In the world of biopharmaceuticals, synthetic biology has quickly started to revolutionize drug discovery and design by providing a better overall molecular understanding of disease. Throughout the industry, biologists and engineers have come together over the past several years to design and build biomolecular components, networks, and pathways, with the ultimate goal of creating more targeted treatments for healthcare.During the upcoming SynBioBeta London 2016 session titled “Synthetic Biology for Biopharmaceuticals”, industry speakers will discuss this paradigm shift to developing synthetic biology derived biopharmaceuticals for engineering biological systems and how it's reinventing drug discovery.One of the most notable, and well-known developments in gene editing with CRISPR/Cas9 broadens the possibility of new treatments for complex diseases, ranging from cancer-causing mutations to tackling drug resistance in tuberculosis. This improved ability to edit genomes lends itself to a prospective future where DNA will eventually become a drug target. Combine this with the consistent decline on cost for DNA synthesis, and it will open many doors for continued innovation and impact in drug discovery including the biomanufacturing of therapeutic proteins and vaccines. One can only imagine what Jonas Salk could have achieved if he had this technology at his disposal. As synthetic biology continues to break new ground and disrupt how biopharmaceuticals are engineered, the long awaited dream of cost-effective medicines to usher in better healthcare for all seems more like a pending reality.

The session will explore various future-focused topics, such as the application of synthetic biology in the discovery of novel drug compounds, new antibiotics, synthetic DNA vaccines, and how synthetic biology is providing new and more efficient production platforms for creating new and existing drugs.

Entrepreneurial scientist, Nigel Fleming, Co-founder of G2B Pharma will chair the session. Nigel has a wealth of experience in bringing cutting-edge science to market. Including the accomplishment of starting Athena Diagnostics on a $4 million investment, and later selling the company for a whopping $740 million. Since then Nigel has embarked upon other conquests including advising numerous life science startups to traverse the rocky road of translating scientific discoveries into commercial success. He is also currently the chairman of Capital Cell, Europe’s first equity crowdfunding platform for biotech projects.

Nigel will be joined in the session by like-minded speakers from the industry, each of whom are making their mark in the synthetic biology field. Featured speakers will include Mark Wigglesworth of AstraZeneca, Ravi Sachidanandam of Girihlet, Chris Thorne of Horizon Discovery and Ted Fjällman of Prokarium.

Mark Wigglesworth, who is the Director of High Throughput Screening at AstraZeneca, will be providing interesting insight into the application of CRISPR/Cas9 for biopharmaceuticals. Last year, AstraZeneca announced research collaborations to use CRISPR for genome editing across its drug discovery platform. Mark has deep expertise in drug discovery, which he accumulated while working at SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline where he developed drug discovery programs. Currently he leads a team of more than twenty scientists, all dedicated to identifying novel chemical starting points for drug discovery programs. With such resources, we can expect big future developments from Mark and his team.

Ravi Sachidanandam is Assistant Professor of Oncological Sciences at the Mount Sinai Hospital. He also embodies this new wave of science entrepreneurship. Last year, he co-founded Girihlet in the United States. Girihlet then went on to receive funding from IndieBio, the world’s first synthetic biology accelerator. The company aims to harness the power of the immune system to fight disease by developing deep T-Cell sequencing proprietary technologies. They are one of the first to offer TCR repertoire sequencing services, which is truly innovative. The company is also expanding its application to B cell repertoires, and is developing proprietary technologies to sequence mitochondrial DNA, placing them on the cusp of disruptive innovation.

Chris Thorne is a gene-editing specialist using CRISPR, as well as the commercial marketing manager at Horizon Discovery. The company was founded in 2007 in the UK to supply research tools to organizations engaged in genomics research, and the development of personalized medicines. They are gene-editing pioneers that have developed their own proprietary technology - recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV). Now the company also uses CRISPR/Cas9 and Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFN) as part of their gene-editing capabilities.

“Horizon is applying genome editing tools in a scalable and reproducible manner. This means more robust drug target identification, and the more rapid provision of better in vitro and in vivo disease models to validate hits” stated Chris. “To this end we now have a highly optimised CRISPR screening platform, a high throughput knockout cell line pipeline, and have achieved some of the world’s firsts in terms of genetically modified rat models. The challenges that remain are often associated with the nature of the work we do, as well as the peripheral technology. For example, CRISPR is often highly efficient, but does not work in all cell lines. Similarly, validating edits can be delayed by something as simple as a failed PCR reaction.”

Ted Fjällman is CEO of Prokarium, a UK biopharmaceutical company founded in 2011. Prokarium aims to develop vaccination solutions based on synthetic biology. Their vision is to deliver all protein vaccines orally, which they believe will have fewer side effects to injectable vaccines, whilst also significantly reducing costs and time for vaccines to be manufactured. It is an incredible vision, and to achieve it, they developed their own technology platform - Vaxonella. Last year the company demonstrated its proof of concept by receiving funding of £377k from SynbiCITE to develop an innovative Chlamydia vaccine, which could enter clinical trials in 2017. marking the start of what could be a highly significant success story for synthetic biology.With each of the speakers bringing their own unique perspectives to the table, the discussions during this session promise to provoke much thought about the future of synthetic biology in biopharmaceuticals. Giving attendees deeper insight into how synthetic biology is transforming biopharmaceuticals from some of the very people who are helping to lead the revolution.Session 2: Synthetic Biology for Biopharmaceuticals at SynBioBeta London 2016 will be held on the first day of the conference Wednesday, April 6th, 2016 at 4.35pm.