The New Biology

Niko McCarty
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Life Sciences

The New Biology features long-form discussions with historians, technologists, and scientists who are working on some of the biggest ideas in biotechnology, from magnet-controlled medicines to virtual cells. Supported by Astera Institute.

Episodes

  1. Magnet-Controlled Medicines — Andrew York & Maria Ingaramo

    1d ago

    Magnet-Controlled Medicines — Andrew York & Maria Ingaramo

    Nonfiction Laboratories is building a technology called “magnetogenetics” that promises to control proteins inside the body — such as antibodies or enzymes — using small magnets. In this episode, co-founder Maria Ingaramo and scientific advisor Andrew York explain how they engineered a protein, MagLOV, that responds strongly to magnetic fields, why most prior attempts have failed to replicate, and how the mechanism of magnetically-controlled proteins actually works. They also get into the “dream” use cases, like cancer drugs that activate only at the tumor, which might have a lower toxicity inside the body.  This podcast is made possible by Astera Institute. Notes from our discussion: https://nikomc.com/essays/protein-magnets.html 00:00 - Opening 00:54 — Introduction 01:35 — The dream 05:38 — Why magnets vs. light or ultrasound 10:05 — The physics 17:48 — On the name "magnetogenetics" 21:25 — Birds and cryptochromes 27:09 — Why is the field filled with so much junk? 29:51 — Adam Cohen's molecule 33:24 — Markus Meister’s debunking 38:06 — The experiment 46:22 — Finding the LOV domain 54:11 — Singlets, triplets, and cysteine 56:54 — What the magnet is actually doing 1:05:13 — The conformational-change red herring 1:12:46 — The Quantum Biology Institute 1:19:31 — Founding Nonfiction Labs 1:24:38 — How to convince skeptical investors 1:29:39 — What a magnetogenetic medicine might look like 1:38:50 — First clinical indications 1:45:12 — The regulatory path 1:48:01 — What the field needs 1:54:30 — Appendix: Whiteboard lecture

    2h 8m
  2. Mark Budde - How to speed up wet-lab biology

    May 8

    Mark Budde - How to speed up wet-lab biology

    Plasmidsaurus took plasmid sequencing from $600 to $15 and turned a "boring" service company idea into a hugely successful company serving 70,000+ scientists. In this episode, CEO Mark Budde and Niko McCarty get into the bigger question: what does it take for companies to automate and scale wet-lab biology methods in the same way that Plasmidsaurus did for sequencing? They cover the early Oxford Nanopore bet, the obsession with speed, and why Mark won’t sell customer data to AI labs.  This podcast is made possible by Astera Institute.

    58 min
  • 2 Episodes

About

The New Biology features long-form discussions with historians, technologists, and scientists who are working on some of the biggest ideas in biotechnology, from magnet-controlled medicines to virtual cells. Supported by Astera Institute.

Information

  • Creator
    Niko McCarty
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    2
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Niko McCarty

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