Techonomy Bio is a big-picture exploration of the transformative global social and economic benefits driven by the rapid advances being made in the biological and life sciences. Powered by IT developments and spurred on by new collaborative and open-source thinking, these advances affect everything from manufacturing to medicine, food to fuel and business to buildings.
We explore the continued growth of digital health; how big data and the life sciences are combining to feed a growing global population; bio-fabrication and manufacturing; construction and architecture; longevity; ethics; business; industrial biosciences; privacy; policy; security; and more. We’ll also address what this all means for industries, for government and regulators, for investors and ultimately, for us.
At Techonomy Bio, we convened cross-sector leaders from biotech, IT, science, healthcare, pharma, agriculture, academia, finance and the synthetic bio community for an open and dynamic dialogue on the fast moving ideas, solutions and opportunities generated by the growing confluence of tech, bio and business.
Follow conversations about the event @Techonomy and #TechonomyBIO.
Webcast Schedule (All times PST ):
Wednesday, March 25:
8:30 – 8:40am Welcome
David Kirkpatrick, Chief Techonomist, Techonomy Media
8:40 – 9:30am You Say You Want a Revolution?
Tech is super-powering the life sciences. What sectors are best primed to be
disrupted by the burgeoning power of bio? Is the increasingly symbiotic
relationship between tech and bio the perpetual energy source that will drive
our future?
Speakers: Drew Endy, Associate Professor, Bioengineering, Stanford
University; President, The BioBricks Foundation
David Glazer, Director of Engineering, Google
Steve Jurvetson, Partner, DFJ
Chris Waller, Director, Scientific Modeling Platforms, Merck
Moderator: David Kirkpatrick, Chief Techonomist, Techonomy Media
9:30 – 9:40am Short Presentations
Targeting Pathogens to Treat the Brain
Casey Lynch, Co-founder and CEO, Cortexyme
Can You Teach an Old Doc New Tricks?
Greg Matthews, Founder & Managing Director, MDigitalLife
9:40 – 10:25am The Internet of (Bio)Things
We’re swimming in bio-data, from the human genome to the human
microbiome, the steps we take to the hours we sleep. Companies and
organizations provide tools that allow us to collect troves of data, the likes of
which we’ve never seen. What does that data teach us about ourselves? And
how do we use it to make smart decisions?
Speakers: Steve Axelrod, CEO, G-Tech Medical
Walter De Brouwer, Founder and CEO, Scanadu
Ajay Royyuru, Director, Computational Biology Center, IBM Research
Jennifer Tye, Vice President, Marketing and Partnerships, Glow
Moderator: Stephanie Lee, Senior Technology Reporter, BuzzFeed News
10:50 – 11:25am Bio At the Scale of Architecture
New materials of construction are literally growing around us. From mycelium buildings to bio-masonry and cities that engage with the natural world around them, our structural, habitative interaction with the world around us is rapidly changing.
Speakers: Ginger Krieg Dosier, Founder and CEO, bioMASON
Danil Nagy, Associate Designer, The Living; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University
Joe Tarantino, Fermentation Biologist, Ecovative
Moderator: Andrew Hessel, Distinguished Research Scientist, Autodesk
11:25 – 11:30am Short Presentation
Bio-origami: Building at the Nanoscale
Shawn Douglas, Principal Investigator, The Douglas Lab, UCSF
11:30 – 11:55am The Brain: Decoding the World’s Greatest Computer
What are we learning about the brain, thinking, and learning that’s already
being applied to people and machines?
Speakers: Terrence J. Sejnowski, Professor and Laboratory Head, Salk
Institute for Biological Studies
Richard Socher, Co-founder and CTO, MetaMind
Facilitator: Hemai Parthasarathy, Scientific Director, Breakout Labs
11:55am – 12:05pm Stem Cells: What We Know and What We Don’t
A presentation by Jeanne F. Loring, Professor and Director, Center for
Regenerative Medicine, Department of Chemical Physiology, The Scripps
Research Institute
12:05 – 12:45pm The Future of F & B
What happens when synthetic biology and biotech combine with food and
beverage science? Is growing things smarter the pathway to global sustenance?
Speakers: Jim Flatt, President, Genovia Bio, Synthetic Genomics
Andras Forgacs, Co-founder and Chief Executive, Modern Meadow
Randy Komisar, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers
Reshma Shetty, Co-founder, Ginkgo Bioworks
Moderator: Paul Gurney, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company
2:00 – 2:55pm Techonomy Labs (1 of 3) Who Owns Your Genetic Data?
If people increasingly think their personal digital data belongs to them, surely
personal genetic data must as well. How will that likelihood play out for
individuals, business, and governments?
Speakers: Linda Avey, Co-founder and CEO, We Are Curious; Co-founder,
23andMe
Henry T. Greely, Dean F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law;
Director, Center for the Law and Biosciences, Stanford University
Elissa Levin, Head of Genomics and Integrative Health Solutions, Icahn
School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Ajay Royyuru, Director, Computational Biology Center, IBM Research
Matt Wilsey, President, Grace Wilsey Foundation
Moderator: Meredith Salisbury, Editorial Director, Bioscribe
3:10 – 3:25pm Techonomy Lab Reports
Encapsulation and report back from the Techonomy Labs.
Presented by McKinsey & Company
3:25 – 4:10pm Sitting on a Can of Miracles
What has so many in the investment community so excited about the
remarkable pace of innovation they see today across the life sciences? What
would they love to see more of? And what are the areas that are most critical
to nurture in the long run?
Speakers: Ryan Bethencourt, Program Director and Venture Partner,
IndieBio
Amy DuRoss, Executive Director, New Business Creation, GE Ventures
Nancy Kelley, President, NJKA; Former Executive Director, New York
Genome Center
Gregory C. Simon, CEO, Poliwogg
Moderator: Samarth Kulkarni, Partner, McKinsey & Company
4:10 – 4:15pm Short Presentation
Growing Better Bones
Nina Tandon, CEO, EpiBone
4:15 – 4:40pm Evolving Ourselves
Juan Enriquez, Managing Director, Excel Venture Management; Co-author,
Evolving Ourselves, interviewed by David Kirkpatrick, Chief Techonomist,
Techonomy Media
For billions of years life on Earth was guided by Darwin’s two principles:
natural selection and random mutation. Over the past century humans have
become so powerful that they now select what lives and dies on half of the
planet, and they genetically engineer viruses, bacteria, plants, animals, and
even the next human generations. This un-natural state has doubled our life
spans but rapid evolution and selection can also have side effects like autism,
obesity and allergies. What are some of the consequences for health, ethics,
and business when we take control of our own evolution?
4:40 – 4:45pm Short Presentation
Quantifying Stress
Robert Goldberg, Founder, Neumitra
4:45 – 5:25pm Advances, Opportunities, and Challenges
How science is advancing human progress around the world, and where the
greatest challenges still remain.
Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
interviewed by Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce
