Almost everything we use daily — from food to clothing to toys — relies on decades- to centuries-old ingredients and production processes. As the naturally occurring planetary resources to support our lives (e.g. water, fossil fuels, minerals, plants & animals, etc) get more scarce and production processes are toxic and increasingly problematic for the planet, it is time to re-think how we produce the goods and materials required to support human life on our planet.

Enter synthetic biology. SynBio applies software machine learning to create synthetic microorganisms that can make many of the same ingredients as the traditional industrialization process — but with less energy and waste and without relying on petroleum derivatives. From new flavors and textiles to fertilizers, biofuels, lab-grown meat, DNA-based therapeutics, novel drugs, and even new ways to capture carbon from the air, synthetic biology offers a radical new way to engineer solutions. In short: Syn-Bio could represent the future of manufacturing, engineering and medicine.

We also believe that SynBio can shake up existing markets — empowering new entrants and taking power away from current dominant players that control a large portion of the food we eat and the materials we use.

We are therefore excited to be teaming up with John Cumbers (formerly led Planetary Sustainability at the NASA Ames Space Portal, founder of SynBioBeta and Operating Partner at Data Collective’s SynBioBeta fund) for a BlueYard Conversation “The Future of Biology: Engineering Life with Software” on November 17th in Berlin. Together with John we will be covering topics from the synthetic biology technology stack and applications, building a SynBio startup, the emerging SynBio ecosystem, and public and private engagement in the SynBio movement.

As always, this BlueYard Conversation will be invite-only and limited to 50 people to ensure we can have high quality interactions. Early confirmed attendees include the founders, CEOs and key executives from SynBio startups, academics, science journalists and other people from the wider ecosystem. We’ll be kicking off at 13.00 with an afternoon of panels, workshops and lightning talks and will round off the day with some drinks and food in the evening. We’ll be releasing more details to the attendants in the weeks running up to the event.

Here’s the deal: we’ve kept 20 tickets back for students and startups that could benefit from being a part of this conversation. If you are working on a synthetic biology or related startup, head over to this form and tell us more about yourself and what you are building— and you’ll be in for a chance to be a part of the gathering.