Episode 6
5. Dreaming in Biology: Tales from the Ginkgo Bioworks Studio
Cas Smith is the Director of Creative Marketing at Ginkgo Bioworks. He helps to make synthetic biology accessible to more people in a variety of industries. On this episode, Cas shares with Erum and Karl how synthetic biology is already making an impact on our world and also how Ginkgo plans to…
Show notes
Cas Smith is the Director of Creative Marketing at Ginkgo Bioworks. He helps to make synthetic biology accessible to more people in a variety of industries. On this episode, Cas shares with Erum and Karl how synthetic biology is already making an impact on our world and also how Ginkgo plans to expand that footprint by informing and engaging other industries like pharmaceuticals and government. Cas also covers different ways that synthetic biology can help various sectors as well as what problem he’d tackle first if he was starting a synthetic biology startup.
In this episode you’ll learn
- 00:00 - Introduction
- 00:58 - The background and history of Ginkgo
- 03:45 - What “Grow Everything” means to Cas Smith
- 04:48 - Helping everyday people understand the power of synthetic biology
- 07:49 - Relating synthetic biology to the pharmaceutical industry
- 11:17 - The challenges Ginkgo faces communicating to a broad audience.
- 13:03 - The types of companies that synthetic biology can benefit
- 16:50 - How self-programming uses genes to produce specific proteins, enzymes, or molecules
- 18:25 - How biobricks are used to assemble larger “circuits” that perform a specific function
- 19:17 - The different teams and functions within Ginkgo
- 23:39 - Why Cas is excited about exposing new people to the potential of synthetic biology
- 28:57 - The reason young people and kids are important to the adoption and evolution of synthetic biology
- 31:50 - The different companies that Ginkgo supports
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Topics: bioeconomy, biomanufacturing, Biotechnology, synthetic biology, entrepreneurship, biotech platform, platform technology, biotech ideas, creative communication, marketing, science education, science communication, New York Biotech, New Bio City, Genspace
About Grow Everything
Grow Everything reveals the world of biology as technology. Hosts Erum Azeez Khan and Karl Schmieder talk with the founders, scientists, and executives biologizing entire industries — biomaterials from waste, precision fermentation, cultivated food — and unpack how the bioeconomy is solving health and climate challenges. Winner of SynBioBeta's 2026 Impact Award.