George Church, James Collins, and Reshma Shetty Recognized as Synthetic Biology Innovators

SAN FRANCISCO, September 19, 2017 – The Engineering Biology Awards will recognize excellence in synthetic biology at the Mission Bay Conference Center on October 4. This year’s Engineering Biology Awards winners include Harvard and MIT professor, George Church, Ph.D., MIT professor, James Collins, Ph.D., and, Ginkgo Bioworks co-founder, Reshma Shetty, Ph.D.

“As the synthetic biology industry matures, these awards recognize the spirit of the field and the passion that its practitioners and enablers have for making biology easier to engineer” said John Cumbers, Ph.D., Founder, SynBioBeta. “I’m excited to make these awards to these true pioneers in the synthetic biology industry.”The awards will be presented at this years SynBioBeta Conference, by Sara Radcliffe, President and CEO of the California Life Science Association at at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.About the WinnersGeorge Church, Ph.D., professor at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is widely recognized for his innovative contributions to genomic science and his many pioneering contributions to chemistry and biomedicine. In 1984, he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first commercial genome sequence (the human pathogen, H. pylori). Dr. Church invented the broadly applied concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and array DNA synthesizers.James Collins, Ph.D., professor at MIT, patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 biotech, pharma, and medical devices companies. He has helped launch a number of companies, including Sample6 Technologies, Synlogic, and EnBiotix. Dr. Collins has received numerous awards and honors, including a Rhodes Scholarship, a MacArthur “Genius” Award, an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, as well as several teaching awards. Reshma Shetty, Ph.D., co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company building organisms for customers across markets including nutrition, health, and consumer goods. In 2008, Forbes magazine named Dr. Shetty one of Eight People Inventing the Future. In 2011, Fast Company named her one of 100 Most Creative People in Business. Dr. Shetty co-organized the first international conference in the field: Synthetic Biology 1.0. About SynBioBeta SF 2017. SynBioBeta SF 2017 is the prime conference for the synthetic biology industry – bringing the global community together to drive technology and business forward.About SynBioBeta.SynBioBeta is the leading community of entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers and enthusiasts devoted to the responsible growth of the synthetic biology field. They host international synthetic biology conferences and events that bring the entire community together several times each year, giving anyone the opportunity to meet with the bright minds building and shaping the bio economy.SynBioBeta also offers a highly specialized weekly industry e-digest, news blog and educational courses in addition to providing companies in the industry with opportunities for advertising, exhibition and sponsorships for promotion. For more information, visit www.synbiobeta.com.