Matt Hill, CEO and Founder of Elegen
Chapters:
0:00 Why Elegen? Because we’re not good at long DNA today, says Matt.
7:10 Saw the need firsthand at Natera
15:00 Leading the DNA industry in scale and accuracy
21:22 Why would customers maintain their own bio foundry at this point? Any reasons beyond scale?
24:00 Unlocking a revolution in biology in tandem with the revolution in AGI
Long DNA has arrived. Elegen, a new company based in San Carlos, California, is out this year offering just long DNA. According to their founder and CEO, Matt Hill and today's guest, the company’s product is twenty times more accurate than anything else presently available.
What does this mean for the world of biology and the world in general that we're seeing the emergence of a new subindustry devoted specifically to long DNA?
“Our vision is to unlock the programming of biology. Long DNA—something that constitutes a full program—is slow, expensive, and cumbersome to build today,” says Matt.
Formerly at the DNA testing company, Natera, Matt dramatically improved the scale for some of the company’s assays. In working on these projects, Matt saw the need for a company that would provide longer DNA directly. The idea behind Elegen is that companies--and there are many in today's world from therapeutics to synthetic biology to agriculture-- should not be spending their time building DNA. Elegen can provide it at any length. Matt says it is long DNA at scale, at high accuracy, and at quick turnaround times that will unlock the coming revolution in synthetic biology as well as so many other applications which involve the programming of cells.
When will that happen? Matt gives his best guest at the end of today's show.
