Ambassador Markus Leitner, who delivered remarks at the summit, said: “The United Kingdom and Switzerland are uniquely placed to work together on this frontier of scientific discovery and technological innovation.

“Bringing together scientists, industry leaders and start-up entrepreneurs from both countries will foster the exchange of ideas, forge new partnerships, and catalyse new initiatives that will shape the future of synthetic and engineering biology.”

The Summit, organised in partnership with the Swiss Business Hub UK & Ireland, the University of Bristol’s BioDesign Institute, the Bioindustry Association and Lucideon, brought together academic thought leaders and representatives from the life science and pharmaceutical industries.

Inspiring keynote talks were presented by Tay Salimullah VP, Head US & Global Commercial, Value & Access, and Member of the Executive Committee at Novartis Gene Therapies and Harry Destecroix, founder of Science Creates and co-founder of Ziylo, the successful University of Bristol spin-out company.

Spotlight pitches from UK and Swiss engineering biology start-ups also highlighted some of the most exciting recent innovations entering the market.