The Blue Sky Bio competition

Three teams enter, one team leaves…with the grand prize at least. Yes, it’s time for the Blue Sky Bio competition, in which we and our sponsors help to support up-and-coming synthetic biology companies. The applications have come in, and we’ve chosen the top three contenders – alGas Biotech, GigaGen, and Koliber Biosciences. Representatives from each will speak to the SynBioBeta SF crowd – with a mere 8 minutes to win over opinions and explain why they deserve to win. Hopefully they try their hardest because the winner will be determined by an audience vote – an audience of the pre-eminent members of the synthetic biology field no less.There is a lot at stake here, with over $500K in prizes from our sponsors up for grabs. The prizes and sponsors include: $100k in Synthetic DNA (from Twist); $100k in Platform Credits for Scientific Services (Science Exchange); $120k Biz Spark Azure Cloud Package (Microsoft); Two Proof of Concept Prizes of £25k Each (SynBiCITE); a Six Month Loan of a BioXp DNA Workstation (SGI-DNA); Interviews at Y Combinator and IndieBio; 6 Months of Lab Bench Space in Sunnyvale, CA (Molecular Medicine Research Institute); Free Office Hours with Orrick Startup Lawyers; Free Startup In A Box Membership (QB3); and an Accelerator Basic Account Package (Silicon Valley Bank).As you can easily see, the stakes are high and the time is short. We’re lucky enough to have Esther Dyson as host to keep everyone on track. Esther Dyson is a renowned angel investor, philanthropist, and occasional cosmonaut-in-training – and so there will be no stress from her side. Let’s take a closer look at the other people who will be standing on stage, swallowing their nerves, and competing for victory…Grow your own batteries: alGAS Biotech

The inability to cheaply and efficiently store electricity is one of the main obstacles holding back fields from off-grid power to laptop operation time, and a wide range of approaches are being trialled to solve this. One company, alGAS Biotech, is attempting to use algae as a starting material to develop biodegradable, rechargeable batteries.

Why algae? Essentially, they have a high surface area (essential for storing charge), and lack the lignin structure which makes wood so solid and thus difficult to shape. The team has already developed a rapid screening system to examine algae collected in wastewater systems (a cheap supply of widely sourced strains), and are looking to use the prizes available to optimise their strains using the power of synthetic biology.The firm’s next step is to produce a proof-of-concept AA battery prototype, which could be completed within the next 6 months with the right support – such as a certain currently-available prize. alGAS is currently headed by Adam Freeman, CEO, who has taken his long experience as a scientist and engineer into this role. He will also be presenting at the Blue Sky Bio Competition session, so be sure to prepare a question or two!Synthetic Immune Systems: GigaGenAntibodies. Exceptionally specific, but present in such variety as to recognise almost every foreign antigen, they are critical for our immune systems. But what if you couldn’t make your own antibodies? This disease is known as Primary Immune Deficiency and affects over 250,000 patients in the US. It can be treated using intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), essentially a purification of antibodies from the plasma of human donors, but supply is often scarce and at risk of contamination. Enter GigaGen, who have built a DNA library covering millions of antibody gene sequences, using this to produce a fully-synthetic IVIG mixture which retains most of the diversity of the human-derived product (90%, in fact).Their hope is that this product will avoid supply bottlenecks and contamination risks which plague the naturally-source version. GigaGen is looking to Blue Sky Bio to help them develop the next generation of IVIG, optimising both their production systems and integrating higher-potency antibodies targeted against dangerous infectious agents such as pneumococcus. David Johnson, Founder & CEO of GigaGen, will be channelling all of his previous experience as an entrepreneur and project director to help wow the crowd on November 4th.Koliber BiosciencesFounded in 2014, Koliber Biosciences is a synthetic biology start-up with a strong focus on the fields of data analysis, modelling, and statistics-based experimental design. They intend to use this expertise and the prizes from Blue Sky Bio to develop probiotics to target depression, in particular focusing on tryptophan. Tryptophan, an amino acid and precursor to serotonin, is currently taken by some people with depression – however its instability in acid conditions and low absorption rate limit effectiveness.

Koliber proposes to use synthetic biology techniques to engineer a probiotic bacterial strain to produce higher levels of tryptophan directly in the gut, thus boosting uptake rates. It’s an interesting idea, and one which Ewa Lis, founder and CTO of Koliber, will be explaining in more detail on stage. Ewa Lis will also be a guest speaker the next day during our Big Data session, for those with more questions about their other work.

The Blue Sky Bio finalists will be onstage from 5 pm November 4th – make sure you attend to help decide which of these finalists will walk away with over $500,000 in prizes.