We are pleased to announce the Cold Spring Harbor Asia conference on Synthetic Biology  which will be held in Suzhou, China, located approximately 60 miles west of Shanghai. The conference will begin at 7:00pm on the evening of Monday November 2, and will conclude in the evening after banquet on Thursday, and depart on Friday, November 6, 2026.

The conference will include eight oral sessions and one poster session covering the latest findings across many topics in Synthetic Biology. Many talks will be selected from the openly submitted abstracts on the basis of scientific merit and relevance. Social events throughout the conference provide ample opportunity for informal interactions.

Major Topics:

1. Synthetic life

2. Genome Engineering

3. Metabolic Engineering 

4. Emerging tools of Synthetic Biology

Invited Speakers:

Patrick Yizhi Cai, University of Manchester

Guo-Qiang Chen, Tsinghua University

Junbiao Dai,  Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, CAAS

Barbara Di Ventura, University of Freiburg

Ryan Duncombe, Mirror Biology Dialogues Fund

Sophie Gilbert, Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator

John Glass, J. Craig Venter Institute

Xiaojun Han, Harbin Institute of Technology

Karmella Haynes, Emory University

Yuling Jiao, Peking University

Anne Osbourn, John Innes Centre

James Pelletier, Spanish National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB) in Madrid

Yoshihiro Shimizu, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research

Xiaoli Xue, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Nozomu Yachie, The University of British Columbia

Yu Zhao, Westlake University

And more...

We encourage abstracts to contain new and unpublished materials. The abstracts must be submitted electronically by the abstract deadline. Selection of material for oral and poster presentation will be made by the organizers. Status (fellow's talk/poster) of abstracts will be posted on our web site as soon as decisions have been made by the organizers. 

Fellowship: 
We are eager to have as many young people as possible attend since they are likely to benefit most from this meeting. A certain number of presentations by graduate students and postdocs in this conference will be selected as fellowship (USD $100-$500) awards. For more details, please visit  Stipends

SSIC × CSHA "Synthesizing the Future" Youth Innovation Award:

Biotechnology is reshaping our world at an unprecedented pace. Jointly launched by the Shanghai SynBio Innovation Center (SSIC) and Cold Spring Harbor Asia (CSHA), this award honors young scientists who demonstrate exceptional innovation in synthetic biology and its interdisciplinary frontiers. We seek more than just academic publishers; we are looking for inventors of technology and shapers of the future—pioneers who possess the potential to translate complex biotechnology from the laboratory into impact on human wellbeing, transforming the world through bio-engineering while creating significant economic value. 

The award offers a total prize pool of 9,000 RMB (approximately 1,250 USD), which will be envenly distributed among 3 to 5 winners depending on the circumstances.

Detail&Application: ssiccshasynthesizingthefutureyouthinnovationaward.pdf

Please send your application to both [email protected] and [email protected] with the title 'SSIC-CSHA Youth Innovation Award'.

We look forward to seeing you at Suzhou in November, 2026.

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