About this episode
<p>George Church is the godfather of modern synthetic biology and has been involved with basically every major biotech breakthrough in the last few decades.</p><p>Professor Church thinks that these improvements (e.g., orders of magnitude decrease in sequencing & synthesis costs, precise gene editing tools like CRISPR, AlphaFold-type AIs, & the ability to conduct massively parallel multiplex experiments) have put us on the verge of some massive payoffs: de-aging, de-extinction, biobots that combine the best of human and natural engineering, and (unfortunately) weaponized mirror life.</p><p>Watch on <a target="_blank" href="https://youtu.be/olmHHxFQwxo">YouTube</a>; listen on <a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dwarkesh-podcast/id1516093381?i=1000714690480">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a target="_blank" href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/7i0apPkNdLsZPfUulrAzHu?si=d3e1c0312c0c4a9b">Spotify</a>.</p><p><strong>Sponsors</strong></p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://workos.com/radar">WorkOS Radar</a> ensures your product is ready for AI agents. Radar is an anti-fraud solution that categorizes different types of automated traffic, blocking harmful bots while allowing helpful agents. Future-proof your roadmap today at <a target="_blank" href="https://workos.com/radar">workos.com/radar</a>.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://scale.com/dwarkesh">Scale</a> is building the infrastructure for smarter, safer AI. In addition to their Data Foundry, they recently released Scale Evaluation, a tool that diagnoses model limitations. Learn how Scale can help you push the frontier at <a target="_blank" href="https://scale.com/dwarkesh">scale.com/dwarkesh</a>.</p><p>* <a target="_blank" href="https://aistudio.google.com/https://aistudio.google.com/">Gemini 2.5 Pro</a> was invaluable during our prep for this episode: it perfectly explained complex biology and helped us understand the most important papers. Gemini’s recently improved structure and style also made using it surprisingly enjoyable. Start building with it today at <a target="_blank" href="https://aistudio.google.com">https://aistudio.google.com</a></p><p>To sponsor a future episode, visit <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dwarkesh.com/advertise">dwarkesh.com/advertise</a>.</p><p><strong>Timestamps</strong></p><p>(0:00:00) – Aging solved by 2050</p><p>(0:07:37) – Finding the master switch for any trait</p><p>(0:19:50) – Weaponized mirror life</p><p>(0:30:40) – Why hasn’t sequencing/synthesis led to biotech revolution?</p><p>(0:50:26) – Impact of AGI on biology research progress</p><p>(1:00:35) – Biobots that use the best of biological and human engineering</p><p>(1:05:09) – Odds of life in universe</p><p>(1:09:57) – Is DNA the ultimate data storage?</p><p>(1:13:55) – Curing rare diseases with genetic counseling</p><p>(1:22:23) – NIH & NSF budget cuts</p><p>(1:25:26) – How one lab spawned 100 biotech companies</p> <br/><br/>Get full access to Dwarkesh Podcast at <a href="https://www.dwarkesh.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4">www.dwarkesh.com/subscribe</a>