Base to Base biotech podcast 67: Synthetic DNA and crossing the blood-brain barrier

This week, we have a conversation with Amy Walker, CEO of 4basebio, and Adam Tomassi-Russell, senior director, climate, at Deep Science Ventures.

Times:
02:58 Deep Science Ventures
22:16 4basebio

4basebio

4basebio is a UK-based biotechnology company pioneering the use of synthetic DNA to enable next-generation therapeutics and vaccines.

Through its proprietary enzymatic DNA synthesis platform, 4basebio produces GMP-grade synthetic DNA and mRNA with superior speed, purity, and scalability, overcoming the limitations of plasmid-based systems.

Deep Science Ventures

Deep Science Ventures (DSV) is a venture creator building deeptech companies in four sectors: agriculture, climate, computation and pharmaceuticals.

The company offers application-specific DNA constructs tailored to the diverse needs of gene therapies, genome editing, mRNA production, and DNA vaccines, helping partners accelerate proof-of-concept studies and reach clinical milestones more efficiently.

For just under a decade, DSV has pioneered venture creation through funded partnerships with organisations like Coca-Cola, AbbVie, Anglo American, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) and Cancer Research UK.

DSV and Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC), a life sciences service dedicated to turning drug discovery into commercial breakthroughs, recently announced a strategic collaboration to address challenges in delivering medicines into the brain. 

DSV’s portfolio, worth more than $700m, has raised more than $270m from investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Sequoia, Sam Altman, and Patrick Collison. DSV is a global team of scientists and exited founders based in London, Tokyo, and Boston, with backgrounds from Bell Labs, Imperial College, and Intel.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com