Galaxy Balance

Erik Aznauryan, CEO and co-founder of HarborSite, joins Galaxy Balance to explore the next frontier of genome engineering: moving beyond small edits and toward precise, large-scale DNA insertion. Erik traces his path from Armenia and medical school to Europe, the Church Lab, and eventually founding HarborSite with a mission to make gene insertion safer, more durable, and more programmable. The con...

Max Rye and Evan Appleton of Intertwined Bio join Galaxy Balance to explore one of the boldest ideas in modern biology: borrowing nature’s most extreme traits and translating them into human health. From horses that resist liver cirrhosis to naked mole rats, bowhead whales, radiation resistant organisms, hibernating animals, and the future of humans in space, this conversation asks what becomes po...

In this episode of Galaxy Balance, I sit down with Charles Fracchia to explore the emerging infrastructure layer of synthetic biology. We discuss the future of secure and scalable bioengineering, the role of community laboratories in accelerating innovation, and how biology is evolving into a programmable technology platform. Charles shares the story behind BioBright, the creation of Bio-ISAC, and...

What if the most powerful form of human optimization has nothing to do with biotech? In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory sits down with Tyler Todt, who has built a platform around physical health, mental resilience, and intentional living. While the world races toward gene editing, AI, and synthetic biology, Tyler focuses on something more immediate: how daily habits, environment, and mindset...

Genome editing has moved from experimental concept to FDA approved medicine in less than a generation. Few people have been closer to that transformation than TJ Cradick. TJ was one of the earliest pioneers in programmable biology, helping shape the field from the era of zinc finger nucleases through the rise of CRISPR and next generation editing systems. As the second employee and Head of Genome...

What does it actually take to manufacture biology at scale? In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith sits down with Nabiha Saklayen, CEO and co-founder of Cellino, to explore the future of cell therapy manufacturing. Trained in physics and biophotonics, Nabiha is applying principles from semiconductor fabrication to one of the hardest problems in medicine: turning powerful cell therapies into...

What if aging is not a collection of diseases, but a system-level failure we can intervene in? In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith sits down with Noah Davidsohn, co-founder and CSO of Rejuvenate Bio, to explore a new approach to longevity rooted in gene therapy and systems biology. Noah’s work focuses on treating aging at its source by rebalancing key biological pathways across the body....

Synthetic biology is entering a new phase where biology can be treated as an engineering discipline. In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith speaks with Dr. Tae Seok Moon, professor at the J. Craig Venter Institute and a leader in synthetic biology, about the long arc from reading DNA to eventually designing biological systems from first principles. Tae shares his unconventional path into sc...

What if biology could be engineered the way we engineer software? In this episode of Galaxy Balance, I'm joined by Pranam Chatterjee, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and leader of the Programmable Biology Group, working at the intersection of AI, synthetic biology, and next-generation therapeutics. Pranam's work is shaping a future where generative models can design peptides...

In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith speaks with Dr. Jonathan Scheiman, co-founder and CEO of FitBiomics, about the science of elite performance, microbiome discovery, and the future of metabolic health. Jonathan shares his journey from Division I basketball player to biomedicine PhD and postdoctoral researcher in the Church Lab, where unconventional ideas are encouraged and ambitious bio...

Biology is becoming programmable. In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith speaks with Yuanhao Qu, President and Co-Founder of PhyloBio, about the emergence of AI driven biological discovery. Yuanhao represents a new generation of scientists who combine genome engineering with large language models to build systems that can reason about DNA and accelerate research across the life sciences. Th...

In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith is joined by Marc Güell, a synthetic biologist working at the frontier of genome engineering, AI-driven biological design, and translational therapeutics.  Marc's work spans programmable genome integration systems, synthetic evolution, and the development of biological tools that extend far beyond what natural evolution has produced. From his early tra...

In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Samira Kiani, a genetic engineer, entrepreneur, and science storyteller working at the intersection of genome engineering, regenerative biology, and human meaning. Samira's scientific work spans synthetic biology, immune modulation, and cellular rejuvenation, while her broader mission explores how innovation can remain aligned with ethics consciousness, and care....

In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith is joined by Christian Kramme, Chief Scientific Officer of Gameto, a biotechnology company rethinking reproductive medicine through cell engineering, Christian's work focuses on using iPSC-derived ovarian support cells to improve IVF outcomes by enabling egg maturation outside the body, while avoiding genetic modification or implantation of stem cells...

In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith sits down with Kejun (Albert) Ying, a computational biologist and aging researcher working at the intersection of AI, protein design, and longevity science. Albert's work spans designing novel proteins never seen in nature, applying large-scale AI models to millions of RNA-seq samples, and uncovering potential anti-aging effects hidden in existing drug...

What if human eggs could be made outside the body, safely, reliably, and at scale? 00:00 - Introduction to Merrick Smela and IVG technology 01:28 - Merrick’s scientific background and career path 03:07 - Inspiration from early stem cell research and career milestones 09:00 - How transcription factors and meiosis are driven in vitro 15:00 - Screening strategies for high-fidelity egg development 20:...

How do cells decide what they are, and can we deliberately control that process? In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith is joined by Frank Li, co-founder of Stately Bio, to explore the emerging frontier of cell identity engineering. Frank’s work sits at the intersection of developmental biology, synthetic biology, and therapeutic design, with a focus on understanding, and reprogramming, the...

Is aging inevitable, or is it an engineering problem waiting to be solved? In this episode of Galaxy Balance, Cory Smith is joined by Aubrey de Grey, one of the most influential and provocative thinkers in longevity science. Aubrey is best known for reframing aging not as a mysterious, untouchable process, but as the accumulation of specific, repairable forms of biological damage, and for arguing...

What will it really take for humans to live beyond Earth? In this episode of Galaxy Balance , Cory Smith sits down with Devon Stork , synthetic biologist and founding member of Pioneer Labs , a nonprofit research institute advancing biotechnology for use in space. Devon’s work focuses on engineering microbes that can survive extreme extraterrestrial environments and transform local resources, like...

In this episode of Galaxy Balance , Cory Smith sits down with Dr. Case Newsom, an emergency physician and pioneer in psychedelic medicine who helped shape Colorado’s therapeutic psychedelics legislation. The conversation explores why a single psychedelic experience can lead to lasting change, the neuroscience behind these effects, and the real risks that are often left out of public discussions. C...

Aging is often described as damage, wear and tear, or inevitable decline. But what if aging is better understood as a problem of lost biological information ? In this episode of Galaxy Balance , Cory Smith speaks with Chris Bradley , a scientist focused on genome integrity and systems biology, about why maintaining genetic and epigenetic information may be central to extending human healthspan. Th...

In this debut episode of Galaxy Balance , host Cory Smith sits down with legendary geneticist and futurist George Church for a wide-ranging conversation on the edge of science and imagination. Together they explore the accelerating frontier of AI-driven biology , including protein design, scientific “superintelligence,” and the rise of automated science factories. George discusses the real state o...