This is the 11th episode of 16 Minutes, a weekly show where we quickly cover the top headlines of the week, the a16z Podcast way: why are these topics in the news; what’s real, what’s hype — from our vantage point in tech.
This week, we do a 20-ish minute deep-dive on CRISPR, to tease apart the FUD from the facts given a bunch of recent news (not research!) around the gene-editing platform. The news implications range from policy to practice:
Finally, how does all this news affect innovation in gene therapies and other applications? When it comes to engineering the genome — including tech challenges and startup opportunities — what might we borrow from the history of innovation here? If CRISPR is not a single tool or set of proteins but a platform, what becomes possible? General partner Jorge Conde and partner Andy Tran, both of the a16z bio team, share their thoughts on all this and more with host Sonal Chokshi in this episode of 16 Minutes.
Jorge Conde is a general partner on the Bio + Health team at Andreessen Horowitz, focused on therapeutics, diagnostics, life sciences tools, and software.
Andy Tran is a Principle at Matrix Capital Management Company.
Sonal Chokshi is Editor in Chief of Crypto at Andreessen Horowitz.
16 minutes is a short news podcast covering the top headlines of the week, separating what’s real from what’s hype.