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Kevin Holden is the Head of Synthetic Biology at Synthego. Mr. Holden holds a PhD in Microbiology from University of California, Davis. He has over 10 years of experience in the biotechnology arena, with specific study and research in synthetic biology as well as in engineering, notably—metabolic pathways in microbes.
Synthego's primary work is focused in software and synthetic RNA kits designed for CRISPR genome research and editing. Synthego uses AI and machine learning to assist researchers and developers with automation for genome engineering that provides for efficient research with consistent results, at a price point that allows for savings. With a strong background in engineering, Synthego's team applies engineering principles to synthetic biology practices, especially for gene editing.
Holden's company, Synthego, works with hardware and software and utilizes advanced machine learning to assist in research platforms and technology, such as the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology. CRISPR is the acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, which are the distinctive feature of a complete bacterial defense system and the foundation for CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology. Synthego's hardware platform allows for the synthesization of RNA, to guide CRISPR technology to a specific place on the genome in order to make an edit. Holden discusses how Synthego's automation allows scientists to skip steps traditionally needed for method development and thus focus their efforts more immediately on their actual research, as Synthego can provide gene edited cells directly to them.
The synthetic biology expert explains some of the various areas that his company is currently focused on. In particular, Holden's team is very excited about the potential for their work to be of particular use to researchers working with monogenic, or single gene, diseases, including single gene mutations. Miraculously, cells can be extracted from a patient, edited, tested, and then ex vivo transplanted back into a patient to cure the disease. Edited, corrected cells, once implanted into the patient then grow new cells void of the mutation that was once causing the disease.
Holden also provides a detailed analysis of their work in the amazing area known as CAR T-cell therapy. CAR T-cell therapy is the process in which a patient's immune system cells, or T cells, are edited so they will then begin to attack cancer cells upon reintroduction into the body.
As the microbiology PhD explains, enabling scientists to obtain gene-edited cells for research will greatly facilitate, and accelerate, the complex study of disease and thus allow for new therapies to become available to the public sooner. Synthego's tech decreases time ordinarily spent on model building so scientists' efforts go directly into the research. And Holden explains how AI algorithms are best utilized within large data sets in order to train models.
But perhaps one of the most significant uses of this technology will be in the breeding of plants, to engineer them to produce more efficiently, become resistant to disease and even drought, and thus aid in providing needed food for the world. With so many uses for synthetic biology practices and gene editing, it's clear that engineering-based companies such as Synthego will be riding the wave of many coming breakthroughs in medicine and science for years to come.
Christopher Brown is the author of Tropic of Kansas, a dystopian novel that was a finalist for the 2018 Campbell Award for the best science fiction novel of the year. His novel Rule of Capture, the beginning of a series of speculative legal thrillers, is forthcoming from Harper in 2019.
He was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for the anthology Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic. His short fiction and essays have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies. He lives in Austin, Texas, where he also practices technology law.
David J. Gunkel (PhD) is an award-winning educator, scholar and author, specializing in the study of information and communication technology with a focus on ethics. Formally educated in philosophy and media studies, his teaching and research synthesize the hype of high-technology with the rigor and insight of contemporary critical analysis.
He is the author of over 50 scholarly journal articles and book chapters, has written and published 7 influential books, lectured and delivered award-winning papers throughout North and South America and Europe, is the managing editor and co-founder of the International Journal of Žižek Studies and co-editor of the Indiana University Press series in Digital Game Studies.
He currently holds the position of Professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University (USA), and his teaching has been recognized with numerous awards, including NIU's Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the prestigious Presidential Teaching Professor.
Rise Housing is a social impact company using cryptocurrency (RSE) to tokenize buildings. Rise Housing allows tenants and everyday investors to be able to buy equity in real estate, one token at a time, without any lending or interest rates involved. The platform creates liquidity for the current asset owners of large, multifamily buildings, without enduring the expense and wasted time of the traditional selling process.
A currency is only as strong as its circulation and what it is backed by, and our security token will not only be used by large real estate investors looking for a leaner way to liquidate, but we are positioned to be in the hands of otherwise disengaged tenants and small investors, creating high transaction volume in a new global asset class.
The Reverse Logistics Association is a member-driven, global trade group for the returns and reverse logistics industry, offering information, research, solutions, and services for Manufacturers Branded, and Retail companies from Third Party Providers. Our goal is to educate and inform Reverse Logistics professionals around the world, and be the voice of the returns and reverse industry.
The RLA focuses on all industries in the reverse logistics process, and our goal is to provide RL process knowledge. We want to educate everyone about the reverse logistics processes that are common to all industries.
Bloomio is working on redesigning the venture capital industry. Bloomio provides a crowdfunding platform, that connects early-stage startups with individual investors and venture funds. The platform allows startup founders to raise capital by tokenizing equity and gives investors a possibility to trade startup stakes through a secure blockchain-based marketplace.
Traditional VC investors mainly focus on larger deal sizes of more than $100K, leaving small room for individual investors to enter the early stage startup market. Bloomio's vision is to disrupt the traditional fund-raising model for startups by enabling individual investors to tap into the venture capital arena with a small ticket size starting from just around a hundred dollars.
To enter the platform, startups must either undergo a scoring process by 3rd party analysts or make specific disclosures so as to provide enough information to potential investors. Once listed on the Bloomio platform, a startup, instead of pitching VCs, can start its next investment round in just one mouse click, saving precious time and efforts for other tasks.
Marshall Greenwald - CEO at Craypay joins Future Tech Podcast. CrayPay is a mobile payment app that will soon allow you to earn and use cryptocurrency tokens, called CrayCoins, at more than 50,000 retail locations across the United States.
CrayPay already pays a portion of each of your purchases, but you'll also be able to earn an additional 10% of the retail price back in CrayCoins.
CrayCoins will be earned by spending within the CrayPay app, and it will be possible to use them for purchases in-store and online across 120+ national brand partners including AMC Theatres, American Eagle, Best Buy, Chili's, Domino's, GAP, Lowe's, Outback Steakhouse, and Sears.
Matteo Lai, Co-founder and CEO of Empatica (empatica.com), a medical technology startup, provides an insightful overview of the diagnostic and predictive capabilities of machine learning-based products. Specifically, Lai details the advances in tech for medical products that can allow individual patients or sufferers to get an early warning that a medical emergency or situation is beginning.
Mr. Lai studied engineering and architecture and he holds dual masters in architecture and innovation management from the Alta Scuola Politecnica. Additionally, Lai co-founded Taaac, a design innovation startup, and has been intimately involved in sundry engineering, architecture, and design innovation projects internationally.
Lai's company, Empatica, co-founded by Dr. Rosalind Picard, director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, was conceived rather organically. Lai recounts how Picard's experimental research in autism provided a breakthrough that stimulated further research into epilepsy seizure detection. While working with autism sufferers attached to sensors, a particular individual experienced a seizure and the sensors reacted immediately, thus initiating Picard and Lai's continued research into the predictive technology behind Empatica's products. Empatica's "Embrace" product is a wearable band that uses advanced machine learning to recognize convulsive seizures and send appropriate alerts to responsible parties who can respond. Through the capture of specific information such as high frequency movement, heart rate, and sympathetic responses, Lai's sensors' algorithms can make the assessment, in real time, that a seizure is beginning.
As their technology evolves, Lai expects that their products will allow sufferers to actually receive predictions of adverse reactions on the horizon. In regard to seizure detection, a user might be able to procure data from their Empatica product that predicts, via its machine learning, whether a seizure might occur within a certain future time frame. Much like a weather forecast, the Empatica product may be able to provide a user with a percentage of probability such that the user can make plans accordingly. Empatica's product is the smallest design of its kind and is the first medical grade, geolocation-enhanced, wearable product for epilepsy sufferers.
The medical tech CEO discusses how his company is focused on challenging neurological diseases, conditions, and disorders, such as epilepsy and autism, stress and depression. By using sensors and predictive technology, sufferers, and their caregivers, can better prepare for events or medical emergencies, thus providing some peace of mind for all involved.
Monarch is an all-inclusive platform for the modern consumer, investor, and merchant! A simple to use and easy to understand fiat to the crypto solution right in the palm of your hand. You can pay your monthly recurring bills, buy and sell crypto at the best rates, keep track of all your passwords all from your phone. Monarch's security tokens are backed by physical silver as well to ensure real-world value. For people who buy the security tokens, the tokens get airdropped a utility token for free and receive weekly dividends, forever.
Shidan Gouran - CEO & President at Global Blockchain technology corps joins Future Tech Podcast. Global Blockchain is an investment company that provides investors access to a mixture of assets in the blockchain space, strategically chosen to balance stability and growth. Blue chip holdings such as Ethereum and Bitcoin are complemented by best-of-breed "smaller cap" crypto holdings, many of which are not yet available to other investors.
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