Building the Biodesign Industry and Bridges with Biosecurity

LEAP Alumnus Patrick Boyle is now head of design at Ginkgo Bioworks. The design team is responsible for designing and optimizing genetic constructs for Ginkgo’s foundries. In 2017, these designs are expected to require hundreds of millions of base pairs of new DNA synthesis. As a continuation of his LEAP efforts, Patrick has been an active member of the NIST Synthetic Biology Standards Committee, and is working with synthesis companies on megabase-scale DNA ordering standards and application programming interfaces (APIs). Patrick is also involved in efforts to assess and recommend improved biosecurity measures for synthetic biology, including a 2013 fellowship in the Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative (ELBI), and membership in the 2017 National Academies Biodefense Synthetic Biology Committee.