114. BioMADE in America: Crafting the Future of Biomanufacturing with CEO Doug Friedman

Doug Friedman joins the podcast to talk about one of the toughest challenges in biotech—how to survive long enough to actually make an impact. As the head of BioMADE, he's on a mission to build a bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem that doesn’t just rely on wishful thinking and a single grant check. He explains why most biotech startups get only "one shot on goal" (spoiler: they miss, they’re done) and how we can fix that. Think of it like debugging a bad DNA sequence—you need iteration, not instant perfection. Doug also discusses how government funding is shaping the future of biomanufacturing, why biology today is where semiconductors were in the ‘80s, and why scaling biology might just need its own version of Moore’s Law.

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 – Fail Fast or Fail Forever – Why biotech startups need more than one shot on goal



00:00:27 – AI Shake-Up – DeepSeek changes the game (and the stock market) overnight



00:01:01 – China vs. AI – What a hedge fund, government crackdowns, and new algorithms have in common



00:02:19 – Power Hungry AI – Why data centers might outgrow the energy grid before we’re ready



00:03:36 – DeepSeek’s Disruption – What it means for AI, efficiency, and the future of computing



00:04:13 – Innovation Under Pressure – How limitations create the best breakthroughs



00:05:46 – Mind Reading? – The wild world of telepathy research and what it means for biotech



00:07:45 – Quantum Strangeness – Exploring dimensions beyond what we can see



00:09:17 – Longevity Hacks – The Brian Johnson experiment: biohacking or billion-dollar placebo?



00:12:48 – Biomanufacturing is Booming – Why the future of production is biological



00:28:35 – PFAS Panic – 3M halts production, and microelectronics scrambles for solutions



00:30:53 – BioMADE’s Master Plan – How industry collaboration is making biomanufacturing real



00:36:56 – Government Meets Biotech – Bridging public and private sectors for impact



00:38:44 – The Bioeconomy is Here – What it means for industries beyond biotech



00:42:29 – Talk to Your Legislators – How to get policymakers to care about biotech



00:46:08 – The Hardest Part of Biomanufacturing – What innovators need to overcome



00:50:42 – Biomanufacturing’s Future – The biggest opportunities waiting to be unlocked



00:52:46 – Final Thoughts – Wrapping up lessons from the frontier of biotech







Links and Resources:


BioMADE



Homeworld Collective (Apply today!)



The Climate Biotech Podcast



DeepSeek Wipes $1 Trillion from Tech Share Prices



The Telepathy Tapes



Don't Die, The Man Who Wants to Live Forever



Rapamycin



General Probiotics



Antheia



Schmidt Sciences



Liberation Labs







Topics Covered: 

biomanufacturing, collaboration, public private partnerships, distributed biomanufacturing, longevity biotech, telepathy, tech 




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Email: groweverything@messaginglab.com

Music by: Nihilore

Production by: Amplafy Media