Author: karlschmieder

What’s Your Bio Strategy? First Review from Life Science Leader

Life Science Leader’s editor Rob Wright posted a very positive review of What’s Your Bio Strategy? Says Rob: Today we stand on the precipice overlooking a new frontier — the century of biology, and businesses of all kinds need to be prepared to not only embrace what is coming, but have a strategy for how to […]

What Is Bio-Strategy?

TL;DR. Bio-strategy is a framework to incorporate biology, biotechnology into your business. “At the dawn of the 21st Century, strategy seems to have gone out of fashion.” – Chet Holmes, Certain to Win The word “strategy” has become so overused that most people have forgotten what strategy really means. John Cumbers and I were inspired to […]

It’s No Secret, Your Presentation Matters

How you present your business, your story, your offer is no secret. In many cases, it’s the presentation that matters. The voice you use, the magazines your content appears in, the social channels you engage in. Your presentation is the articles, blog posts, and white papers you publish. It’s the videos on your web site and […]

First Drafts: The Ugly, The Bad and The Good

Writing first drafts sucks. For the past few months, I’ve been co-writing What’s Your Bio Strategy? with SynBioBeta founder John Cumbers. We just completed the first draft. It feels monumental. The process of writing a first draft is an epic like Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti Western The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – one of […]

Tim Gardner: “There Is Almost No Physical Problem That Can’t Be Solved With Biology”​

I’m co-author of a book called What’s Your Biostrategy? With SynBioBeta’s John Cumbers, we’re writing about the impact of biotechnology on ALL business. Over the next few months, I’m going to publish interview summaries from the book. For more information, scroll to the bottom of the post. In 2000, Tim Gardner wrote one of synthetic biology’s seminal […]

iGEM is the Future of Biotechnology

Jennifer Lopez and Zachary Quinto. Biotech is going mainstream in a big way. That was the message to the more than 5,600 high school and college students crowded into Boston’s Hynes Convention Center for the 2016 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. Lopez’s production company is producing CRISPR, a near-future crime drama named after the […]

Career Advice to a Molecular Biologist Starting to Write

Write and write some more. Read the science media. Fill your head with the best writing you can find. Read The New Yorker. Read annual anthologies of the best writing — not just science writing either. Here’s The Best American Essays of 2016. Practice generating ideas on what to write every day. Especially after you read […]

I Wanted To Be Right But Synthetic Yeast News Proved Me Wrong

I was wrong. On Quora, someone asked: How far are we from engineering a completely synthetic, self-replicating cell or organism? My original answer was three years. 2020. My answer was based on research I’ve been conducting for What’s Your Bio Strategy? Then last week, Science ran an issue on the creation of synthetic chromosomes. Scientists […]

How to Create 10,000 Jobs?

How do you create 10,000 jobs? Train 500 brewers. Originally, I was going to write: Train 10,000 teachers. Despite the overwhelming need for teachers [1], the profession currently is looked down upon in the United States and people don’t understand that if you don’t invest in education, you’re not investing in the future. (Cynically, I […]

30 Things I Did Before Turning 30

In anticipation of my 54th birthday, I answered this question on Quora: What are the 30 things you did before turning 30 in your life? Learned to skateboard ramps and pools. Memorized every ditch and was part of an informal word-of-mouth network that knew when a new ramp appeared in Ventura. Convinced my parents to drive […]