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PODCAST

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast

Grow Everything explores the world of biology as technology. Hosts Erum Khan and Karl Schmieder interview leaders and influencers biologizing industries with tools like synthetic biology, precision fermentation, bioprospecting, and more. These companies make biomaterials from waste, cosmetics that restore healthy hair and skin, and delicious cultivated foods in a bioreactor and so much more. Join us as we discuss the latest and greatest across biotech, engineered biology, entrepreneurship, and

science life sciences

All Episodes

00:50:04

201. Out of Cell Experience: Michael Heltzen Drives...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/10/02

Michael Heltzen, CEO of Exozymes, joins Grow Everything to explain how cell free biomanufacturing is opening new possibilities for natural products, nutraceuticals, and medicines. Michael shares why engineered enzymes can make high purity molecules without relying on living cells, how Exozymes moved its NCT program from discovery toward commercial manufacturing in less than two years, and why its capital light partnership model is central to scaling impact. The conversation also explores AI guided en

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01:28:38

200. That's One Cell of a Machine: Jason Kelly of...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/09/25

For the 200th episode of Grow Everything, Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan talk with Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks and former chair of the US National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, about why biology is still so hard to engineer. Jason explains why a cell is the only coded substrate we have besides a computer, why the real bottleneck is tooling rather than ideas, and why Ginkgo moved from royalty based research partnerships to selling robotic hardware and lab da

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00:49:29

199. Space, the Final Fermenter: Mario Maggio Brews...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/09/18

Biology may be the most important technology we take off planet, and Mario Maggio is building the hardware to prove it. The founder and CEO of Ambrosia Space joins Erum Azeez Khan and Karl Schmieder to explain why space bioprocessing has been stuck at 10 to 20 milliliters while bench scientists on Earth work at 250 milliliters and beyond, and what changes when a two and a half liter fed batch bioreactor with pH, dissolved oxygen, and total cell density sensors finally flies. Mario traces his path fro

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01:02:39

198. A Grain of Truth: Chef Pierre Thiam Scaled Fonio...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/09/11

Chef and entrepreneur Pierre Thiam joins Grow Everything to explain how fonio, a resilient ancient grain from West Africa, can become a platform for biodiversity, regenerative agriculture, food security, and farmer prosperity. Pierre traces his journey from studying physics and chemistry to discovering the kitchen as a larger system connecting culture, health, ecology, and economics. He shares why fonio is nutritionally dense, gluten free, drought resistant, fast cooking, and versatile, as well as ho

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00:15:33

197. What’s in Your Cart? A Grocery Store Walkthrough...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/09/04

Food technology is moving from farms and petrochemicals into bioreactors, fungi, engineered crops, and circular feedstocks. In this Grow Everything highlights episode, Erum Azeez and Karl Schmieder visit six stops across the grocery store to explore sweet proteins from Oobli, fermentation derived colorants from MycoFutures and Chromologics, the antioxidant rich purple tomato from Norfolk Healthy Produce, fungi based proteins from The Better Meat Co. and MyForest Foods, sargassum derived ingredients f

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00:55:50

196. Beyond the Red Tape: Greg Jaffe on Policy as an...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/08/28

Biotech is moving fast, but regulation, public trust, and infrastructure still shape how quickly new ideas reach the market. In this episode of Grow Everything, Greg Jaffe joins Karl Schmieder to explore the regulatory future of the bioeconomy, drawing on Greg’s experience in environmental law, consumer advocacy, and as the USDA’s chief regulatory officer. They discuss why founders need to think about regulatory strategy early, how production methods, product claims, and intended use can dramatically

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01:10:45

195. Because You’re Worth Biology: Olivier Rolland...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/08/21

Industrial biotechnology has enormous potential to create resilient supply chains, high performance ingredients, and a more sustainable bioeconomy, but good science alone is not enough. In this episode of Grow Everything, Karl and Erum speak with Olivier Rolland about the economic and industrial realities of scaling biology. Drawing on his experience across Michelin, TotalEnergies, Toulouse White Biotechnology, and L’Oréal, Olivier explains why biotech ventures must align sustainability, performance,

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01:12:52

194. Beauty Is in the AI of the Beholder: Debut’s...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/08/14

Joshua Britton, founder and CEO of Debut, joins Erum Azeez Khan and Karl Schmieder to explain why the future of molecular creation belongs to AI and biotechnology. Joshua shares how watching biologists create complex natural molecules in days inspired his shift from traditional chemistry and shaped Debut’s vertically integrated model for discovering, manufacturing, formulating, and commercializing high performance beauty ingredients. The conversation explores why technical breakthroughs alone do not

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00:54:22

193. The Full Color Spectrum: Nick Milne Ferments One...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/08/07

Nick Milne, founder of Octarine Bio, joins Grow Everything to unpack how biology can reshape the future of color. In this episode, Nick explains why synthetic dyes have dominated textiles for more than a century, why sustainability alone is not enough to drive adoption, and how Octarine is building bio based pigments that can compete on performance, price, and scale. The conversation explores the environmental and human health problems tied to petrochemical dyes, especially azo dyes used in polyester

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01:01:29

192. Reading Between the Dyes: Roya Aghighi Unlocks...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/07/31

Have you ever wondered why the color in your clothes can be so harmful to the environment? In this episode of the Grow Everything Podcast, Karl and Erum continue their BioDye series with Roya Aghighi, founder of Lite-1. Roya grew up in her mother’s fashion studio and later worked in the industry testing new materials, but she decided to leave after seeing the pollution caused by traditional dyeing methods. She explains how Lite-1 uses engineered microbes to produce colorful pigments through

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01:06:57

191. Beyond the Lab Bench: Karl & Erum on Human...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/07/24

With Episode 200 coming up, Karl and Erum switch roles and interview each other the way they usually interview their guests. Karl shares why he decided not to become a doctor, how interviewing bands in college taught him to connect with anyone, and what he learned about storytelling during a decade in public relations before starting Messaging Lab. Erum talks about her unexpected path from studying forensic chemistry and working in pharmaceutical labs to executive coaching, joining a startup accelera

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01:00:43

190. Pour Some Sugar on Yeast: Lisa Roessler Scales...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/07/17

Lisa Ressler has spent more than 35 years working in science-based businesses, including DuPont and Evonik, and now serves as Chief Commercial Officer at Amyris. In this conversation, she joins Karl and Erum to discuss where Amyris stands today, what the company learned from Chapter 11, and why returning its focus to B2B science was the right move. Lisa explains the company’s 1.5 million-liter fermentation facility in Barra Bonita, Brazil, its partnership with Wacker to develop bio-based personal

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00:48:34

189. Infinite Threads: Recycling Athleisure Waste...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/07/10

Vanessa Vongsouthi, Research Founder and Head of Bioengineering at Samsara Eco, joins host Erum on the Grow Everything Podcast to discuss how engineered enzymes and AI are making it possible to recycle textiles and plastics repeatedly. Vanessa explains how Samsara uses AI-assisted protein design and ancestral sequence reconstruction to create enzymes that break down complex polymers, including Nylon 6,6, into their original chemical building blocks. Those materials can then be returned to existing

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01:11:42

188. Which Came First: Chicken, Egg, or Medicine?...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/07/03

What happens when an evolutionary biologist and an aerospace engineer both arrive at the same conclusion — that the future of drug manufacturing isn't steel, it's biology? In this episode, Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan sit down with Sam Levin (Co-Founder & CTO) and Dimi Kellari (Co-Founder & CEO) of Neion Bio to unpack one of the most counterintuitive ideas in modern biomanufacturing: producing therapeutic medicines inside genetically engineered chicken eggs. Rather than optimizi

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01:19:40

187. One Small Step for a Microbe: Lynn Rothschild’s...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/06/26

What does it actually take to keep humans alive on Mars? Not the SpaceX version — the biology version. Dr. Lynn Rothschild, research scientist at NASA Ames and adjunct professor at Brown and Stanford, has spent decades at the intersection of astrobiology and synthetic biology, and her answer is both elegant and radical: life itself is the technology. On this episode, Karl and Erum sit down with one of the scientists who helped build NASA's synthetic biology program to talk about on-demand drug ma

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00:39:31

186. N.Y. Tech Week Live Demo: Engineering the Future...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/06/18

Recorded live at New York Tech Week, Karl and Erum sit down with Brenton Alexander (CTO at Roebling) to unpack one of the biggest bottlenecks in scaling “biology as technology”: figuring out what it really takes to design and finance physical infrastructure. Brenton walks through how Roebling uses AI alongside deterministic engineering models (physics/thermodynamics) to accelerate early facility design, generate capex/opex estimates with uncertainty ranges (not false precision), and help teams run sc

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01:19:04

185. Brick Happens: Chris Maurer of Redhouse Studio...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/06/12

What if the building you live in could be grown instead of built, feed people while it goes up, and lock away carbon for a century? Architect Chris Maurer of Red House Architecture and MycoHab joins Karl and Erum to explain how he turns 12 tons of invasive bush into mushrooms that feed a community and mycelium blocks that test stronger than concrete. He breaks down the now famous sledgehammer test, why a ductile living material survives the earthquakes that shatter cinder block, and the counterintuit

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01:13:54

184. The Multiverse of Microbes: Henry Lee on...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/06/05

Most of biotech runs on a tiny handful of "model" organisms — E. coli, baker's yeast — while millions of wild species sit unstudied in what scientists call microbial dark matter. In this episode, Karl and Erum sit down with Henry Lee, co-founder of Cultivarium, to explore why the future of synthetic biology depends on learning to grow, study, and engineer the organisms we've ignored. Henry breaks down the real difference between model and non-model organisms, why simply culturing a

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00:42:10

183. The American Biotech Blueprint: Senator Todd...

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/05/29

Senator Todd Young joins the Grow Everything podcast to discuss the critical intersection of biotechnology and national security, sharing how his military background, Indiana roots, and role as chairman of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology shaped his understanding of the bioeconomy as a strategic imperative. From DARPA's shelf-stable powdered blood to the America's Living Library Act — a first-of-its-kind effort to sequence the DNA of flora and fauna across US nationa

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00:54:12

182. SynBioBeta 2026 Recap, It's Biologist Approved

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast ·

2026/05/22

Karl and Erum are back from SynBio Beta 2026 in San Jose — and they brought home an Impact Award. In this special recap episode, they break down the biggest moments from the conference: Neon's audacious plan to engineer chicken eggs as bioreactors, P&G's push into bio ceramides with their Native brand, Twist Bioscience's expansion from DNA synthesis into proteins, and Anthropic's deepening footprint in pharma through its acquisition of Coefficient Bio and partnership with Eli Lill

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203 results

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