University Bioconnect: SynthBiome founder Marvin Whiteley at BioSpark Labs

On March 26th, check out BioSpark Labs in Science Square and hear from SynthBiome founder Marvin Whiteley. BioSpark Labs has kindly offered their space, food, and drinks for the event (!), and we are invited to tour their freshly renovated labs and facilities as well.

Use the parking lot directly east of Northyards Blvd NW (near the buildings, not the large one to the west). At the gate, mention you're a BioSpark Labs visitor. From there, use the sidewalk south of parking and walk east to #380. Look for a blue tent in the parking lot if you need help!

Dr. Whiteley will be sharing his experience founding SynthBiome to provide a pre-clinical testing platform for antimicrobial pharmaceuticals. Marvin Whiteley is a Professor of Biological Sciences, Co-Director of Emory-Children’s Cystic Fibrosis Center (CF@LANTA), Director of MicrobeATL, and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. He received a BS in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin, a PhD from the University of Iowa, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Dr. Whiteley was a Professor of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Texas at Austin where he was the founding Director of the Lamontagne Center for Infections Disease before coming to Georgia Tech where he founded the Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection. His lab focuses on microbial pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance to answer questions such as: “what is driving antibiotic tolerance in human chronic infections”, “why are infections that contain multiple microbes harder to treat”, and “why are the pre-clinical models used by pharma to identify antibiotics not yielding new drugs that work in humans?”. This last question has driven the founding of SynthBiome, whose goal is to accelerate discovery and deployment of new antimicrobials using a novel quantitative framework to develop robust and accurate preclinical models.

5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking and hanging out

6:00pm-6:30pm: Marvin's story and Q/A

6:30pm-7:30pm: Networking and hanging out

Signup and connect with attendees via our LinkedIn page!

Dress code: on the casual side of business casual, depending on your preference. (It's a light social hang, so feel free to wear whatever you have on that day or whatever feels right to you).

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University Bioconnect is founded on the observation that major biotech centers such as Kendall Square in Boston have community gatherings to share ideas and discuss the many themes that are collectively biotech. One can show up to these events and meet tons of people passionate about biotech’s potential to improve the world, people like researchers from top-tier institutions, clinicians, biotech startup founders, venture capital investors, and employees of massive biotech companies. Before you know it, three hours have passed, and connections have been made that sometimes lead to innovations that would have been impossible otherwise.

As we see it, Atlanta is past-due for developing a similar scene. The University Bioconnect Meetup was launched by Ph.D. students from Georgia Tech, Emory, GSU, and Morehouse with assistance from VentureLab at Georgia Tech, to host meetups with wide-ranging topics to foster the types of connections that make great biotech hubs thrive. With its leading position in research, clinical expertise, and recent and planned infrastructure, Atlanta is well-positioned to create the world’s next top high-growth biotech community; join us and help make that vision a reality!