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.

Captain Underpants is not a name generally associated with biotechnology. Yet, this wildly successful (70 million copies sold worldwide) series of children’s novels may be the first exposure many children have to biotech. Probably, it won’t be their last.