When I speak with non-technical, non-biotech audiences, I’m always looking for a place where we can start the conversation. These days, it’s with brewing. Most people, remember, know little-to-nothing about the way biology is impacting their lives. Most people, I believe, want to know. So these days, I start the conversation with beer and wine. Both […]
Tag: biotechnology
The Sprawl Trilogy
Netflix just started airing Altered Carbon. It’s a rad take Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 cyberpunk novel. One of my favorite genres, cyberpunk typically explores how the street repurposes tech, life in cyberspace and off-planet. Last fall, I reread William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy – Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. (Neuromancer, BTW, is credited with […]
Why You Need a Bio Strategy
Here’s a spoken word version of the keynote I gave at Biofabricate 2017. To learn more about why you need a bio strategy, click here.
What I’m Reading
Happy New Year! Over the holidays, I unsubscribed from dozens of newsletters. I was very critical in thinking through whether a newsletter belonged in my email box. Was it helping me stay informed? Was it inspiring? Or, was it wasting (virtual) space? Here are a few of the newsletters I subscribe to stay up to date on biotech, […]
2017: A Year Wraps and Good Riddance
Good Riddance 2017 It was a good year, but not without its challenges. The TL;DR is: mL grew more than 10 percent but is still down from its 2015 high. I co-authored and published What’s Your Bio Strategy? I moderated a panel at SynBioBeta SF17 and keynoted at Biofabricate 4 and enjoyed it. I now […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Who Takes iGEM Seriously?
This past week iGEM startup PvP Biologics closed a $35 million round with Takeda. Last year, in June 2016, Ginkgo Bioworks raised $100 million. The company was founded by a team that participated in the first iGEM competitions. The iGEM startup page lists some 19 startups that originated from the competition. While Christopher VanLang is […]
Captain Underpants, BioBuilder and iGEM: Preparing Kids for the Biotech Century
Melvin’s Li’l Scientist Wristwatch had a built-in DNA extractor. Melvin inserted the filthy toenail into his watch and programmed a complete extraction procedure while the Turbo Toilet 2000 chased him back through town… As Melvin ran screaming, his watch quickly pulverized and sonicated the toenail cells, removed their membrane lipids, proteins and RNA, and purified […]