We hope to cultivate a clearer understanding of the technologies, organizations and producers that are working together to create a “climate-smart” future for agriculture. Speakers include executives & sustainability leaders from the Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) (Debbie Reed), EarthOptics (Lars Dyrud), Continuum Ag (Mitchell Hora), and Vence (Kevin Silverman).

iSelect Venture Associate Tom Bunn is joined by Dr. Brianna Stubbs of Buck Institute for Research on Aging, Dr. Thomas Perls, Director, New England Centenarian Study and Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and Dr. Christopher Rhodes of Davis, California Startup, Innate Biology.

Research over the past few decades on aging and longevity has come to the surprising revelation that aging is a disease in and of itself, upstream of many of the most common causes of mortality. Breakthroughs in laboratories and clinics are being shown to stop and even reverse the aging process. During this Deep Dive we discuss the emerging technologies and lifestyle changes that are at the forefront of this exciting topic.

From fruits and vegetables, to tree nuts and flowers, specialty crops are different from other agricultural products. For one thing they are typically sold at a premium, due to their higher nutritional value and better taste. At the same time, they represent the next stage in development of the agricultural system, bringing these products to a wider range of potential customers and at lower cost.

Listen to the second in our two-part series on specialty crops, in which we will highlight the startups and technologies that are changing the industry for the better.

Synthetic DNA is used in many cutting edge technologies from industrial biotech, to medicine, agriculture and beyond. However, synthetic DNA's potential has not been fully realized due to the inefficient, 30+ year old method of chemically synthesizing DNA. The current process is limited in output to relatively short DNA sequences and its purity is often less than ideal. In contrast, iSelect portfolio company, Molecular Assemblies, is pioneering a state of the art enzymatic DNA synthesis technology that can scale to produce longer synthetic DNA, which can unlock advances in many different fields.

Hear about Molecular Assemblies and the end markets that its enzymatic DNA synthesis technology unlocks. We will be joined by Molecular Assemblies CEO Mike Kamdar, Codexis President & CEO John Nicols, and guests who are potential customers of synthetic DNA.