Virtual Synthetic Biology Conference features live interview with Professor Michael Hecht

On March 31, the Institute on Science for Global Policy’s The Forum hosted a “virtual conference” on topics in synthetic biology streamed live on Facebook. The event was a collaboration between ISGP, the student group Youth Biotech and the Alliance for Science, a communications initiative from Cornell. Titled “Being Human 2.0: SynBio Live,” it comprised four sessions of panels and interviews on synthetic biology including a wide-ranging conversation with Princeton Professor of Chemistry Michael Hecht on artificial genomes and proteomes.

“We were beyond pleasantly surprised by how everything came together,” said Aubrey Paris, who conducted the Facebook live interview with Professor Hecht at Princeton. She is graduate student in the Bocarsly lab, co-host of Institute on Science for Global Policy’s The Forum podcast. Overall, the session videos were viewed over 4,300 times from 30 different countries, 6 continents and 15 US states. Click on the links below to watch the full line-up:

• Introduction and welcome
• Session 1: An interview with Michael Hecht on artificial genomes and proteomes
• Session 2: ISGP’s “The Forum” Podcast on genetically modified organisms featuring a discussion of GMO science, policy and labelling
• Session 3: Interview with Richard Kitney, a professor of biomedical systems engineering at Imperial College London, on the clinical applications of synthetic biology
• Session 4: Panel with Youth Biotech on emerging technologies
• Concluding remarks

Following the virtual conference, multiple interested groups contacted organizers about possible collaborations and ISGP’s The Forum hopes to organize a second online conference in July related to climate change and proposed solutions involving Geoengineering. More information about their future events can be found by clicking here.