Petri Podcast

Read the blog post about this podcast on the Petri website.

Andras’s TED talk: Leather and meat without killing animals

Andras’s presentation at the 2019 Hello Tomorrow Global Summit: Biofabrication unlocks the power of nature

Articles in Fast Company, BBC, and Vogue

Learn more about Modern Meadow’s Zoa material

Follow Modern Meadow and Andras on Twitter

Jobs at Modern Meadow

Sofia Elizondo is a Co-founder and COO of Brightseed, a startup that is illuminating nature’s intelligence to provide health and nutrition benefits to humans. In our chat with Sofia, we learned about how a computationally identified plant compound has the power to improve metabolic health. We also heard tips on being a female founder, devising commercial strategy, and protecting early stage intellectual property.

A constant innovator in patient data and healthcare, Paul Bleicher reflects on Phase Forward’s modernization of clinical trials and offers advice for “crossing the chasm” to tech adoption with risk-averse communities. Phase Forward went public and was later acquired by Oracle, and Paul went on to become the CMO of Humedica (acq Optum), and the CEO of OptumLabs. As a serial entrepreneur, Paul offers insights on the stages of early startup and on humbly knowing your own strengths - even if it means stepping aside as CEO to help your company crush it.

Reshma Shetty was driven to make biology easier to engineer and ended up launching Ginkgo Bioworks with friends from MIT as a high-impact means to achieve their vision. Ginkgo is a platform biotechnology company with applications across medicine, food and nutrition, agriculture, cosmetics, and more. Recently, the company has been using their foundational technology on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and have spun off Joyn Bio and Allonia, new companies focused on wastewater remediation and sustainable agriculture, respectively. Reshma shares tips for women founders, for building a diverse company, and for bootstrapping until you have a game plan.

Bill Brady is the founder of Kula Bio, a leader in sustainable nitrogen solutions. Bill came to entrepreneurship as a second career after 22 years in industry, and he’s been working on sustainable technologies for more than a decade.

Emily Leproust, CEO and Co-Founder of Twist Biosciences, is powering the new bio-based economy by driving DNA synthesis at scale. In this chat, we learn how Twist is leading the charge on DNA storage and supporting COVID-19 research globally.

Emily’s talk at TED

Follow Emily on Twitter

Emily’s talk at ASHG 2020

Alec Nielsen, Founder and CEO of Asimov, a synthetic biology startup that is revolutionizing intelligent design of living systems. Learn how Alec ditched his top-notch faculty position at the last minute to launch Aisimov — and cold-called 90 customers in 3 days to start gaining traction with customers. If you’re a technical founder, you’re going to love his tips for spinning out of academia.

Read the blog post for this episode on the Petri website.

The future will be genetically engineered. Alec discusses his long-term vision for the impact of Asimov at [conference, a16z].

Genetic circuit design automation, Science 2016. Alec’s original paper from his PhD with Chris Voigt, and the technology platform on which Asimov was founded.

When (and How) biology becomes engineering. a16z podcast.

Follow Asimov and Alec on Twitter.

Jobs at Asimov