Dr. Ricarda Finnern, CEO DiaphOne Therapeutics

From University to Industry
Synthetic biology is redefining what it means to be a scientist: no longer only discovering knowledge, but actively shaping solutions for global challenges.

I will outline a practical journey from university research to start-up creation, showing how ideas can evolve into real-world applications that address industrial and societal needs. Along the way, key elements such as intellectual property, funding, product development, and market understanding are reframed as tools for amplifying impact rather than barriers to entry.
The session also explores how technologies like artificial intelligence can accelerate this transition, and why communication, visibility, and storytelling are essential in today’s innovation landscape.

Entrepreneurship is not an alternative to science, but its natural extension.

Prof. Tobias Erb ^{Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology}

Synthetic Biology meets AI: (Machine) Learning how to efficiently fix CO2
Synthetic biology offers the opportunity to address global challenges with new-to-nature solutions. One example are efforts to capture the greenhouse gas CO2 from the atmosphere. While biological photosynthesis fixes billions of tons of CO2 per year, this natural process is not sufficient to mitigate anthropogenic climate change. In my talk, I will discuss the evolution and limitation of photosynthesis and show how we can use synthetic biology to design alternatives that convert CO2 more efficiently than those processes evolved by nature. I will exemplify, how these theoretical designs can be realized, and highlight the role of lab automation in combination with machine learning to advance these efforts. My lecture will also take a broader look at synthetic biology, through which humans can become active part of evolution and realize new solutions that natural evolution has not invented (yet)