Dr. Josie Zayner is a visionary biochemist and genetic designer. For over 15 years, she has pioneered work in the field of bioengineering, publishing a number of scientific papers on the topic. Josie received her PhD in Biophysics from the University of Chicago, winning several awards for their work on engineering proteins. She then spearheaded work on developing engineered microbes for Mars terraforming at NASA, eventually leaving to start The ODIN, a bioengineering company based in Austin, Texas that is working to make genetic engineering accessible to everyone. In 2024, Zayner co-founded a second company, The Los Angeles Project. LAP has raised venture capital funding to genetically modify animals for agriculture, pets and xenotransplantation. Zayner’s groundbreaking work in human genetic engineering and medicine has been the focus of many documentaries, including the Netflix documentary Unnatural Selection and the NYT documentary Gut Hack. She has been made fun of on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and written about in media all over the world including The New York Times, The New Yorker, El País, Le Monde, Time, Scientific American and NPR, among others. Somehow Josie still finds time to be an accomplished artist whose work has been featured in exhibits at San Francisco MoMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, NY MoMA, ZKM and the Smithsonian.

Schedule:

7:00-8:00 PM: Networking

8:00-8:30 PM: Main talk

8:30-9:30 PM: More chatting