Beyond the Biotek 43 podcast

This week’s podcast is sponsored by Scientist.com.

The mainstream media in recent months has caught on to artificial intelligence (AI). Coverage doesn’t really concentrate on the use, more highlights potential for conflict, and the fear of AI evolving too quickly, or ‘taking over humanity.’

Debates have sprung up around deepfakes, ChatGPT, and other AI technologies. There are also concerns about how new technology will impact our daily lives. The debate covers ethics, regulation, law, education; AI and the future seem to be intertwined.

In fact, artificial intelligence has been around for quite some time. It has evolved, and its potential uses have grown, to the point where it is more of a highlight nowadays. There are many positives to AI, and the life sciences are no exception. We now have the potential to analyze more data. And there is real potential for identifying new drugs and drug targets. Of course, AI has other applications in science, such as climate change and sustainability, and food technology.

AI and machine learning are just a few of the topics Labiotech discussed in an extensive conversation with Mark Kotter, CEO of a British biotech company bit. bio.

bit. bio

bit.bio is a synthetic biology company providing human cells for research, drug discovery, and cell therapy. The company applied a safe harbor gene targeting approach to express a combination of inducible transcription factors that reprogram human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into highly defined and mature human cell types.

The company is currently establishing clinical channels and marketing various cell and disease models for research and drug discovery under the ioCells brand. This includes nerve cells, immune cells and muscle cells.

bit.bio was dropped from the University of Cambridge in 2016. Since then it has raised $150 million in capital from Arch Ventures, Foreste Capital, Milky Way, Charles River Laboratories, National Resilience, Tencent, and Puhua Capital, among others.