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The workshop brings together the world’s leading academic and industry researchers in bioengineering and synthetic biology on May 5th and 6th at Harvard Medical School.

Boston, May 2, 2018 -- Senti Biosciences, the synthetic biology company developing next-generation adaptive therapies for important diseases, today announced its sponsorship of the Fifth International Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop.

Synthetic biology is a rapidly growing field powered by genetic “write” technologies that enable engineering principles to be applied to biological design. With these tools, biologists can create new genetic circuits, artificial enzymes, or retool existing biological systems. Notable examples include the production of improved food additives, bio-mimetic materials, and therapeutic probiotics. Recent advances in technology have led to an expansion of synthetic biologists’ molecular tool kit, enabling them to move into the exploration of mammalian systems, whose genomes are more complex and difficult to manipulate than the single-celled microorganisms the field initially focused on. The turn toward mammalian cells has opened up a wide variety of new medical applications including next generation cell and gene therapies.

Senti’s world-leading technology base builds off of nearly two decades of its team’s pioneering synthetic biology research across MIT, the Wyss Institute at Harvard, MD Anderson, Boston University, ETH Zurich, and other institutions. It brings together pioneers across the fields of mammalian synthetic circuit engineering, therapeutic synthetic biology, immune cell engineering, and clinical application of engineered cell therapies. Scientific co-founder, MIT Professor, MacArthur Genius and pioneer in synthetic and systems biology Dr. Jim Collins will be speaking at the workshop, while Scientific Advisory Board member and mammalian synthetic biology expert Dr. Ahmad (Mo) Khalil serves as conference co-chair. Dr. Khalil also holds positions as Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Associate Director of the Biological Design Center at Boston University, and Visiting Scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

Senti’s platform functions across a wide range of cell and gene therapy modalities to address applications such as cancer, regenerative medicine, and autoimmune disease. Senti is currently advancing several internal therapeutic programs toward the clinic and welcomes the opportunity to partner with investigators and companies to realize the broad impact of their platform.

About Senti Biosciences

Senti Biosciences is a team of engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs on a mission to leverage synthetic biology to treat the most pressing diseases. They have pioneered new technology platforms to design synthetic gene circuits for adaptive cell and gene therapies. Their recently completed Series A round of funding will be used to further the growth of their scalable therapeutic design platform and advance therapeutic candidates towards the clinic. They are proud to count NEA, 8VC, Amgen Ventures, Pear Ventures, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Allen & Company, Nest.Bio, Omega Funds, Goodman Capital, and LifeForce Capital among their investors. Senti Biosciences is a resident company of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS at South San Francisco (JLABS @ SSF).

About MSBW5.0

The Fifth International Workshop on Mammalian Synthetic Biology (MSBW5.0) brings together experts in synthetic biology and mammalian biology to explore the latest trends, advances, technical opportunities and challenges in the field, including recent foundational accomplishments and applications in addressing challenges to human health and beyond. Taking place on May 5th and 6th at the Martin Conference Center and Harvard Medical School, this weekend brings together the world’s leading researchers in synthetic biology, mammalian and cellular biology, and bioengineering from academia as well as industry partners. Its scientific program will include topics in applications across synthetic immunology; synthetic biology of multicellular systems; genes, circuits, and genomes; viral vectors and gene therapy and host-microbe interactions. There will also be a panel discussion on the future of synthetic biology funding and investments.

For more information, please visit http://mammalian-synbio.org/2018