Bio 2019 - "It Starts With One"

The BIO International Convention is an annual conference, run by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), with the intention of growing the global biotech industry. Its aim is to create personal connections, facilitate partnering opportunities through one-to-one meetings and encourage networking and educational opportunities.

Great goals and done at a mind-blowing scale; This year 17,000 delegates from more than 70 countries took part in over 50,000 individual meetings, to bring together ideas, resources and capabilities, to generate new products, therapies and opportunities for the world’s Bio community.

The theme of the event was “It all starts with one”, focusing on the idea that the incremental investment of time, energy and dedication each one of us makes through our daily contributions, has an impact on creating new scientific breakthroughs. This theme resonated strongly with the Ximbio team, as our mission is to help scientists achieve scientific breakthroughs, by making it easier for them to access the tools and reagents they need to complete their research.

Our goal at BIO however, was to expand our network of academic partners with interesting technologies and to develop commercial opportunities for the products already in our portfolio. This is vital in helping scientists achieve the recognition and financial support they deserve for the research tools they have created and enabling them to easily find and access the reagents they need for their experiments

With over 130 meetings planned throughout the week, BIO was the perfect location for us to make the connections we needed to achieve these goals and allowed us to continue to deliver new opportunities for the researchers who trust us to commercialise their reagents.

Alongside the partnering opportunities, there were a number of presentations and educational sessions taking place. Some of our highlights included:

The keynote speech by Siddartha Mukherjee (author of “Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer” and “The Gene: An Intimate History”). This session highlighted the progress being made in understanding the complexity of cancer, through the uncovering of the network of genes that “nudge” cells toward a cancerous state and the identification of where the confluence of their effects produce particular symptoms.

The incredible recipients of the BioGENEius Awards. These were high school students, who are already creating ideas and contributing to research that has the potential to change lives and improve the environment https://convention.bio.org/biogeneius/ .

Sessions on advances in genome editing and the translation of cell and gene therapy’s promise into clinical realities. These sessions included presentations and discussion forums from some of the leading contributors in the field.

Although it was a long week, the opportunities to meet and network with the amazing researchers, biotech and pharma companies, who are each working to make a difference in the world of biotechnology makes BIO an event not to be missed. We particularly appreciate the opportunities and insights at the conference that help us support our contributors, commercial partners and Cancer Research UK’s research aims.