Bio: Michael Smanski has served as the Deputy CTO of BioMADE, a Manufacturing Innovation Institute (link) focused on bioindustrial manufacturing. He is also an McKnight Land Grant Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics and the Biotechnology Institute. Dr. Smanski received a BS Degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California – San Diego and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Wisconsin, where he deciphered the genetic and biochemical basis of antibiotic production in soil bacteria. As an HHMI Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, he worked with Christopher Voigt at MIT to develop a pipeline for engineering complex genetic systems, including metabolic pathways. His current lab is developing enabling technologies to engineer biology that address challenges in medicine, agriculture, and the environment.