Over the last 20 years, the idea of designing biology has gone from science fiction to just science,

as the field of synthetic biology has exploded, with applications from therapeutics to manufacturing and more.

In this episode from January 2019,

one of the pioneers in the field,

Professor James J Collins of MIT,

joins A16C General partner on the BioHealth Fund,

V.J. Pondy, an editorial partner Hannah Wenarski to discuss the origins of Sin Bio,

including what engineering and designing biology really looks like in action and

the disciplinary differences between how biologists and engineers see the world and

much more.

Hi and welcome to the A16Z podcast, I'm Hannah and in this episode

General Partner on the Bio Fund,

VJ Panday and I talk all about the field of synthetic biology

with Jim Collins, professor of bioengineering at MIT

and one of the pioneers of the discipline of

synthetic biology. We talk about what engineering and designing biology really

looks like when instead of engineering electrons your engineering toggle switches for genes, including the scientific

story behind the creation of that very first gene toggle on and off switch.

We also talk about the disciplinary differences and synergies between how biologists and

engineers see the world, what the engineering and design principles, techniques or

approaches that work best when applied to science, how that looks different when building a company in the space and thinking about for example

platforms versus products, and even how it's changing education in the field all the way down to middle school.

...