Every year we do a News and Views session at our SynBioBeta events, where we highlight the latest crop of synthetic biology companies and startups, share updates about the established players, and identify trends in the market. This year in London is no exception.

The most exciting synthetic biology companies that will be showcased in next week’s session

Tonya Jackson, Global Product Manager at Sigma-Aldrich
 will be chairing the lightning talks. She has long history in molecular biology and is a big part of Sigma’s new efforts in synthetic biology. The distribution giant is looking to partner with small companies in the sector.Some of of the most exciting synthetic biology companies this year include the future heroes of the organism industry. These companies are replacing petrochemical feedstocks with sustainable alternatives, like sugar. They include Syngulon (Philippe Gabant), Ingenza
 (David McElroy), CHAIN (Basil Omar), Synthace
 (Markus Gershater) and Biosyntha
 (Alex Pudney). Each of these companies have platforms for engineering microbes to produce high value chemicals.Heroes also include the companies making bioengineering simpler with hardware and software tools. Hardware companies like Bento Bioworks (Bethan Wolfenden) are making all-in-one, desktop-sized lab tools, while companies like TeselaGen
 (Rob McIntyre) and Genome Compiler
 (Omri Amirav-Drory) are building CAD software tools for genome design. Senior scientists and founders of each company will showcase their latest updates.And as a special highlight, Rob Carlson of Bioeconomy Capital and Mike Koeris, founder of Sample6, veterans who have been coming to SynBioBeta since its start
, will be giving their latest updates. And last but not least, James Brownwill be revealing future plans for synthetic biology in the UK.