On 21 May 2026, the EngBio IRC convened its annual Symposium and Forum at St Catharine’s College, bringing together researchers in the engineering biology community for an afternoon showcasing leading work across the field. By integrating an early‑career Symposium, a poster session, and an evening Forum, the programme offered a focused examination of metabolic engineering and the expanding possibilities of re‑engineered biological systems.
The Symposium opened with a keynote from Dr Jake Harris, Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge, on “Programmable Plants: A Major Leap in Plant Biology”. He outlined his laboratory’s effort to build the world’s first synthetic plant chromosome, a de novo designed construct intended not to modify existing chromosomal architecture, but to redesign it from first principles.
Dr Harris argued that many agronomically important traits like growth, drought tolerance, nutrient uptake, disease resilience, etc., are governed by chromatin landscapes that have historically been difficult to engineer at scale. By drawing on advances in chromatin biology and epigenome engineering, his team aims to create chromosomes that expand what plants can contain and what they can be programmed to do. His central message was that plants may soon be engineered with a level of precision and intentionality previously associated only with microbial systems. The implications for climate‑resilient agriculture, global food security, and even off‑planet food production are potentially transformative.
Dr Jake Harris
Poster talks
Following the opening keynote, four short talks spanning molecular and computational biology, fundamental plant science, and therapeutic applications highlighted the breadth of early‑career research across EngBio.
Dr Facundo Romani demonstrated how systematic transcription‑factor perturbation coupled with deep‑learning phenotyping in Marchantia can map developmental morphospace and reveal how gene networks shape form. By establishing rigorous gene‑regulatory frameworks in tractable model systems, his work lays the conceptual and experimental foundations for ultimately reprogramming development in complex crop species.
Dr Lise Boursinhac, recipient of the Best Talk Prize, followed with an ultra‑high‑throughput, cell‑free platform for the directed evolution of enzymes too toxic for cellular screening. This approach enables evolution within a fully synthetic biochemical environment.
Next, PhD students Maxwell Hou and Gabrielle Admans presented their research advances. Maxwell showcased a high‑throughput screening platform for immobilised biocatalysts, addressing a major bottleneck in developing scalable enzyme systems for carbon upcycling and accelerating the design of sustainable bioprocesses. Gabrielle outlined a logic‑gated vaccination strategy that activates B cells only when two antigens are simultaneously detected, enabling exquisitely focused, programmable antibody responses with clear potential for next‑generation immunotherapies.
The afternoon concluded with eleven focused posters showcasing work from CRISPR‑based and FRET biosensors, engineered microbial and mammalian systems, enzyme‑variant phylogenetics, chimeric protease design, and GPCR signalling platforms.
Presenters of the poster talks, Dr Facundo Romani, Dr Lise Boursinhac, Maxwell Hou and Gabrielle Admans with the EngBio IRC team.
EngBio Forum
Professor Jay D. Keasling, a pioneer of synthetic biology whose engineering of yeast-derived artemisinic acid reshaped global antimalarial supply, delivered the Forum’s keynote lecture. He examined the fragility of plant-derived therapeutic supply chains and outlined his group’s strategy for reconstructing complex biosynthetic pathways in scalable microbial hosts. Through landmark achievements, including yeast-based biosynthesis of vinblastine and reconstruction of the QS-21 vaccine-adjuvant pathway, he showed how metabolic engineering can recapitulate intricate plant chemistry in heterologous systems.
A central message was that successful pathway reconstruction requires more than the transfer of enzymes between organisms. Professor Keasling highlighted the importance of balancing cytochrome P450s with their redox partners, ensuring correct membrane insertion, recreating organelle-level compartmentalisation, and engineering transport where needed. He noted that host enzymes may divert pathway flux, while some plant enzymes may fail in yeast, requiring functional homologues from related natural-product systems. These constraints can also create opportunity: enzyme promiscuity, when harnessed deliberately, can generate new chemical diversity with important implications for oncology, vaccine development, and global medicine supply.
The lecture drew sustained engagement and brought the Forum to a fitting close following an afternoon ranging from programming plant genomes to rewriting plant chemistry.
Professor Jay D. Keasling
Reflections
This year’s EngBio Symposium and Forum, centred on the programmability of living systems, offered a coherent intellectual arc. Collectively, the talks addressed a defining question in contemporary engineering biology: to what extent can living systems be redesigned for societal benefit. The day’s discussions suggested that this horizon is considerably broader than previously assumed.
The EngBio IRC extends its appreciation to all speakers and poster presenters, with particular recognition to Lise Boursinhac, recipient of the Best Talk Prize, and offers sincere thanks to all attendees for their contribution to an engaging and intellectually stimulating event.
Author Information
Francis Krampa
Coordinator and Events Manager
Engineering Biology Interdisciplinary Research Centre