James J. Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. His research group focuses on using network biology approaches to study antibiotic action, bacterial defense mechanisms, and the emergence of resistance. His patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 companies.Read more

Jay Keasling is the Philomathia Professor of Alternative Energy at the University of California, Berkeley in the Departments of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Chief Executive Officer of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Dr. Keasling’s research focuses on the metabolic engineering of microorganisms for degradation of environmental contaminants or for environmentally friendly synthesis of drugs, chemicals, and fuels.Read more

Floyd E. Romesberg is best known for developing unnatural base pairs for the expansion of the genetic alphabet. His research group at The Scripps Research Institute uses a broad range of techniques, including non-linear optical spectroscopy, organic chemistry, microbiology, and genetics, to study different aspects of evolution. This work has been described in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Romesberg is also the scientific founder and a member of the board of directors of Synthorx.Read more

Pamela Ronald is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis. Ronald and her collaborators were instrumental in identifying genes of rice that control the rice response to infection and tolerance to stress. In 2016 she was named by Grist magazine as one of the 50 innovators and visionaries who will lead us toward a more sustainable future.Read more