The Interagency Synthetic Biology Working Group held a workshop on October 16-18, 2019 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and The White House. This workshop was a part of an effort across federal agencies to coordinate activities and identify opportunities in synthetic biology that will catalyze science and technology opportunity and innovation in this space.  The first two days of the invitation-only workshop included the public (academia, industry, and government) and was designed around a series of inspiring talks, case studies, and existing technology roadmaps. The third day was a government-only meeting held at The White House. One of the goals for the third day was to provide a set of recommendations to The White House and Interagency Bioeconomy Initiative.

This online workshop explored the potential of engineering biology to reshape the landscape of health innovation and enable the faster development of vaccines and diagnostics. Hosted by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), it was supported by a grant from National Science Foundation (Award #FAIN2020502) awarded to Keith Yamamoto, PhD (UCSF). The event focused on the role of biofoundries, training and diversity, and public-private partnerships in generating large numbers of candidate molecules of vaccines, diagnostics and antibodies.

More information on the workshop can be found here: https://community.oecd.org/docs/DOC-179078