#95: Are We Finally Able to Upgrade Our Microbiome?

In Episode 95, Quinn & Brian ask: Are we finally able to upgrade our microbiome (also, what’s a microbiome (also, why does it need upgrading))? Our guest is: Raja Dhir, Co-Founder of Seed, a microbiome company pioneering the application of bacteria for both human and planetary health. He leverages years of expertise translating scientific research for product development to lead Seed’s R&D, academic collaborations, technology development, clinical trial design, supply chain, and intellectual property strategy. So, what is a microbiome? Overly simply put, it’s the 38,000,000,000,000 little guys in and on your body that help you do stuff; the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses that work symbiotically and allow us to function. Interest in the field grew rapidly around 2015, but Raja thought the rate of innovation and commercial response was lacking, not to mention the science behind many of the products that were being created. So Seed leveraged the “foundry model” to support many startups in the field, driving innovations in everything from immunology to hygiene to cancer treatments while performing trials that were scientifically sound and blind as hell. They’re trying to learn all they can about the superorganism that is a human being and then make it better so that we can both live better lives and stop creating so many things that harm the planet. Have feedback or questions? Tweet us (http://www.twitter.com/importantnotimp), or send a message to funtalk@importantnotimportant.com Trump’s Book Club:  "The Lessons of History" (https://bookshop.org/shop/importantnotimportant) by Ariel Durant and Will Durant "Deep Work" (https://bookshop.org/shop/importantnotimportant) by Cal Newport Links: Seed.com (https://seed.com/) Seed on IG: @seed (https://www.instagram.com/seed) Raja on IG: @wildraja (https://www.instagram.com/wildraja) LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rajadhir (https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajadhir/) LUCA Biologics: luca.bio (https://luca.bio/) Connect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com (http://importantnotimportant.com/)! Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp (http://twitter.com/ImportantNotImp) Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett (http://twitter.com/quinnemmett) Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken (http://twitter.com/briancolbertken) Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant (http://facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant) Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com (http://timblane.com/) Important, Not Important is produced by (http://crate.media/) Support this podcast