I'm back from last week's Built with Biology conference.

Here's a few key takeaways from people I saw on stage and spoke to.

Tom Baruch, a seasoned entrepreneur and venture capitalist, began shifting his VC practice from materials science, IT, and biotechnology to the then-nascent field of synthetic biology in 1997. Over the years, he has funded more than 12 synthetic biology companies and has an enviable track record, never losing money and exiting at 5x to double-digits in as little as 18 months.

Once you’ve engineered your microorganism to produce your billion-dollar molecule, how are you going to scale up production?

In 2020, A16Z’s Vijay Pande and Judy Savitskay wrote a paper called, The Biggest Open Opportunity in Synthetic Biology, listing out the need for novel bio-manufacturing platforms.