Andrew Hessel: Don’t Fear Synthetic Biology

Today I am very happy to have Andrew Hessel as my guest on Singularity 1 on 1. During the interview Andrew shares his truly infectious passion about synthetic biology and the unique opportunities that lie ahead of the budding first generation of DIY bio-hackers. We also discuss a variety of other interesting issues such as the singularity, religion, the promise of personalized medicine as cancer treatment, the risks and benefits of open-source synthetic-biology and the fact that biology is a dual-use technology. I have to admit that I was so infected by Andrew’s passion and his unique, open-source approach that I couldn’t help it but buy a 20 dollar share in the Pink Army Cooperative. Who is Andrew Hessel? Andrew Hessel co-chairs the Bioinformatics and Biotechnology track at the Singularity University, an institution founded by futurist Ray Kurzweil and X Prize Foundation CEO Peter Diamandis, with sponsorship from world-leading organizations that include Google, Autodesk, and NASA. He is also the founder of the Pink Army Cooperative, a venture exploring open source personalized cancer therapies. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Futurist Magazine, H+, and Wired News.