Biology is undergoing a prodigious shift, as researchers now have a new tool to alter our genetic code.
Helps in a technology called CRISPR — which stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Apart from Palindromic Repeats — give scientists something like a pair of “scissors,” so they can fragment away at genetic material with the goal of treating disease, raise new crops and more.
Two former SpaceX engineers, Paul and Michael Dabrowski, saw an opening that can’t be missed. Neither brother has a background in genetics, but they saw an chance to use software to help scientists automate their research.
“As a field, CRISPR and genome plotting is very early on, “Synthego’s Paul Dabrowski told us.
“This, as a computer operator, is like being, say, in the 1970’s with computers, where everyone had mainframes and there were plumb few computer users.”
CNBC sat down with the Dabrowskis to discuss how their start-up, conscious as Synthego, makes it easier for scientists to use tools like CRISPR to find smokes for diseases in the next decade. Here’s what they had to say.