Welcome to Carbon13’s podcast “Climate Takes” where we ask special guests for their “takes” on their industry and climate challenge, as well as setting a call to action, asking what will it take to solve the climate emergency?

In this episode we’re looking at synthetic biology, which sounds simple: it means engineering organisms to have new functions. But it’s not a peripheral technology, it is predicted to be one of the 21st century’s most disruptive technologies on a scale similar to AI. The current bioeconomy is already $4 trillion, and it's projected to hit $30 trillion by 2050.

But like AI, synbio has a lot of challenges, and there’s a graveyard of startups in this sector. In this episode, Tim Corcoran and Manuel Rios of Deep Blue Biotech give us their takes on why startups have struggled, and yet, why synbio could be so significant for human progress.

Subscribe to Climate Takes to find more content on founding and investing in climatetech, with Takes on green chemicals, innovative materials, AI, and hard won lessons in climate entrepreneurship.