S3 | E6 - Anton Jackson Smith (b.next) on building synthetic cells, programmable biology, and the future of biotech

2025-04-10

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Episode SummaryAnton Jackson Smith is a synthetic biologist, Stanford PhD, and founder of b.next—a startup building synthetic cells from scratch to make biology truly programmable. Think of it as rewriting life’s codebase, with applications ranging from cancer treatments and diagnostics to lab-grown foods and smart crops.In today’s episode, Anton breaks down what synthetic cells actually are (and why they matter), how his open-source platform Nucleus is changing the way biology is engineered, and why the future of medic...

Episode Summary

Anton Jackson Smith is a synthetic biologist, Stanford PhD, and founder of b.next—a startup building synthetic cells from scratch to make biology truly programmable. Think of it as rewriting life’s codebase, with applications ranging from cancer treatments and diagnostics to lab-grown foods and smart crops.

In today’s episode, Anton breaks down what synthetic cells actually are (and why they matter), how his open-source platform Nucleus is changing the way biology is engineered, and why the future of medicine, agriculture, and climate tech might be written in DNA.

We also dig into his journey, from coding in Queenstown and law school in Otago, to cutting-edge research in Silicon Valley, and how a random article on programmable E. coli changed everything.

In this conversation, we cover:

• How synthetic cells could power the next generation of therapeutics and diagnostics

• Why biology needs its own “AWS moment” and how open source can unlock it

• The real business model behind synthetic biology (and why it's not just science)

• How Kiwi strengths in agriculture and biotech could shape a global future

• What New Zealand needs to do to retain and return its brightest minds

Anton also shares his vision for a safer, more ethical bio-economy, and how we can build powerful new tools without repeating the mistakes of the past.

Time Stamps

01:21 What is a synthetic cell—and why should you care?

06:44 How Anton fell into biology (thanks to an E. coli article in Vietnam)

11:12 Why modifying real cells isn’t enough—and what BNext is doing differently

16:30 The near-term use cases: cancer, diagnostics, and food

22:47 How Nucleus is creating the open-source toolkit for biology

30:14 Three phases of BNext’s business model: Boot → Build → Bazaar

37:10 The big vision: programmable biology that saves lives

44:18 What New Zealand’s biotech future could look like

47:30 Returning talent, building bridges, and bringing brains back home

Resources

🙋🏻‍♂️ Anton Jackson Smith on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonjacksonsmith