John Cumbers, founder of SynBioBeta, joins Theral for our annual look ahead at the field of synthetic biology and the upcoming SynBioBeta 2025 conference, happening May 6–9 in San Jose. It's obviously a big year for AI, and synthetic biology is no exception. As John puts it, “Biology and AI coming together represents a huge opportunity for us to be able to understand biology and then ultimately engineer biology.” This year’s conference features a strong emphasis on AI's role in scaling and accelerating biological engineering, from foundational research to applied biotechnology.

While synthetic biology is full of exciting opportunities in this new age of AI, the field is not without its macro-economic challenges. The current political climate has many wondering if we have failed in our science communication. Cumbers says synthetic biology has yet to experience its "ChatGPT moment" — a breakthrough that not only advances the science but brings it into public awareness, making it as familiar and accessible as AI has suddenly become. When will biology become democratized, when will more people participate directly in shaping it, or even just understand it? That question lingers at the heart of this year’s meeting.

We also discuss themes from the conference program, including the focus on longevity, organ replacement, non-canonical amino acids, and the tight coupling between biology and computation emerging across the field.

As always, John brings insight into a field that, for all its progress, still feels like the early days — we’re just seeing the first bands on the gel.

* Mendelspod listeners receive 10% off SynBioBeta registration. Use the code Mendelspod when registering.

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