Arye Lipman, founder of the venture capital firm, Mars Bio, recently co-founded LabDAO, an open, community-run network of wet and dry laboratories accelerating progress in the life sciences. Messaginglab founder, Karl Schmieder, sat down with Arye to learn more about decentralized science, LabDAO, and how the world of science might change as people create life science ventures on the blockchain.

I sat down with Ellen to learn more about Aanika Biosciences, Genspace, COVID testing, and the lessons biotech companies could take to increase their storytelling success. What follows are excerpts from our conversation.

I was lucky enough to attend this year's Ginkgo Ferment Summit at the end of October 2021. Because of the pandemic, this was the first time in two years that Ginkgo Bioworks held the event. Here are a few learnings.

In my last post, I wrote about brands and brand building. This week, THE ECONOMIST ran a story on brand building titled “It Has Never Been Easier to Launch a New Brand.” The article explains why you’re seeing so many new brands -- Harry’s, Allbirds, Casper, among them.

Why is it easier to launch a new brand?

Because it’s never been easier to identify, target, build, and connect with an audience. The thing that differentiates these new brands from the old incumbents is their story.

Captain Underpants is not a name generally associated with biotechnology. Yet, this wildly successful (70 million copies sold worldwide) series of children’s novels may be the first exposure many children have to biotech. Probably, it won’t be their last.