Next week, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is hosting the InnovationXLab Biomanufacturing Summit: An exclusive event aimed at showcasing how U.S. industry can leverage the world-leading bioscience assets and capabilities of the Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories.

Held over Jan. 28 and 29 at UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium, XLab seeks to to bridge the gap between research and commercialization and pave the way for a stronger bioeconomy.

Participants at the XLab will include experts and investors representing the broad biomanufacturing landscape. Through keynote talks, moderated panel discussions, and exhibitions, the summit will spark conversations on lessons learned from recent successes and initiate idea exchanges on how American scientists and innovators can keep pushing the frontiers of biomanufacturing.

The varied agenda touches upon ethics, profitability, automation, and artificial intelligence, as well as the future roles of biomanufacturing and synthetic biology in food production and agriculture, biofuels and transportation, bio-based materials, and therapeutics.

Featured speakers include Emily Leproust, Co-founder and CEO of Twist Bioscience; Magalie Guilhabert, VP, Head of Microbial Research Technology at Bayer CropScience; and Alta Charo, Professor of Law and Bioethics at University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as Paul Dabbar, DOE Under Secretary for Science; Chris Fall, Director of DOE’s Office of Science; and Daniel Simmons, Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The panelists are representatives from a variety of local biomanufacturing companies, including Aemetis, Agilent, Amyris, Bolt Threads, Caribou Biosciences, Checkerspot, Corbion, Genentech, Genomatica, Impossible Foods, Lygos, Mango Materials, Perfect Day, SynBioBeta, Tinctorium, Twist Biosciences, and Zymergen.

Biomanufacturing has already transformed the energy, environmental, agricultural, and medical sectors. To ensure the field continues to benefit the public for years to come, thought-leaders and investors must forge stronger ties to accelerate innovation and develop the next generation of tools and technologies.

“So many sectors of industry are engaged in biomanufacturing, so it’s easy for expertise to become siloed, but the National Lab system shows that cross-disciplinary collaboration is the key to advancing science,” said Berkeley Lab Director Mike Witherell. “We hope that the XLab summit will jumpstart new insights and partnerships.”

Register now to participate in the conversation.

# # #

Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.