APEC HLPDAB Workshop: Effective Regulatory Approaches for Plant, Animal, and Microbial Biotechnology

Seminar 2: Microbial Biotechnology

August 4, 2026 | 8:00-10:00 pm (EDT/UTC-4)

Seminar 3: Animal Biotechnology

August 11, 2026 | 8:00-9:40 am (EDT/UTC-4)

Ms. Sheeb Kaiserin Quiaonza

Senior Agriculturist, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture, The Philippines

Sheeb Kaiserin Quiaonza earned her Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of the Philippines Los Baños. She has nearly 12 years of professional experience at the Biotechnology Office of the Bureau of Plant Industry, where she has been actively involved in the science-based regulation of genetically modified crops and products of plant breeding innovation in the Philippines.

Currently serving as the Officer-in-Charge Head of the Biotechnology Office, she leads and supports the evaluation of biosafety applications, development and implementation of regulatory policies and guidelines, post-approval monitoring of authorized biotechnology products, and coordination with government agencies, technical experts, research institutions, and industry stakeholders.

She is an active member of the BPI Biotechnology Core Team and the Post-Approval Monitoring Group. Her extensive regulatory experience, technical background in agriculture, and involvement in interagency policy development have equipped her with expertise in biosafety assessment, regulatory decision-making, stakeholder engagement, and science-based oversight of agricultural biotechnology.

Dr. Andrew Roberts

Chief Executive Officer, Agriculture & Food Systems Institute (AFSI), USA

Dr. Andrew Roberts joined the Agriculture and Food Systems Institute (AFSI) in December 2009 as the Deputy Director of the Center for Environmental Risk Assessment (CERA), where he developed tools and materials for use in training and capacity building related to the problem formulation approach to environmental risk assessment and served as the coordinator for CERA’s capacity building projects under the USAID-funded South Asia Biosafety Program (SABP) and the World Bank-funded Partnership for Biosafety Risk Assessment and Regulation, in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam. He also provided technical support for capacity building work in Brazil, India, Japan, Chile, and South Africa. In January 2015, he became the director of CERA, as well as the Center for Safety Assessment of Food and Feed (CSAFF), which worked on food and feed safety assessment for foods derived from genetically engineered plants. The two centers were later consoli­dated under the Research Foundation, for which he became Deputy Executive Director in January 2017. When the organization became the Agriculture and Food Systems Institute in 2020, his title shifted to Vice President – Biotechnology, and he assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer later that year.

Prior to joining AFSI, Dr. Roberts worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in several different capacities, all related to the regulation of agricultural biotechnology. He began his career at USDA as an AAAS Risk Policy Fellow in the Office of Science of Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS), the group responsible for regulating genetically engineered plants at USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service. After spending a year in the New Technologies office of the Foreign Agricultural Service serving as the lead for USDA’s efforts related to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, he returned to BRS to serve in the International Affairs branch where he remained until joining AFSI.

Dr. Liz Freeman Rosenzweig

Senior Counsel, Switch Bioworks, USA

Liz is a scientist-turned-attorney who joined Switch in 2025 and spearheads our intellectual property, regulatory, general legal, and government affairs strategies. Prior to joining Switch, Liz practiced law at Morrison Foerster, where she specialized in patent prosecution and strategy, as well as regulatory issues related to genetically engineered organisms. She obtained her JD from UC Berkeley Law with a focus on intellectual property, and her PhD from Stanford University in plant cell and molecular biology.

Dr. Tim Schnabel

Founder & CEO, Switch Bioworks, USA

Dr. Tim Schnabel is a scientist, bioengineer, entrepreneur, and Forbes 30 under 30 honoree in social impact. He is currently serving as the Founder and CEO of Switch Bioworks, a biotechnology company located in San Carlos, California, focused on engineering microbes that produce cost-effective, sustainable fertilizer to tackle climate change.

Originally from Germany, Tim came to the US to study chemical engineering and economics at Stanford University (’15). Under the guidance of Professor James Swartz, he researched the biological production of hydrogen fuel from sunlight and received Stanford’s Kennedy Thesis Prize, the highest university recognition for undergraduate research. Tim’s research also won the Mason Award and Firestone Medal, and his academic recognition include the President’s Award, Terman Engineering Award, and Tau Beta Pi – the National Engineering Honor Society, of which Dr. Schnabel served as President (CA G chapter) and Advisory Board Chair.

Following his early training in biotechnology, Tim pursued a MS ’17 and PhD ’21 in bioengineering at Stanford, advised by Professor Elizabeth Sattely. He was awarded a BioX Bowes Fellowship for interdisciplinary research. Dr. Schnabel’s PhD thesis titled “Engineering Ammonia Production in Free-Living Diazotrophs for Plant Fertilization” is published in two single-author papers (patents pending), one of which was featured on the cover of ACS Synthetic Biology. Tim was also a scholar (’19) of the highly competitive Accel Leadership Fellows, a program that accelerates entrepreneurship training of PhD candidates in engineering.

Transitioning through an “Entrepreneur in Training” Postdoc ’22 in the Stanford Bioengineering Department Chair’s lab, Professor Jennifer Cochran, Tim founded Switch Bioworks – “the living fertilizer company” – of which he is CEO and on the Board of Directors.

In his free time, Tim is a beekeeper, homebrewer, and author of “Wake up! A young person’s guide to spirituality.”

Ms. Aura Liz Garcia Serquén

Specialist in Genetic Resources, National Institute of Agricultural Innovation, Peru

Aura García Serquén is a researcher at the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation (INIA), Peru, specializing in the conservation and research of microbial genetic resources. She leads the Crop Pre-Breeding Program focused on climate adaptation and coordinated the High-Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology (HLPDAB) for APEC–Peru 2024. Her research focuses on strengthening climate-resilient agricultural systems through the conservation, characterization, and sustainable use of genetic resources to enhance climate adaptation, food security, and sustainable agricultural production. She also contributes to the development of national policies on biodiversity, agricultural biotechnology, and climate action. In addition, she actively supports the dissemination and scientific evaluation of research that advances sustainable agriculture and the conservation of genetic resources.

Dr. Inez Slamet-Loedin

Principal Scientist, International Rice Research Institute, The Philippines

Dr. Inez H. Slamet-Loedin is the Principal Scientist and Head of the Genetic Design and Validation Unit at the International Rice Research Institute and Global Lead of the CGIAR Genome Editing Initiative. A TWAS–UNESCO Fellow and Professor (Adj) at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, she leads research on biotechnology and precision breeding to improve crop nutrition, climate resilience, and productivity for smallholder farming systems. Before joining IRRI, she was a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and completed postdoctoral research at Leiden University. She has led major international research programs supported by FCDO, the Gates Foundation, ACIAR, USAID, and the European Union, mentored and supervised over 100 young scientists, and published in Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, PNAS, Scientific Reports, and other leading journals. Her contributions have been recognized through scientific awards in Indonesia and the Philippines