More than 150 researchers, students, and biotechnology industry professionals came together on October 16 and 17 for the 2025 Central US Synthetic Biology Workshop at McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota. The event, hosted by the BioTechnology Institute, is an annual gathering that brings together people working in academia and industry from across the Central US to advance the field of biotechnology.
“Our goal was to bring together the biotechnology and synthetic biology community across the central United States to share new research innovations, forge new networks and collaborations,” says BTI Director Claudia Schmidt-Dannert. “We also wanted to give students and postdocs an opportunity to present their research and interact with the research community from academia and industry.”
The event included presentations and panel discussions covering topics ranging from innovations in biotechnology research, including advances in computational design, and changes happening in the R&D landscape. The workshop coordinating committee also planned out networking opportunities and a poster session to foster community, strengthen existing and establish new connections. During the poster sessions, attendees from institutions across the Midwest and industry covered topics such as engineering synthetic miniproteins to new methods to identify new plant enzymes. These different programmatic elements offered attendees a chance to learn about the diverse expertise and ongoing research projects pursued in the different labs.
“We purposefully designed this workshop to facilitate interactions and networking between participants,” says Schmidt-Dannert. “By focusing on exchanging ideas and providing networking opportunities for researchers from regional institutions, new partnerships and collaborations will emerge - and from feedback, new research connections have already been made between labs that have not collaborated or interacted with each other before.”