The SynBioBeta Podcast

On this SynBioBeta podcast, John Cumbers talks with Edward Shenderovich, the Founder and CEO of Synonym, a company creating bioeconomy infrastructure to help next-generation bioproducts scale and get to market. Edward will speak at this year’s SynBioBeta conference on “Scaling Biological Capacity,” and in today’s episode, John and Edward will discuss how Synonym addresses s

On this SynBioBeta podcast, John Cumbers talks with Eben Bayer, the CEO of Ecovative, a pioneering company at the forefront of developing sustainable materials using mycelium. John and Eben will discuss Ecovative’s journey toward creating a billion pounds of mycelium, explore some of the cutting-edge agricultural technology used in mushroom growing, and discuss the transformative

On this SynBioBeta podcast, John Cumbers talks with Sean McClain, founder, and CEO of Absci, a generative AI drug creation company on a mission to create better drugs for patients faster. Sean and John will continue some of the discussion that we started on the SynBioBeta stage around generative AI and its critical role in drug discovery, some news from AbSci’s recent R&D day

Today, John Cumbers talks with Ursheet Parikh, a general partner at Mayfield Fund, an early-stage, global venture capital firm with a people-first philosophy and a 50-plus-year history of investing and partnering with founders. John and Ursheet will discuss the state of the synthetic biology market and what startups can do to survive and thrive in this turbulent economy. Ursheet Pa

Today John Cumbers talks with Kyle Giffin, Co-Founder and COO of Latch Bio, the San Francisco-based company that is looking to harmonize data analysis through the application of its integrated bioinformatics platform. Over 50 leading biotechs in drug discovery, therapeutics, agriculture, and climate use LatchBio to accelerate R&D. The team is young, bold, and hiring. To learn m

In this episode, John Cumbers chats with Michael Kamdar, President & CEO and Phil Paik, CTO, both of whom are at Molecular Assemblies—a San Diego-based life sciences company developing an enzymatic DNA synthesis technology designed to power the next generation of DNA-based products. The trio will discuss the competitive DNA synthesis landscape, Molecular Assemblies plans for

Today John Cumbers talks with Claire Aldridge, Chief Strategy Officer at FormBio. Together they will discuss Form Bio, the spin-out from Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences, cell and gene therapies, why they are so difficult to manufacture, and the regulatory environment for these technologies. Check out this week’s sponsor: Molecular Assemblies Claire Aldridge, Chief Strate

Today John Cumbers talks with Jason Kelly, Co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. Together they will discuss synthetic biology’s coming of age” and get Jason’s take on several topics, such as the history of programmable biology, Sam Altman, Ai and the role of AI in biology, and the new congressional commission covering national security and emerging biotechnology. Check out t

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 opport

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 innovati