Abstract:
Eden Brew is an animal free dairy company making dairy proteins using precision fermentation in microbes. This presentation will provide and overview of Eden Brew and the growing precision fermentation/synthetic biology/industrial fermentation industry, as well as delving into some of Professor Vickers’ academic research. We will cover production of dairy proteins in microbes, as well as new tools and techniques that help us to understand metabolic regulation of pathway flux and to achieve controlled cellular behaviour. Tool application will be exemplified using production of isoprenoids - an extremely large and diverse group of natural compounds with myriad biological functions and industrial uses, ranging from specialized applications (e.g. anti-cancer and anti-malarial pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals) through to bulk chemicals (e.g., food colours, fragrances, rubbers, agricultural chemicals, and fuel replacements). 

Biography:
Claudia is Chief Scientific Officer at Eden Brew, an animal free dairy company brewing proteins using precision fermentation. She has over 20 years’ experience working in basic and applied R&D in academia, government research, and industry. Her research focuses on metabolic engineering of microbes for production of proteins, high value ingredients, and other industrially useful biochemicals. She spearheaded development of the synthetic biology R&D community in Australia, including co-founding Synthetic Biology Australasia as its founding President and serving on the Executive of the Global Biofoundries Alliance. From 2017-2022, she was Director of CSIRO’s Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, a highly collaborative cross-disciplinary R&D program aimed at expanding Australia’s capability and building national synthetic biology-based industry. She co-chaired the World Economic Form Global Future Council on Synthetic Biology from 2020-2022 and represents Australia at numerous international strategy and policy fora. She also sits on Scientific Advisory Boards for Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and numerous international synthetic biology institutes. She has Adjunct Professorships at Queensland University of Technology (ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology) and Griffith University (Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery), and serves on editorial boards for eight international journals, including as a handing editor for ACS Synthetic Biology. Claudia was recognised by the Australian Financial Review as a BOSS Magazine True Leader in 2019.