbon Biolabs and Synthetic Biologist;
ANDREA ZORZETTO Managing Partner, Italy Plug & Play

The 4th Applied Synthetic Biology in Europe took place from 24th to 26th of October 2018 in Toulouse. The wealth of applied synthetic biology research was explored, covering diverse product and application areas and utilizing biological systems from bacteria through yeast to plants and mammalian cells. Partners from MPI-MP were there to present the work developed within FutureAgriculture.

The third EUSynBioS Symposium was organized in the biotech hub in Toulouse, France bringing together the young European synthetic biology community. The symposium took place in October 2018 right before the main conference “4th Applied Synthetic Biology in Europe”. Our Phd Student, Armin Kibin from MPI-MP, was there to represent the project.

FutureAgriculture was at the New Scientist Live 2018 –  an award-winning, mind-blowing festival of ideas and discoveries for everyone curious about science and why it matters. For 4 days in September, more than 120 speakers and 100 exhibitors come together in one venue to create an unrivalled atmosphere and energy, packed with thought-provoking talks, ground-breaking discoveries, interactive experiences, workshops, and performances. We were at our stand in the Earth zone with a puzzle game about the role of photorespiration in plants and the fun activity “Smell the Future” organized by our partners from Imperial College London.  We got so many enthusiastic feedback about the project, thanks to all of you that came to visit us.

The German Association of Synthetic Biology GASB II Conference took place in Berlin in 2018 (September 27-28, 2018). After a successful GASB I conference with more than 100 participants, 26 scientific talks, a panel discussion, and a poster session, GASB II continued in a similar fashion. Partners from MPI-MP attended the event.

Our PhD student, Armin, from MPI-MP, attended the summer course  “Synthetic Biology: From Pro- to Eukaryotic Systems (SynBioSys)”. The course aimed at a well-rounded presentation of synthetic biology through the discussion of selected topics across the DNA-RNA-protein-metabolite spectrum. The academic discussions were complemented by a discussion on intellectual property rights and a visit to the local industry. The course was organized by the Copenhagen Plant Science Centre from 20 August – 24 August 2018.

The C1 Gordon Research Conference highlights the most recent research on all aspects of microbial one-carbon metabolism, including natural and synthetic systems and at scales spanning molecules, enzymes, cells, and ecosystems. In 2018 (July 29, August 3) the conference was held in Newry, ME, US. Our partners from MPI-TM were there to present the FutureAgriculture approach.

ePS-1, organized under the auspices of the International Society for Photosynthesis Research, is held in Uppsala, Sweden during the last week of June. ePS-1 covers all aspects of photosynthesis, from genetics and molecular mechanisms, to crop yields, artificial photosynthesis and solar fuels. Our partner Jan Zarzycki was invited to give a talk at the  Metabolism and Metabolic Engineering session.

The third edition of the Protein Engineering Canada (PEC) Conference was held at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC, Canada) between June 17-20, 2018. The goals of the PEC Conference are to bring together leading experts in the fields of protein engineering, evolution and design, and structural and synthetic biology, to present their latest findings and develop a strong network throughout Canada and abroad. Among the invited speakers Dan Tawfik, our partner in FutureAgriculture.

The Annual conference of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) is an innovative and internationally recognized platform for all microbiology fields that promotes the scientific exchange and cooperation between its members.  The spectrum of presentations and discussions on the meeting includes biodegradation, fungal biology, synthetic microbiology and many more. The MPI-TM team was present at the meeting to provide an insight into their current research work for FutureAgriculture.

The 1st  Synthetic Biology conference “Made in Germany”, GASB I, and the founding event of the German Association for Synthetic Biology, GASB took place on the 24th and 25th of November 2017 in Marburg, Germany. Several members of the FutureAgriculture team were there: Marieke Scheffen and Jan Zarzycki from MPI-TM and, among the keynote speakers, our project coordinator Arren Bar-Even.

7-8th September 2017. We are just back from a fruitful meeting at the MPI-TM premises in Marburg. We had two days of intense exchange, discussion and sharing of results. This time the newly appointed members of the Advisory Board joined us too: Prof. Nir Keren from the Hebrew University, and Prof. Georg Sprenger from the University of Stuttgard. They both gave a valuable feedback to the project! Looking forward to the next meeting in February!

11 September 2017. Selcuk Alsan from MPI-MP gave a talk at the “Global Conference on Plant Science and Molecular Biology” in Valencia, Spain, presenting the latest results from the pathway implementation in  E.Coli.  More here.

June 20-23, 2017 – Devin Trudeau has presented the poster “A synthetic carbon-neutral photorespiration bypass pathway for improved carbon fixation” at the SEED 2017 conference in Vancouver (Canada). More here.

In July, 9th-14th, our project coordinator, Dr. Arren Bar-Even, gave a talk at the conference “Plant Engineering in the Synthetic Biology Era” in Waterville Valley, USA.  Selcuk Aslan has further presented the project at the poster session!  More here.

15/06/2017 – Prof. Tobias Erb gave a talk about FutureAgriculture at the Department of Biology of the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). The title is quite catchy “CETCH me if you can: Bringing inorganic carbon into life with synthetic CO2 fixation”.

On the 11^th and 12^th of May, some doc­toral re­search­ers from the Max Planck In­sti­tute for Mar­ine Mi­cro­bi­o­lo­gie and Max Planck In­sti­tute for Ter­restrial Mi­cro­bi­o­lo­gie met in Mar­burg for the first Max Planck Con­fer­ence for En­vir­on­mental Mi­cro­bi­o­logy: “It Ma­Ter(s)”. One of our students, Marieke Scheffen, took the occasion to present FutureAgriculture! More here.

Our project coordinator, Arren Bar-Even, and on of our students, Marieke Scheffen,  gave a talk about FutureAgriculture at the 5^th Joint Conference of the DGHM & VAAM “MICROBIOLOGY AND INFECTION 2017”, held in Würzburg (Germany) on March 5th–8th. More info here.

24th of February 2017 –  Christian Edlich Muth (MPI-MP) was hosted by the Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels (IB2) to talk about “Improving plant yield with computational methods” – more here.

The FutureAgriculture 9th Month Meeting was held on the 22nd-23rd of September 2016. It was hosted by IN Srl in Udine (Italy).

This summer partners of FutureAgriculture attended the workshop organized at the Lorentz Center (NL) that brought together  researchers working on several aspects of photosynthesis research with those from the field of metabolic modeling and synthetic biology. Read more here.

On September 2016, one of our students participated to the Chemical Biology Summer School in Hirshegg (Austria) where she introduced FutureAgriculture.

In June 2016, partners from ICL presented FutureAgriculture project at the 11th Metabolic Engineering Conference in the Awajii Island (JP).  The theme of this year’s conference was Design, Synthesis and System Integration for Metabolic Engineering. More here.

Synthetic scientists and industrialists met on 24-26 May 2016 in the historical center of Berlin to share their views and visions on recent and future advances in Xenobiology. During this event researchers from FutureAgriculture introduced the key-points of the project. More here.