Galaxy Balance

Galaxy Balance

By Cory SmithScienceLife Sciences
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Galaxy Balance episodes

  • The Science and Choices Behind De-Extinction

    Ancient DNA can reveal how extinct species lived and evolved. New tools in genome engineering and reproductive biology may make it possible to recreate some of their traits, and to help endangered species adapt to changing environments.

    Beth Shapiro, evolutionary molecular biologist and chief science officer at Colossal Biosciences, joins Galaxy Balance to discuss what de-extinction means in practice. We explore how researchers select traits from mammoth and elephant genomes, engineer many edits in elephant cells, and use different approaches for mammals and birds. Beth also explains how her team weighs animal welfare and genetic risk, why the direwolves were given light coats through a safer genetic route, and how local communities, Indigenous groups, and regulators can shape conservation plans.

    The conversation covers the limits of ancient DNA, tools such as Genomorph, and the potential for technologies developed through de-extinction research to support biodiversity and conservation.

    00:43 — Introduction to Dr. Beth Shapiro and the promise of de-extinction

    01:55 — Beth’s path into ancient DNA and the appeal of reconstructing extinct worlds

    03:31 — Why ancient DNA inspired Jurassic Park, not the other way around

    04:20 — The first ancient-DNA breakthrough and the limits of recovering very old DNA

    06:39 — Why mammoths became a central de-extinction target

    08:50 — From early DNA sequencing to modern genomic tools

    12:04 — How mammoth traits are selected from elephant and mammoth genomes

    14:21 — Turning genetic differences into traits: hair, fat, ears, tails, and tusks

    17:12 — Multiplex editing: making many genetic changes at once

    19:29 — Genome integrity, off-target edits, and selecting healthy cell lines

    24:11 — From edited cells to animals: cloning mammals and engineering birds

    27:42 — The reproductive challenges of making mammoths and helping elephants

    30:40 — Advancing bird genetics for dodo, moa, and conservation work

    33:16 — Genetic rescue: engineering cane-toad-resistant quolls

    35:31 — Regulation, local communities, and responsible phased releases

    37:12 — Indigenous leadership and the moa restoration project

    39:29 — Beth’s proudest achievement: expanding genetic tools for birds

    44:06 — Can we restore traits without ancient DNA? The dire wolf example

    48:09 — Why dire wolves will not be released into the wild

    51:21 — Conservation over novelty: using genome editing to address biodiversity loss

    53:49 — The biggest remaining technological hurdles

    56:33 — “Playing God,” human responsibility, and shaping a biodiverse future

    58:05 — Science-fiction recommendations and the enduring warning of Jurassic Park


    1 hr 1 min
  • The Medicine of Human Contact

    Premature babies enter the world before many of their biological systems are ready, yet the technologies that keep them alive often separate them from their parents. Alon Metrikin-Gold, founder and CEO of NEOCare, is working to redesign neonatal care around connection.

    His team developed SKINcubator, a wearable medical device intended to enable immediate and prolonged skin-to-skin care for premature and medically fragile infants. The device maintains warmth and humidity while securing the baby and supporting the lines and tubes required in intensive care.

    In this episode, we explore why separation is not a neutral baseline, how physical contact affects stress regulation and development, and why parents should be treated as part of the clinical care team.

    00:00 - Introduction to Skincubator Neocare and the problem of prolonged skin-to-skin care

    01:11 - Alon’s background in women’s health and medical anthropology

    03:03 - The key insight: separation is the artificial state

    04:45 - WHO guidance versus actual NICU practice

    06:14 - What parents and nurses revealed about failed skin-to-skin care

    07:49 - Why extremely premature babies are so fragile

    09:46 - The early engineering idea: heat and humidity from the parent’s body

    10:43 - Six core design requirements for the first week of life

    11:42 - What “transfer” means in practice and why it is so stressful

    13:07 - Line safety, hypothermia, and why short sessions still fail

    14:32 - How the device maintains heat, humidity, safety, and access

    15:02 - Early clinical results and hours of skin-to-skin care achieved

    16:19 - Target population and why the first days of life matter most

    17:15 - Why NICU care often leaves parents unsure of their role

    18:12 - How the broader system is built around separation

    19:10 - Why skin-to-skin care is not just “nice,” but medically significant

    21:06 - Human connection as something technology should support, not replace

    22:04 - FDA breakthrough designation and what it means

    23:32 - Why better documentation of skin-to-skin care matters

    24:31 - How the device becomes a catalyst for protocol change

    26:35 - The biology of stress reduction, cortisol, and stabilization

    28:03 - Skin-to-skin care as preventative medicine and neurodevelopment support

    30:28 - Maternal and infant benefits, including feeding and sensory regulation

    31:25 - Designing as a producer, not an engineer, and listening to nurses

    32:47 - Building for two user groups at once: parents and nurses

    34:44 - How aesthetics, regulation, business model, and manufacturing all connect

    36:29 - Funding the company with angels and seed capital

    37:25 - Clinical expansion plans in Europe, Germany, Canada, Poland, Australia, and the US

    38:10 - Safety, feasibility, and randomized trials focused on increased contact time

    39:34 - Future outcome studies: baby, parent, nurse, hospital, and ROI measures

    41:50 - The long-term roadmap: connected care from delivery to discharge

    43:48 - Quantifying skin-to-skin barriers and the challenge of measurement

    44:46 - Why parents occupy both patient and labor roles in the NICU

    46:36 - Three strategic arcs: discharge, parent engagement, and low-resource settings

    47:14 - Parenting, stress, and the emotional reality of the NICU

    49:32 - Reimbursement, leave policies, and institutional barriers for families

    55:13 - Advice for medical device founders: solve the problem, not the idea

    56:42 - Why medical devices require technology, regulatory, and business model alignment

    57:30 - Collecting data early to validate the next step

    58:59 - Alon’s science fiction and urban fantasy recommendation

    1 hr 1 min
  • Can We Build Virus-Proof Life?

    What happens when scientists rewrite the genetic code that nearly all life on Earth shares?

    Dr. Akos Nyerges, a genome engineer and independent research group leader at Harvard Medical School, joins Galaxy Balance to explore the emerging world of synthetic genomes. His lab is engineering bacteria with altered genetic codes that can resist viral infection, restrict the exchange of genetic information, and incorporate chemical building blocks beyond biology’s standard 20 amino acids.

    Akos explains how these genetic firewalls could make engineered organisms safer for drug delivery, biomanufacturing, and environmental applications. We examine why large-scale genome rewriting often produces sick cells, how multi-omics can reveal hidden errors such as accidental promoters and mistranslated proteins, and how his team restored recoded bacteria to near-normal fitness.

    The conversation also explores AI-assisted genome design, cloud laboratories, engineered living medicines, horizontal gene transfer, the risks of mirror life, and the regulatory frameworks needed as synthetic biology moves toward increasingly ambitious forms of life.

    Could we create organisms isolated from the rest of nature? Can evolution overcome even our strongest genetic firewalls? And how close is modern genome engineering to becoming science fiction made real?

    00:00 Introduction
    01:16 Akos’s Path to Synthetic Biology
    03:59 Engineering the Genetic Code
    05:45 Three Goals for Synthetic Biology
    09:16 Controlling Horizontal Gene Transfer
    11:11 Building a Genetic Firewall
    13:39 Toxicity of Recoded tRNAs
    14:26 Drug Delivery and Bioremediation
    16:22 Solving the Fitness Problem
    18:35 Measuring Real Biological Fitness
    20:13 Testing Virus Resistance
    23:37 Why the Genetic Code Is Universal
    26:42 From Recoding to Applications
    28:52 Debugging Genomes With Multiomics
    31:15 Hidden Bugs in Genome Design
    35:33 AI for Genome Design
    37:51 Can LLMs Recode Genomes?
    40:06 Building Local AI Compute
    42:18 Cloud Labs and CROs
    45:52 From Lab to Commercial Use
    47:26 Translational Research and IP
    48:44 Expanding Biology’s Chemical Alphabet
    49:59 Ethics, Biosafety, and Regulation
    53:23 The Risks of Mirror Life
    57:37 When Science Fiction Becomes Real
    58:33 Closing and Hiring Announcement

    1 hr
  • Humanity May Become the Little Green Men

    If the universe contains billions of potentially habitable worlds, where is everybody?

    Dr. Terry Adair, author of Where Are the Little Green Men? The Adair Hypothesis, joins Galaxy Balance to examine the Fermi paradox through the lens of energy. His hypothesis proposes that an advanced technological civilization requires access to an abundant, dense, storable, transportable, and scalable energy supply.

    The conversation traces Earth’s energetic evolution from hydrothermal chemistry and photosynthesis to fire, fossil fuels, nuclear fission, and fusion. Terry explains how photosynthesis enabled complex life while also creating the ancient reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas that eventually powered industrial civilization. He argues that this unlikely sequence may represent a series of filters preventing intelligent life elsewhere from producing detectable technology or reaching other stars.

    We also explore the Drake equation, abiogenesis, the evolution of complex life, the technological limitations of ocean worlds, the challenges surrounding red dwarf stars, and the laws of thermodynamics that constrain every possible civilization. Terry outlines how fusion energy could eventually enable plasma drives, antimatter production, and spacecraft capable of reaching a meaningful fraction of the speed of light.

    The episode closes with an optimistic vision of humanity’s long-term future. If we continue expanding our scientific knowledge and energy capabilities, humans may eventually become the interstellar visitors that other civilizations look toward the sky hoping to find.

    00:00 - Why the Fermi paradox belongs at the center of this conversation

    03:37 - How Adair’s background led him to an energy-based hypothesis

    04:20 - What the Fermi paradox actually means

    08:14 - Drake equation, exoplanets, and the Great Filter

    10:23 - Why the Drake equation is a framework, not an exact answer

    11:47 - Why abiogenesis and intelligence are not the same question

    13:29 - Earth’s evolutionary milestones from microbes to technology

    15:10 - Why photosynthesis is the breaking point in life’s history

    18:28 - The difference between abundant energy and usable energy

    21:49 - Endosymbiosis, mitochondria, and the energy jump in complex life

    23:51 - Why CO2 is the raw material behind plant structure

    26:19 - How biomass became coal, oil, and natural gas

    29:25 - Where uranium and thorium come from

    31:46 - Why nuclear fusion is central to future civilization

    33:34 - Entropy, disorder, and why perpetual motion fails

    38:03 - The limits of fossil fuels and the case for nuclear fission

    40:02 - Weapons, waste, and why small modular reactors matter

    43:20 - The Adair Hypothesis, defined

    44:14 - Fire as humanity’s first technology

    47:27 - The photosynthetic trap and why fossil fuels changed civilization

    49:58 - How much energy humanity has burned in 200 years

    51:21 - Could an aquatic species build technology without fire?

    52:32 - From Democritus to quarks: what matter really is

    56:22 - Why energy access on Earth is still an equity issue

    58:51 - Antimatter, plasma drives, and propulsion limits

    62:47 - Why fusion-powered travel is a 300 to 400 year project

    64:21 - Humans as the future “little green men”

    65:21 - Why Star Wars is Adair’s favorite science fiction reference

    1 hr 8 min
  • Can We Make a Drug for One Person?

    What if we could design a medicine for a single person?

    Casey McPherson was a musician and songwriter when his daughter Rose was diagnosed with an ultra-rare neurogenetic disease. There was no approved treatment and no clear path forward. Rather than accepting that answer, Casey began learning genetics, building a network of scientists, and ultimately creating the infrastructure needed to develop a treatment for his daughter.

    Today, Casey is the CEO and co-founder of Alpha Rose Therapeutics, where his team is working to make individualized genetic medicine scalable. Their approach combines antisense oligonucleotides, patient-derived stem cells, AI-guided therapeutic design, automation, and a new economic model for diseases that traditional drug development often leaves behind.

    We discuss how Alpha Rose reduced a therapeutic amenability analysis that once took months to just minutes using AI, why Casey believes drug development should eventually be approved as a repeatable process rather than one drug at a time, and how point-of-care synthesis could allow personalized genetic medicines to be produced rapidly for individual patients.

    We also explore autonomous laboratories, AI scientists, patient-derived iPSCs and brain organoids, the economics of rare disease, genetic enhancement, and a future of medicine that looks increasingly like the sick bay of Star Trek: understand the unique biology of the patient, design the intervention, synthesize it, and treat them.

    Casey's story raises a much bigger question. Are rare diseases really rare, or are they the first glimpse of a future where every disease becomes individualized?

     

    00:00 - Casey McPherson’s path from musician to biotech founder

    01:38 - Childhood curiosity: music, programming, electronics, and biology

    04:16 - Rose’s diagnosis and the end of the traditional care pathway

    07:46 - Learning the problem was bigger than one child

    09:59 - Why a foundation and ecosystem had to come first

    11:27 - Why Rare Labs was built as a modality agnostic discovery lab

    12:24 - Why antisense oligonucleotides made sense for Rose

    13:22 - Designing and filtering thousands of ASO candidates

    15:13 - Building patient-specific iPSCs and brain organoids

    17:25 - Why animal models are mainly a safety tool

    20:06 - Why Alpha Rose became a public benefit corporation

    23:22 - Regulatory strategy and the path toward a small patient trial

    27:35 - How Casey learned drug development by doing

    30:30 - The AI amenability study workflow for new patients

    33:24 - Turning a rough AI prototype into a validated internal tool

    35:34 - Using the tool on every new drug and patient case

    36:31 - Why speed matters when families are waiting on treatment

    37:54 - Rare disease as a business model problem, not just a science problem

    43:02 - The next decade of individualized medicine

    44:27 - Process approval and point-of-care drug synthesis

    46:34 - Beyond rare disease: enhancement and broader applications

    48:24 - Why children’s health is so underfunded

    51:20 - Why precision medicines can lower development risk

    53:33 - Robotics and the fully automated lab of the future

    55:46 - Renee, conversational AI, and the scientist-as-assistant future

    56:54 - Science fiction influence and the Star Trek medicine model

    59:50 - Advice for families and scientists facing genetic disease

    1:02:21 - Closing thoughts on individualized disease

    1 hr 4 min
  • Clarice Aiello: The Hidden Quantum Physics of Biology

    Could life be using quantum physics to sense the world, regulate cellular processes, and respond to magnetic fields?

    Clarice Aiello is a quantum engineer, Chair of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer at the Quantum Biology Institute, and the founder of the former Quantum Biology Tech Lab at UCLA. Her research explores whether living systems harness quantum phenomena once considered too fragile to survive within warm, noisy cells.

    In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Clarice explains quantum tunneling, superposition, entanglement, and decoherence through the lens of biology. We discuss how electrons inside proteins may function as nature-made quantum sensors, how weak magnetic fields can influence cellular behavior, and whether engineered magnetic fields could eventually support wound healing, regeneration, and other forms of electromagnetic medicine.

    Clarice also describes the evidence that birds may use quantum sensing to navigate, why nature could teach us to build better quantum technologies, and how altered magnetic environments may affect organisms traveling to the Moon or Mars. We explore the scientific standards needed to move quantum biology into the mainstream, the limits of current evidence, and the possibility of creating a Star Trek-style tricorder that interacts with biology through precisely designed magnetic fields.

    The conversation closes with quantum literacy, science fiction, interdisciplinary research, and Clarice’s advice for the next generation of scientists entering one of biology’s strangest emerging frontiers.

    0:00 Clarice Aiello’s background and why quantum biology matters
    7:12 The long-term vision for magnetic-field-based therapeutics
    10:30 Why the field still lacks depth, breadth, and standards
    15:30 What quantum physics is, in plain language
    19:01 Superposition explained with dimmer-switch logic
    26:19 Why decoherence limits quantum effects in warm, wet cells
    29:27 What counts as evidence for quantum biology today
    32:24 Skepticism about entanglement, microtubules, and consciousness claims
    34:37 The double-slit experiment and why observation is often misunderstood
    37:11 Mars, the Moon, and why magnetic fields may matter for colonization
    41:37 How weak magnetic fields may work at the protein level
    44:36 Spin-dependent chemical reactions and biological branching
    53:14 Why Clarice thinks nature is effectively a quantum engineer
    58:13 Science fiction, Recursion, and what it gets right and wrong about observation
    59:05 Why quantum literacy should be part of basic education

    1 hr 7 min
  • Li Li: Rewiring Skin Aging With AI and mRNA

    00:00 - Introduction to Lily and GLife’s vision for data-driven dermatology

    01:20 - Lily’s scientific background

    02:43 - Breakthroughs from single-cell atlases

    03:50 - The motivation behind founding GLife

    04:50 - The importance of treating skin as a foundational organ

    05:48 - Discovery of key molecular drivers of aging

    06:22 - Challenges of fundraising

    07:45 - The novel approach to rejuvenating hair loss through targeted messenger RNA treatments

    08:53 - How treatments will be delivered via microneedles and micro patches

    09:32 - The potential to alter hair color and explore cosmetic applications

    10:06 - Balancing platform discovery engines with the development of first-in-class therapeutics

    10:43 - The comprehensiveness of the skin atlas and addressing genetic diversity

    11:39 - Technical challenges of capturing skin’s cellular heterogeneity and stem cell populations

    12:50 - The importance of isoforms and deep sequencing in understanding gene functions

    13:16 - Short-lived messenger RNA as a safe, reversible treatment modality

    14:55 - Safety considerations and toxicity management

    16:01 - Biodistribution studies and local micro-needle delivery safety

    17:00 - Next steps towards clinical trials and regenerative therapies for hair loss

    18:08 - The role of big data and omics in understanding skin disorders and aging

    19:04 - The significance of isoforms in skin biology and gene function

    20:13 - Endogenous vs. modified messenger design for safety and efficacy

    21:32 - Potential for multi-gene delivery to enhance hair regrowth and color restoration

    22:22 - Conception of patches that work with existing hair without shaving

    23:38 - Targeting broad hair loss types and the concept of root causes

    24:47 - Modeling hair loss with animal models and regulatory considerations

    25:48 - Regulatory perspectives on non-animal models and validation strategies

    26:34 - The interplay between genetic and environmental causes of skin aging

    27:54 - The biological hub role of specific transcription factors in stress and aging

    29:10 - The future of skin biomarkers for diagnosis and personalized health monitoring

    30:18 - Leveraging AI’s data integration and precision medicine in dermatology

    32:32 - The impact of protein isoforms and post-translational modifications in skin treatment

    34:47 - Interest in peptides, small molecules, and biohacking trends for skin health

    36:03 - Collaboration between wet labs, computational teams, and clinical partners

    36:36 - The significance of internal naming conventions in research and development

    37:28 - The high-throughput screening process for key transcription factors

    38:13 - Strategies for overexpressing target genes in therapeutic design

    39:00 - AI’s role in accelerating discovery and development pipelines in biotech

    40:39 - Addressing data quality, heterogeneity, and integration challenges in big datasets

    44:12 - Envisioning personalized skincare driven by genomics and AI

    44:56 - The inspiring concept that ancient technologies now seem like magic

    45:24 - Challenges in bringing novel dermatological treatments through trials and regulation

    47:42 - The evolving role of AI in drug quality control and documentation

    48:11 - Unique advantages of Lily’s targeted mRNA approach over other modalities

    49:22 - Using skin as a model system for broader human biology insights

    50:28 - Perspectives on epigenetic reprogramming and cellular re-differentiation

    51:22 - Fundraising experiences and strategic positioning for biotech development

    52:21 - The influence of science fiction, especially “Three Body Problem” and “Interstellar,” on Lily’s vision

    54:24 - Advice to young scientists: read widely, think deeply, and dream big

    58 min
  • Aditya Kunjapur: Bringing New Chemistry to Life

    What does it take to bring new chemistry to life?

    In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith speaks with Aditya Kunjapur, Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, about genetic code expansion, non-standard amino acids, engineered microbes, and the future of synthetic biology.

    Aditya’s lab explores how biology can be programmed to biosynthesize chemical groups that are rare or absent in nature, install those new building blocks into proteins, and make microbial survival depend on synthetic chemistry. The conversation moves from his early path through energy and chemical engineering, to his time in George Church’s lab, to the founding of Nitro Biosciences and the use of expanded genetic codes for next generation vaccine platforms.

    They discuss how non-standard amino acids can act as chemical flags for the immune system, how live microbes could produce antigens inside the body, and why genetic code expansion may open new approaches to vaccines, biocontainment, agriculture, environmental engineering, and planetary protection.

    The episode also explores synthetic auxotrophy, engineered microbial dependence, plant controlled microbial survival, plastic degradation, agricultural probiotics, bioenergy, AI tools for non-standard amino acids, and the science fiction lessons behind containment, from Jurassic Park to modern AI.

    This is a conversation about rewriting the language of life, not only to understand biology, but to give it new chemistry, new safeguards, and new possibilities.

    Timestamps:

    00:00 - Engineering microbes for space: Bacillus subtilis and biological containment
    02:28 - Aditya’s pathway into synthetic biology and innovative chemistry
    05:46 - Transitioning from industry internships to academia and entrepreneurship
    10:16 - Founding Nitro Biosciences: balancing entrepreneurship with academic research
    16:31 - Genetic code expansion and its potential to elicit immune responses
    22:41 - The scarcity and potential of non-standard amino acids in life
    27:26 - Detecting extraterrestrial life and the shared building blocks of biology
    36:49 - Synthetic oxytrophy and microbial biocontainment strategies
    44:01 - Reducing herbicide reliance with engineered microbes in agriculture
    52:53 - Computational tools and AI for non-standard amino acid research
    54:53 - Bioenergy and sustainability: bio-catalysis innovations
    59:08 - How science fiction influences bioengineering and AI safety considerations

    1 hr 4 min
  • Erik Aznauryan: Writing Genes at Scale

    Erik Aznauryan, CEO and co-founder of HarborSite, joins Galaxy Balance to explore the next frontier of genome engineering: moving beyond small edits and toward precise, large-scale DNA insertion. Erik traces his path from Armenia and medical school to Europe, the Church Lab, and eventually founding HarborSite with a mission to make gene insertion safer, more durable, and more programmable.

    The conversation dives into recombinases, safe harbor sites, payload size limits, delivery vehicles, in vivo validation, AI-driven protein engineering, and the therapeutic promise of inserting full genes or even entire genetic programs into the genome. Cory and Erik also discuss rare disease, cell therapy, skin and liver targeting, regulatory bottlenecks, animal models, funding shifts in biotech, and the long-term possibility of human enhancement in an age of AI.

    At the edge of science fiction and translational medicine, this episode asks what becomes possible when genome engineering evolves from editing biology to writing biology at scale

    00:00 — The North Star for genome engineering

    00:36 — Introduction to Erik and HarborSite

    01:39 — Erik’s path into science

    02:36 — Early fascination with cloning and genome engineering

    03:21 — Cory’s own early inspiration

    04:03 — Why genome engineering matters

    05:24 — Ethical questions around germline engineering

    06:37 — Why early-stage intervention matters

    07:51 — Technical progress and disease-specific editing

    09:25 — Why HarborSite was founded

    10:50 — Recombinases as the core technology

    12:15 — Engineering recombinases for new DNA targets

    13:12 — Novel genomic safe harbors

    14:18 — How safe harbors are selected and validated

    15:36 — How much target specificity can be changed?

    16:36 — Why lifelong expression matters

    17:29 — Testing durability in culture and in vivo

    18:26 — The appeal of the albumin locus

    19:15 — Endogenous production of biologics

    20:59 — Startup challenges and fundraising

    22:28 — Why LabCentral is valuable

    23:07 — AI BioHub and large proprietary datasets

    24:08 — AI’s role in model development

    25:11 — Practical uses of AI in biotech startups

    26:51 — How the team handles data analysis

    27:56 — What the therapeutic product looks like

    28:52 — First target tissues: liver and T cells

    30:27 — Testing off-target integration

    31:27 — Balancing specificity and efficiency

    32:24 — Lessons from CAR-T and random integration

    33:40 — Why recombinase systems may be safer

    34:39 — Payload size and delivery constraints

    35:35 — Delivery strategies under consideration

    38:09 — Simpler donor DNA formats

    39:38 — Platform company and therapeutic company

    40:59 — The key milestone: in vivo validation

    41:48 — HarborSite’s pre-seed raise

    43:05 — How VC expectations have shifted

    44:26 — Choosing the right in vivo model

    46:22 — The continued importance of mouse studies

    48:23 — Global regulatory differences

    50:10 — Science funding in the U.S.

    52:40 — Synthetic biology in space

    54:34 — Enhancement and self-directed health

    57:40 — Science fiction and inspiration

    59:34 — Advice for young scientists

    60:31 — Closing remarks

    1 hr 1 min
  • Intertwined Biosciences: Engineering Evolution for Human Health

    Max Rye and Evan Appleton of Intertwined Bio join Galaxy Balance to explore one of the boldest ideas in modern biology: borrowing nature’s most extreme traits and translating them into human health.

    From horses that resist liver cirrhosis to naked mole rats, bowhead whales, radiation resistant organisms, hibernating animals, and the future of humans in space, this conversation asks what becomes possible when evolution itself becomes a design library. Max and Evan explain how Intertwined Bio is using synthetic biology, gene editing, AI, virtual macrophages, and agentic systems to identify traits from extraordinary animals and test whether those adaptations can be engineered into human cells.

    We discuss liver fibrosis, DNA damage repair, innate immune engineering, longevity, space radiation, de extinction, Colossal Biosciences, the future of virtual cells, and the ethical line between therapy and enhancement.

    This is a conversation about turning science fiction into biology.

    00:00 - Introduction to Intertwined Bio and their innovative approach

    01:01 - The origins and motivations of Max and Evan in biotech

    04:56 - Scientific foundation: Borrowing traits from long-lived and resilient animals

    07:16 - Why now? Recent technological advances enabling these innovations

    10:46 - Role of AI in understanding complex biological systems and virtual cell modeling

    14:17 - Delivery strategies for genetic modifications in humans

    18:19 - Regulatory pathways and ethical boundaries in gene editing

    22:25 - The potential of junk DNA variants and regulatory engineering

    27:09 - The potential impact on sports animals and broader applications

    31:12 - Industry landscape, collaboration, and competition

    33:21 - Building a startup: team dynamics, trust, and early steps

    35:58 - Insights on other biotech ventures like AstroMech and their directions

    38:39 - Space applications: radiation resistance, hibernation, and life support systems

    43:01 - Prioritizing targets using AI and high-throughput screening

    48:31 - Broader prospects: aging, longevity, and the OZEMPIC effect

    52:44 - Focus on innate immune system engineering and virtual cell development

    57:15 - Strategies for macrophage gene editing and cell type targeting

    1:01:36 - Bottlenecks in lab throughput and cell growth limitations

    1:04:30 - The influence of science fiction on biotech innovation and ethical outlooks

    1:06:14 - Closing thoughts: science fiction as inspiration and the rapid transition of ideas into reality

    1 hr 8 min

About Galaxy Balance

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Galaxy Balance explores the frontier where biology, technology and consciousness meet. Each episode brings together pioneers shaping our collective future, from genome engineers and AI builders to…