Engineering Biology Advisory Committee (EBAC)
EBAC is the voice for companies practising engineering biology in the UK across many sectors and industries, comprising a body of experts to support commercialisation and inform UK policy and regulation. The committee connects the UK’s engineering biology community and provides expert advice to Government and BIA, working in close collaboration with other stakeholders.
The committee aims to create a supportive ecosystem for translation and scale-up so that engineering biology can make a significant contribution towards sustainable growth in the bioeconomy. To achieve this, BIA continues to expand its engineering biology community through networking events, sharing news and insights and promoting member companies’ technologies.
We are focusing our influencing work on supporting Government to implement the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan, encouraging supportive policy developments in areas such as gene editing and biosecurity. Some of our engagement with Government comes through our members who sit on expert groups, such as the Engineering Biology Advisory Panel and the Responsible Innovation Advisory Panel.
BIA EBAC Chair and Vice Chair
Livija Deban
Livija joined Prokarium in 2018 and leads the strategic and operational development of Prokarium’s immuno-oncology portfolio. As an immunologist Livija specializes in mucosal and tumour immunology, immunological assay development and immuno-oncology.
Prior to joining Prokarium, Livija headed the lead selection and immuno-oncology R&D at Oxford BioTherapeutics where she focused on the target discovery and the development of immunomodulatory antibodies for cancer treatment.
She has a MA in Medical Biotechnology and holds a PhD in Basic and Applied Immunology. Livija conducted her academic research at Cancer Research UK and King’s College London before joining the biotech industry.
Sara Holland
After a PhD in fission yeast chromosome engineering, Sara spent 8 years as a postdoctoral researcher at Nottingham University in yeast molecular biology before joining Potter Clarkson 9 years ago. Now a UK and European patent attorney, Sara has a strong interest in helping to commercialise research originating from universities, particularly in the synthetic biology/engineering biology space. Educating people, particularly academics and scientist founders about IP and its critical role in bringing technology to the market is a key motivator and Sara has lectured on a number of Masters courses and EPSRC summer schools. Sara also co-founded a Women in Synthetic Biology network, alongside Liz Fletcher of the IBioIC and Fiona Mischel from Synbiobeta.
EBAC Members
