The SynBioBeta Podcast

Today John Cumbers talks with Matt Ocko, co-founder and co-Managing Partner of the silicon valley deep tech venture fund DCVC. The topics for today are the different visions of the Star Trek and Star Wars future economies, the utopic versus the dystopic; how he evaluates a company in the context of these sci-fi classics; and why he has decided to invest in Deep Tech and what opportunities are emerging in synthetic biology. Matt has over three decades of experience in the Deep Tech space,...

Today John Cumbers talks with Massimo Portincaso, managing director and partner at BCG. John will be talking to Massimo about what nature co-design, how we're shifting from global supply chains to global value chains, what distributed biological manufacturing is, and more.. Massimo Portincaso co-leads the Deep Tech Mission, BCG’s unit focused on the deep tech approach to innovation, emerging technologies, and the new rules of engagement for all actors in the innovation space. He is also the...

Today John Cumbers talks with Karl Schmieder the founder of messagingLAB, a strategy and consulting firm that helps biotechnology and synthetic biology companies create and execute strategies to drive the industry forward. Connect with Karl: @karlschmieder Connect with John: @johncumbers Stay updated on the latest news in synthetic biology, check out our weekly newsletter and follow us on social media: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook Be sure you make it to SynBioBeta Brand and Biology...

Today John Cumbers talks with Ryan Bethencourt, founder and CEO of Wild Earth. John will be talking to Ryan about the state of COVID and questions like "Does eating animals cause pandemics?" Recorded live on: March 15th, 2020 To watch the video component: https://www.facebook.com/SynBioBeta/videos/199598178035525/ Connect with Ryan: @RyanBethencourt Connect with John: @johncumbers Stay updated on the latest news in synthetic biology, check out our weekly newsletter and follow us on...

Today John Cumbers talks with Emily Leproust, Entrepreneur and CEO of Twist Bioscience. John will be talking to Emily about why she founded Twist, the many industries that will be disrupted by DNA technology, and how Twist is building a company culture for growth diversity and excellence. Emily is the co founder and the CEO of Twist Bioscience, an early pioneer in high throughput synthesis and sequencing of DNA. Emily is disrupting the process of gene synthesis to enable the exponential...

Today John Cumbers talks with John Nicols, President and CEO of Codexis, a leading protein engineering company here in Silicon Valley. I’ll be talking with John about “How protein engineering is the killer app for biology.” Specifically, I’ll talk with John about the amazing pedigree and origins of Codexis, how companies like Codexis are changing the way the biopharma industry does business, and John’s vision for how protein engineering is going to impact our daily lives. Connect with...

Today John Cumbers talks with D.A. Wallach, recording artist and emerging tech investor. John will be talking to D.A. about his journey from performing artist to investor in emerging tech, how his unique background informs his investment thesis, and what opportunities he’s most excited about in synthetic biology these days. D.A. Wallach is a recording artist, songwriter, and investor. While an undergraduate at Harvard, he was discovered by Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. As a solo...

Today John Cumbers talks with Tom Dierking, design director of transformational platform technologies at Procter & Gamble. John will be talking to Tom about his passion for transforming the consumer experience, Procter & Gamble’s revolutionary line of water-free products, and where he sees synthetic biology impacting the way that consumer brands do business. Tom Dierking is the global design director of innovation capability at Procter & Gamble (P&G). He’s a passionate advocate of design...

For the pictures John and Eben reference check out our website article (https://synbiobeta.com/synbiobeta-podcast-the-mycelium-revolution/) Today John Cumbers talks with Eben Bayer, CEO and Co-Founder of the biomaterials company Ecovative. He’ll be talking with Eben about: Ecovative is a world-leading biomaterials company that is adapting natural processes to create sustainable materials. Eben has evangelized a strategy of bio-adaptation around the world, including presentations at TED...

Today John Cumbers talks with Ali Tamaseb, an investor at the venture firm DCVC. John will be talking to Ali about his technical strategy for finding super-founders, emerging challenges for founders, particularly in synthetic biology, and what emerging market he is most excited about these days. Ali is an entrepreneur, a previous startup founder, and a highly technical academic researcher. Ali has walked in the shoes of the scientist-turned-entrepreneur, and has first-hand experience with...

Today John Cumbers talks with Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President and Head of Biology at Reliance Industries Limited. John will be talking to Santanu about why algae is a great engineering platform, Reliance’s role in India’s arts, culture, and urban renewal, and the challenges to building the synthetic biology community in India Santanu has more than 25 years in biotechnology research experience in various leadership roles. He has led many breakthrough global agriculture...

Today John Cumbers talks to Dr. Christina Agapakis, biologist, writer, artist, and Creative Director at Ginkgo Bioworks. John will be talking to Christina about the role of creativity and design in biotechnology, what are Ginkgo’s top aims in terms of technology and its culture, and what kinds of opportunities she is most excited about today. Christina serves as creative director at Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism design company that is bringing biology to industrial engineering. In that...

Today John Cumbers talks to Dr. Jenny Rooke, the founder and Managing Director of Genoa Ventures, and one of Silicon Valley’s leading venture capitalists in the synthetic biology industry. John will be talking to Jenny about how VCs assess the value and potential of firms, what it takes to start your own VC firm, and what kinds of opportunities she is most excited about today. For over a decade, Jenny has been deploying capital at the frontiers of life sciences innovation, seeking out...

Today John Cumbers talks to Ursheet Parikh, partner at Mayfield and leader of their biotechnology and health care portfolios. The conversation is about what it takes to scale synthetic biology companies, some of the challenges they face, and how platform technologies in synthetic biology can help float all boats. Ursheet is a proven repeat entrepreneur and executive who brings 15 years of product and leadership experience to the investment team at Mayfield. He focuses on innovation that...

Today John Cumbers talks to Alexandre Zanghellini, co-founder and CEO of Arzeda about Protein Design 101. Alex leads Arzeda’s product and technology development and IP strategy. He’s an inventor of Arzeda’s platform for computational protein design and more recently also branched into computational metabolic pathway design. Alex will introduce protein design, discuss automation and technical advancement, touch on a few applications, and the potential of protein design to improve the world...

John Cumbers talks to Ben Kellogg about telling a compelling synthetic biology story. Ben is the founder of BWK, an award-winning PR consulting firm representing clients like TED, MIT, Modern Meadow and Culture Biosciences. As the PR partner to TED’s Fellowship program, BWK works directly with the 400+ TED Fellows including scientists, technologists, artists and entrepreneurs. Ben graduated from Yale with a degree in English and has a decade of experience advising executives and...

The SynBioBeta Podcast is here! Subscribe now. Episode 1 debuts July 10th. Conversations with synthetic biology’s leading thinkers on building a better world with biology. The podcast is hosted by John Cumbers, founder and CEO of SynBioBeta, where tech meets bio and bio meets tech. Stay updated on the latest news in synthetic biology, check out our weekly newsletter and follow us on social media: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook Be sure you make it to SynBioBeta 2019 this October 1-3!...