John Cumbers is back on the show to preview the annual SynBioBeta, the leading global conference for the synthetic biology crowd. This year’s show includes 18 tracks on AI, space, longevity, and DNA synthesis. Speakers will include Stephen Wolfram and Stephen Quake, who will discuss large language models and biology. While 2024 saw a total investment of over $6 billion (not as high as the pandemic year of 2021), John says the new technologies and startups keep coming. "We’re seeing just a ton of new entrepreneurs coming out of graduate and undergraduate programs and starting companies.” John is the founder and CEO of SynBioBeta which takes place May 6-9th in the San Jose Convention Center. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe