Plant and Microbe Engineering for Sustainability (N7)
May 2-5, 2027  | Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Daniel F Voytas, Ralph Bock and Jennifer Pett-Ridge
* Session Chair † Invited but not yet accepted | Program current as of September 29, 2025 2 PM | For the most up-to-date details, visit https://www.keystonesymposia.org
Sunday, May 2, 2027
4:00–8:00 PM Registration
6:00–8:00 PM Welcome Mixer
Monday, May 3, 2027
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast
8:00–9:00 AM Welcome and Keynote Address
  Sarah O’Connor †, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
Exploring and Exploiting Plant Specialized Metabolism
 
9:00–11:15 AM Programming Plants to Sense-and-Respond
  Jenn Brophy †, Stanford University
Synthetic Biology Tools for Engineering Plants for Stress Resilience
 
  Francesco Licausi †, University of Oxford
Plant Oxygen Sensing and Sensor Development
 
  Markus Schwarzländer †, University of Münster
Sensors and Controllers for and from Plants
 
  Short Talk(s) Chosen from Abstracts
 
9:30–9:50 AM Coffee Break
11:15–12:15 PM Panel Discussion: Transition of Emerging Technologies from the Laboratory to Real-World Agricultural Applications
11:15–1:00 PM Poster Setup
11:15–5:00 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing
2:30–4:30 PM Symposia Spotlight 1: Late-breaking research presentations selected from abstract submissions
  Short Talks Chosen from Abstracts
 
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available
5:00–7:00 PM Engineering Microbial-Plant Interactions
  Maria J. Harrison †, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research
Mechanisms of Nutrient Exchange in Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Symbioses
 
  Jean-Michel Ane †, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms of Plant-Microbe Symbioses to Promote Sustainable Agriculture and Bioenergy Production
 
  Uta Paszkowski †, University of Cambridge
Molecular Mechanisms of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbioses
 
  Short Talk(s) Chosen from Abstracts
 
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Dinner
7:30–10:00 PM Posters
Tuesday, May 4, 2027
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast
8:00–11:00 AM Advanced Insect Control and Biocontainment
  Omar S. Akbari †, University of California, San Diego
CRISPR-based Systems for Insect Control
 
  Jiang Zhang †, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
RNAi Control of Pest Insects
 
  Alexander E. Hromockyj †, Impetus Agriculture, Inc.
Insect Control with Cry Proteins
 
  Short Talk(s) Chosen from Abstracts
 
9:00–9:20 AM Coffee Break
11:00–1:00 PM Poster Setup
11:00–5:00 PM On Own for Lunch
1:00–10:00 PM Poster Viewing
3:00–4:30 PM Career Roundtable
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available
5:00–7:00 PM Engineering the Rhizosphere for Agricultural Sustainability
  Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Soil Microbial Communities and Climate Change
 
  Jill Banfield †, University of California, Berkeley
Engineering the Microbiome in Rice Paddies
 
  Alvin Tamsir †, Pivot Bio
Nitrogen Fixing Root Associated Microbes in Corn and Rice
 
  Gozde S Demirer †, Caltech
Nanobiotechnology Tools for Rhizosphere Bioengineering
 
  Short Talk(s) Chosen from Abstracts
 
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Dinner
7:30–10:00 PM Posters
Wednesday, May 5, 2027
7:00–8:00 AM Breakfast
8:00–11:00 AM Synthetic Microbial, Plant and Organellar Genomes
  Ralph Bock, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology
Plastid Genome Engineering
 
  Patrick Cai †, University of Manchester
Synthetic Eucaryotic Life
 
  Ian Ehrenreich †, University of Southern California
The SynMoss Project: Rewriting the Physcomitrium Patens Genome
 
  Annie Saltarikos †, Plastomics
Beneficial Traits by Engineering Chloroplasts
 
  Short Talk(s) Chosen from Abstracts
 
9:00–9:20 AM Coffee Break
11:00–5:00 PM On Own for Lunch
2:30–4:30 PM Symposia Spotlight 2: Late-breaking research presentations selected from abstract submissions
  Short Talks Chosen from Abstracts
 
4:30–5:00 PM Coffee Available
5:00–6:45 PM Plant Engineering for Enhanced Performance and Sustainability
  Daniel F Voytas, University of Minnesota
Enabling Plant Gene Editing at Scale
 
  Caixia Gao †, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Precision Plant Gene Editing
 
  Jane Langdale †, Oxford University
Engineering C4 Photosynthesis
 
  Short Talk(s) Chosen from Abstracts
 
6:45–7:00 PM Meeting Wrap-Up: Outcomes and Future Directions (Organizers)
7:00–8:00 PM Social Hour with Dinner
8:00–11:00 PM Entertainment
8:00–11:00 PM Cash Bar
Thursday, May 6, 2027
12:00–11:59 PM Departure