Dr. Renee Wegrzyn Vice President Ginkgo Bioworks
Dr. Renee Wegrzyn is Vice President of Business Development at Ginkgo Bioworks and Head of Innovation at Concentric by Ginkgo where she is currently focused on applying synthetic biology to outpace infectious disease – including COVID-19 - through biomanufacturing, vaccine, and diagnostic/biosurveillance innovation. Prior to Ginkgo, she was Program Manager in the Biological Technologies Office (BTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where she leveraged the tools of synthetic biology and gene editing to enhance biosecurity, support the domestic bioeconomy, and thwart biothreats. Her DARPA portfolio included the Living Foundries: 1000 Molecules, Safe Genes, Preemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements (PREPARE), and Detect it with Gene Editing Technologies (DIGET) programs. Renee currently serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Standing Committee on Biotechnology for National Security, Scientific Advisory Boards for Revive & Restore, Air Force Research Labs, Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the Innovative Genomics Institute. Renee holds a PhD and BS in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, was a Fellow in the Center for Health Security Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI), and completed her postdoctoral training as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Heidelberg, Germany.
Presenting at:
All times are presented in the host university’s local time zone.
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Preparing for Pandemic Threats in a Rapidly Changing World
(8:25am - 9:10am)