In this special Grow Everything episode swap with The Climate Biotech Podcast, Erum and Karl introduce a mind-blowing conversation with the one and only George Church. If you’re into synthetic biology, you already know he’s a legend—co-founding 50+ biotech companies and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with DNA. In this episode, George talks about scaling microscopic innovations to solve massive global challenges—think rewilding ecosystems, bio-mining for new molecular tools, and engineering biology to fight climate change. He even throws out wild ideas like testing space colonies on Earth before heading to Mars. Stick around after the episode for Erum and Karl’s takeaways and a heads-up on a funding opportunity from Homeworld Collective!
Grow Everything brings the bioeconomy to life. Hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories and interview the leaders and influencers changing the world by growing everything. Biology is the oldest technology. And it can be engineered. What are we growing?
Learn more at www.messaginglab.com/groweverything
Chapters:
00:00:00 – Microscopic, but make it massive
00:00:17 – Erum and Karl are back—let’s grow everything
00:00:36 – The Homeworld Collective: where biotech meets climate
00:01:44 – Enter George Church (yes, that George Church)
00:03:34 – From river dolphins to rewriting life—George’s early days
00:05:25 – Synthetic biology’s glow-up (and growing pains)
00:07:18 – Climate biotech: hurdles, hype, and huge potential
00:11:32 – Can biotech be infinitely scalable and atomically precise?
00:21:36 – Inorganic synthetic biology: when life meets metal
00:24:50 – Biotech's biggest climate bets—what’s next?
00:27:02 – Genetic engineering, but make it ecosystem-sized
00:29:04 – Space colonies on Earth? Let’s test before Mars
00:37:26 – Rapid-fire Q&A—George Church vs. the audience
00:39:49 – Curiosity is the best lab equipment—George’s advice
00:42:26 – Final thoughts from Karl and Erum, next steps, and a funding opportunity
Links and Resources:
Topics Covered:
Genetic engineering, biotech, bioeconomy, research and development, climate biotechnology
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Email: groweverything@messaginglab.com
Music by: Nihilore
Production by: Amplafy Media
