Kirsten Benjamin works at Amyris Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is currently a Vice President of R&D at Amyris, heading the 60-person Biology Department and serving as the technical program director for several R&D collaborations. Amyris is a successful pioneer in the high-technology renewable bio-based products sector, with a track record of quickly bringing novel products to market via fermentation with engineered microbes. Kirsten’s technical leadership and coordination between R&D and Manufacturing have resulted in successful large-scale commercial production of eight fermentation products in the last ten years, ranging from an anti-malarial drug precursor to a low-calorie natural sweetener. Prior to joining Amyris 12 years ago, Kirsten was a senior research fellow in systems biology at the Molecular Sciences Institute, a postdoctoral research fellow in molecular genetics at the University of California-San Francisco, and a graduate student in biochemistry at the University of California-Berkeley.
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GapSummit is the premier, global, intergenerational biotechnology summit that attracts world leaders and the next generation of leaders to substantively discuss pressing challenges facing the bioeconomy and catalyze innovation to address these challenges.
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GBR is a not-for-profit that connects biotech think-tanks, industrial leaders and research pioneers to young bio-leaders of tomorrow. GBR is solely led by young passionate and engaged researchers, students and professionals from across the world. GapSummit is GBR’s flagship event to advance its mission of developing and inspiring the next generation of leaders in the global bio-economy.
