Zack Abbott — Co-Founder & CEO of ZBiotics: Building the World's First Genetically Engineered Probiotic

The Casey Adams Show

Listener.com Podcast Network

Entrepreneurship, Business

4.8 • 634 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today on The Casey Adams Show I sat down with Zack Abbott, the cofounder and CEO of ZBiotics, the company that brought the world's first genetically engineered probiotics to market. Zack has a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley, where he double-majored in immunology and classical art and archaeology.

After 12 months holed up in his Berkeley lab, often sleeping next to his lab bench, Zack emerged with the prototype of the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. ZBiotics launched its first product in 2019, Pre-Alcohol, a probiotic engineered to break down the toxic byproduct of alcohol metabolism responsible for rough mornings after drinking.

In this conversation we get into the science behind ZBiotics, what it took to build an entirely new category, how Zack thinks about consumer trust around GMOs, and his vision for the future of biotechnology in everyday products.

Learn more about ZBiotics

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Casey Adams show. Today I am joined by Zach Abbott, the co-founder and CEO of
0:07.4	Zbiotics. Thanks so much coming to show today, Zach. Yeah, Casey. Great to be here. Excited
0:11.7	to chat with you. Absolutely. So, you know, for the context, Zach, I remember, what, probably a year
0:16.7	and a half, maybe two years ago, I was out of a friend's house who I take their feedback and
0:21.8	their recommendations extremely strongly. And he goes, hey, man, you got to take the zbiotics
0:27.0	before we go out tonight. And that was the first time that I ever came across your product. And I've
0:32.2	always been just so impressed and amazed by what you specifically created and what the team has brought to market.
0:38.7	And for those that may not know that have now stumbled upon this podcast and they didn't
0:42.8	have the luxury to have a great recommendation from a friend, what is Zbiotics?
0:47.2	And where did this journey start for you and the team?
0:50.8	Yeah, yeah. So first I'll say that I think your story is the one we hear most often.
0:54.8	It's like, somebody said, like, yeah, a friend brought it out, you know, to the bar, like, I was a party at somebody, you know, it's always that. It's like, a friend's like, hey, you've got to try this stuff. That's always the best way to discover the product without a doubt. So yeah, so zbiotics is the company and we make genetically engineered probiotics.
1:13.1	And so we just genetically engineered probiotics.
1:13.1	And so we just take probiotic bacteria, safe edible bacteria that you eat every day.
1:17.8	And then we genetically engineer them to perform some useful function in your body.
1:22.7	And so the product that you had experience with is our first product in our most popular one is called pre-alcohol. And so that product is like a small liquid beverage that contains a probiotic
1:34.2	bacteria that's been engineered to break down the toxic byproduct of alcohol that makes you feel
1:40.6	not so great the day after drinking. So the idea is that you drink this drink
1:44.6	before you drink alcohol and then that, you know, probiotic works in your gut while you're drinking
1:49.9	to help break down this byproduct called acid albohide while you're drinking. And then when you wake up
1:54.4	the next day, you feel better because you haven't been exposed to kind of like this very toxic
1:59.1	molecule that kind of like wreaks havoc throughout your
	...

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