On July 16-17th 2015 scientists from around the world will convene in New York City at the New York Genome Center to discuss progress in synthetic yeast genome engineering as well as a broader discussion of other genome engineering efforts, CRISPRs, designer nucleases, and synthetic biology.  This meeting is co-sponsored by NSF Science Across Virtual Institutes (SAVI), NYU Langone Medical Center and Nancy J Kelley & Associates.
 
For the past three years, the conference has focused on the ongoing Synthetic Yeast Genome Project (Sc2.0).   Ambitious in its goal and spanning the disciplines of biology, engineering and computer science, the Synthetic Yeast Genome Project has garnered global attention as the world’s first synthetic, designer eukaryotic genome project.   Now well underway, the Sc2.0 international consortium is building 16 designer synthetic chromosomes encompassing ~12 million base pairs of DNA. 

This year we are expanding the conference to include a focus on Synthetic Genomes and Engineering Biology. This is a hot topic and we are thrilled to announce that this year’s program will include two panel discussions: “Genome Engineering and Society” and “What’s the Next Big Genome to be Synthesized?” as well as Keynote speakers, Natalay Kouprina from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge.  The meeting will also feature panel speakers and demonstrations from the lab automation and DNA synthesis industries and a poster session.

Finally, there will be in-depth technical, gustatory and social analysis of yeast products of the liquid kind (coffee, beer and wine).  For example, led by Dr. Troels Prahl, scientists at White Labs in partnership with bioinformatics colleagues at SGI such as Toby Richardson, are tackling the expansive genealogy of brewing yeasts to understand how these strains have evolved over time and how their gene content contributes to taste. Conference attendees will have the unique opportunity to taste several beers for which the ‘genotype-phenotype’ relationship of the brewing yeast has been characterized.

Of course, also planned are numerous opportunities for conference attendees to socialize, advance their scientific discussions and enjoy New York!