113. Microbe Mission Possible: Noah Helman Discusses iMicrobes' Quest to Turn Waste into Wealth

Grow Everything Biotech Podcast

Noah Helman, co-founder of Industrial Microbes, unpacks how his team is giving ethanol a glow-up as a renewable feedstock for creating advanced polymers and sustainable carbon fibers. With a decade of experience in the trenches of biomanufacturing, Noah discusses how they’re engineering microbes to work smarter, not harder, tackling the challenges of cost, scale, and environmental impact. From leveraging industrial partnerships to envisioning a future where waste becomes the ultimate raw material, Noah delivers sharp insights with a side of microbial magic, proving that biology is not just life—it’s a powerhouse of innovation.

Grow Everything brings the bioeconomy to life. Hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories and interview the leaders and influencers changing the world by growing everything. Biology is the oldest technology. And it can be engineered. What are we growing?

Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.messaginglab.com/groweverything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Chapters:

00:00:00 - Prelude to Progress: The Challenge of Unique Equipment 00:00:21 - Oil, Politics, and the Biomanufacturing Tug-of-War 00:01:58 - From Biofuel Bust to Synthetic Biology Boom 00:03:59 - A Pledge Against Plastics: Aquarium Insights 00:05:35 - Woolly Mammoths and Capitalist Dinosaurs 00:08:11 - TikTok Drama: Perplexity’s Unlikely Bid 00:12:29 - Ethanol: From Gas Tank to Biomanufacturing Hero 00:15:00 - Meet Noah Helman: Biomanufacturing Pioneer 00:18:00 - Scaling Up: The Chicken-and-Egg of Biomanufacturing 00:22:45 - Breaking Bottlenecks: Innovations in Equipment Access 00:27:00 - Collaborating for Carbon Fiber: Partnerships in Progress 00:30:27 - Spinning Carbon: Fiber Meets Sustainability 00:34:28 - Cracking the Code of Biomanufacturing Bottlenecks 00:36:51 - Waste Not, Want Not: The Power of Circular Inputs 00:42:34 - Futurecasting Biomanufacturing and Bioeconomies 00:45:03 - Next-Gen Biology: Enzymes, AI, and Big Data 00:50:58 - Closing the Loop: Microbial Magic and Future Frontiers

Episode Links:

iMicrobes The ROI of Waste Beyond Petrochemicals BioMADE ARPA-E First Bight Ventures Biowell (accelerator program) Colossal biosciences raises $200M at 10B valuation Perplexity bids for TikTok Arc Institute partners with NVIDIA to accelerate computational biomedical research

Topics Covered: Biomanufacturing, acrylic acid, acrylonitrile, carbon nanofibers, industrial microbes, biotech startups, spaceships, accelerators, synbio investments

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Music by: Nihilore

Production by: Amplafy Media