This meeting will integrate recent multidisciplinary advances in genetic engineering, chemistry, imagining, and artificial intelligence that are transforming agricultural practice, productivity and sustainability. The program will cover genome editing advances side-by-side with novel engineering approaches to develop integrative strategies to solve complex problems in agriculture. This includes the advanced engineering of plants and symbiotic soil microbiota to enhance crop productivity and resilience. For example, to solve the classic problem of nitrogen fixation, the program will cover various strategies, from progress in self-fertilizing plants, to engineering bacteria to deliver fixed nitrogen, to new catalysts that chemically synthesize ammonia, to bionic leaves that combine elements of chemistry and microbial systems. In addition, approaches to control insects using gene drives or through their microbiome will be presented, addressing a core issue in agriculture. Advances in field imaging and artificial intelligence will explored with the long-term goal of integrating these systems with advances in genetic engineering. 

The diverse line-up of topics will attract researchers from disparate fields to interact and collaboratively work towards innovative and cross-disciplinary solutions for the future of agricultural sustainability. Furthermore, the conference will be co-located with the Keystone Symposium on Genetic Engineering for a Sustainable Future to enable cross-disciplinary insights and collaborations towards novel sustainable solutions enabled by genetic engineering tools and technologies.