BioCoder #4

Synbio Axlr8r Teams

Connor Dickie

This summer, five startup companies have gathered in Cork, Ireland, to participate in SynBio Axlr8r, a venture fund that focuses on entrepreneurs building technologies in or around the field of synthetic biology. Each team has received $30k in funding, access to wetlab space at the Univeristy of Cork, and a global network of mentors.

As an Axlr8r mentor (as well as a recipient of funding from Axlr8r’s parent, SOSventures, for Synbiota Inc.), I’ve had the pleasure to visit with many of the teams in person. I thought the BioCoder community would be interested to learn a bit more about each team and their projects.

With this in mind, I’ve asked each team representative the same three questions:

1. Who is on your team? What are your backgrounds? How did you meet?
2. What is your Axlr8r project, why are you doing it, and what’s the potential impact?
3. Wildcard—tell BioCoder something interesting and relevant that does not fit within the preceding questions.

Sarah Choukah of Hyasynth Bio

We’re Hyasynth, a team of six young researchers, entrepreneurs, and scientists. Our profiles include experience working on award-winning iGEM teams, with companies including Synbiota, Novozymes, and Genomikon. In addition, we have academic backgrounds in synthetic biology, biochemistry, and communications. We met in August 2013 as cofounders of Montreal’s DIYBiology and biotech community group, BricoBio. We were brought together by common goals we all share. The first is enabling ...