What is VALLEYDAO in 4 levels of difficulty | Protecting the future of our planet with biology
hi my name is Morgan Richards I'm a synthetic biologist and a community lead at Valleydale and I'm Albert Anis I'm also a synthetic biologist and one of the core leads at valido today we've been challenged to explain what valley Dow is in various levels of complexity valido is a decentralized Innovation ecosystem looking to create more efficient collaboration in synthetic biology to protect the future of our planet and if you don't know synthetic biology is a specific field in which we use biological organisms to solve huge problems it was used to create the covid-19 vaccine many of us have had but what's most exciting is how we can use it to create food fuels chemicals and materials in a much more sustainable way valid hour is here to make a difference by helping researchers maximize the impact of their work by taking their results from the lab into the real world so let's break it down to the most basic level of what we do and build it up from there [Music] hey Sunny do you know what we're here to talk about today science yep science and what a dow is do you know what a dow is no so a dow is look like a community for people in science and they come together to do good work what do you think of when you hear the word community a large group of people working together to do something yeah exactly so Valleydale is also a community but we're focus on using biology to solve big problems in the world how do you think people in normal companies decide on what to do at the bus tells them what to do yeah pretty much so what we're trying to do at Valley Dao is actually make it so that everybody can make decisions together so people get to vote do you know what voting is yes and you know how it works right yeah exactly so usually when people vote they make decisions together and the outcomes are much better for everybody why do you think it's important to do things that aren't going to hurt the planet to keep Humanity living and just survive for longer so what valid I was trying to do is make it so we can make the things that everybody uses but in a much cleaner way so it doesn't harm the environment and we can also recycle more of the things that we produce oh wow that's cool what's your favorite animal tiger tiger and where do tigers live jungles yeah exactly mangroves jungles and why would you want to protect the Tigers every animal in some way provides for Humanity yeah exactly and they're just cool right yeah what do you think the biggest problem the biggest threat is to tigers at the moment probably like global warming or climate change and what is causing it what do you think do you know um not really I mean mostly it's caused by carbon dioxide and where does that come from factories exactly factories so have you heard of synthetic biology no synthetic biology is a way that we can use biology to solve problems like climate change so we can engineer a living cell so that we can get it to make things that we want so for example we can make a plant that grows super fast uses more carbon dioxide than normal plants and feeds more people but we could also use it to make materials or chemicals or fuel even for the cars So based on what we talked about today what do you think Valley Dow is a large community of people who believe biology will solve The World's main problems and it's important because it can keep Humanity alive for longer while making like food materials and like adopting things about the world yeah exactly living things that we can use to make more things for everybody can you tell me a little bit of what you study and uh why you study that so I did my undergrad at Imperial studying biochemistry and yeah since my undergrad I've been really interested in synthetic bio and biotechnology so can you tell me a little bit about what you know about synthetic biology what's your how do you explain it usually to to other people um so synthetic biology is all about the real world applications and kind of transferring the traditional biology and the research into something that is more applicable to the real world and its problems so such as health or climate change yeah and exactly as you said is and and to Echo that a little bit like how I also like to think about synthetic biology is applying an engineering mindset to biology combining that with compute educational methods and bioinformatics and then automation to basically accelerate the process for how fast we can you know create positive outcomes with Biology have you heard about what a Dao is in the past like Tao is is it something to do with like um is it all Mars or something is that there's like a dow Valley or something like that on Mars oh yeah maybe I don't know is that completely different uh it's completely different I think um but a Dao is an acronym for a uh for decentralized autonomous organizations and these organizations usually are being created with the intent to solve a particular problem right and usually these are communities of people online coming together to to work together on this problem so in the case of of validal uh what we're doing is we're creating this this Global community that collectively comes together and supports academic researchers in synthetic biology but also helping the academics in translating the the research into let's say a company or a real world product the organization is owned by the community members and they all vote together on for example how the governance process looks like how we make decisions and of course then you know which research projects are ultimately funded and you know you're you yourself as a student we our community is super open to take in these kinds of community members because we want to help them in find Opportunities but also in developing their own skills whether that is in you know understanding a particular research field and synthetic biology better or perhaps by combine like matching them with some of the research projects that we're currently work working with and they could you know Assist in the development or help in you know reviewing some of the research to kind of like you know almost act like an extension of that researcher who is mainly responsible for that project and in this way you know you can you know get a deeper insight into how their research works and also you know contribute with your own skill sets so from what I've explained to you today how do you think validao could impact the synthetic biology industry um I think it sounds really cool um and it's kind of like this meeting place um for everyone who's interested in synthetic bio so whether that's investors or researchers or people who um like students who are interested in synthetic bio and it feels like a place of collaboration and like a collective almost [Music] so Darren could you tell me a little bit more about what you're doing in your research at the moment absolutely yeah so my work mainly involves genetic modification of different types of cells so that they better fit with biomanufacturing processes for making stuff like medicines or for instance the cultured meat sector as well kind of when conducting this kind of research what are the the main obstacles you face as an academic funding is one of them so the the funding system is the very arbitrary and also um not very abundant so typically we're talking globally in the industrialized West like 10 20 success rates so that means all the scientific capacity of the Western World 80 of it has to make do without funding or um and certainly and if if the model is like the more funding you get the more likely you are to get subsequent funding you can see that funding can tend to concentrate in certain organizations or groups or individuals in a way that Main you know which is fair in a sense that you know you reward Excellence but in a holistic sense across the society across the capacity the scientific capacity of different countries you may not be actually realizing as much value as if there were more Innovative systems for Distributing funding and research and the surprising thing is some of the most Innovative Minds on the planet with respect to the research they do are very reluctant to or or are not so open to innovation in funding and structurally how we organize how science is done it's like that's a sacrosanct system because it's maybe it's benefited certain people for so long so so there are surprising there's a surprising lack of innovation and lack of openness in different ways to organize how science is done it's long overdue I think for some different models to to give people different modes of um being creative and thinking of new new scientific ideas when it comes to the general public who are probably more aware of negative news about web3 and cryptocurrencies what would you say to them to to explain to them and reassure them with respect to how blockchain allows Dows to do what they do Dows particularly valued out of really focused on doing real world tangible things that have value and impact and when you look at some of these other cryptocurrencies and things that are happening in the web 3 space what you've got is a lot of projects that are based on speculative value so for example nfts I might like a piece of art today but then if I don't like it tomorrow then I could say it's only worth half as much as I paid for it and the market price is essentially set by my perception of that value or how I value it for myself so what when you look at what valley Dow is doing and really attaching real world value to a blockchain layer then what you've got is a much more stable system that enables us to really develop real-world Technologies and really help people around the world but doing that in a way that is and this goes on to the second point which is it's transfer Aaron and trustless and to kind of Define those things uh more explicitly the transparency is comes with the the core principle of the blockchain uh so the blockchain is essentially a public uh visible Ledger that anyone can access and audit so let's say I make a transfer of some tokens to you then what will actually anyone will actually be able to go back and verify that transaction so it enables us as a dow to act in a very transparent and open way so would it be safe to say that um researchers can think of for instance Valley Dow as a potential funder of their research so they could approach Valley Dao picture research idea confidentially if necessary at the pitch stage and then Valleydale would have the capacity if they chose to take the research up to negotiate things like contracts with University Tech transfer offices make links to companies that may want to commercialize the idea and ultimately on a very pragmatic level funds the research is is that an accurate view of what a dow could be to scientists unfamiliar with it absolutely I couldn't have explained it better myself I think in in terms of you know delivering that value we really have our our deal flow work Group which is really focused on making those uh negotiations especially with tech transfer offices um so absolutely we see valid out as a mechanism for researchers to obtain funding that they might not otherwise have access to because of the constraints they're offering under operating under in the current system we don't just fund research we are also committed to supporting research and intellectual property that might already exist but is locked up or siled in in institutions so if a researcher has something that they're not interested in commercializing or they don't feel they have the confidence or skills to do so then they can also bring that to us and we will negotiate fair and reasonable terms that reward both the researcher and inventors but also benefit The Wider Symbio Community as a whole yeah certainly I've had experience with with orphan Tech where sadly um it's a case that it's it's currently in a protected State and disclosure is very very limited but it's also not being actively developed and and if I've had experience of that then I'm sure you can multiply that out that there's a lot of Orphan unutilized technology out there you know for which you could say it's in in want of a model where by any whereby someone could at least do due diligence on it and perhaps reappraise does it have a fit today maybe it didn't have a fit in 2012 but it may have a fit today and and could then have a look at this Tech then that would be that's a great thing I think and a great new model a new player in this in this ecosystem [Music] so could you tell me what you're most excited about in in blockchain and web3 in that whole space I think one of the exciting things about web3 is it's it's a market for creators and for new startups and for people with ideas where um it opens up new ways of receiving investment and you know I work with a lot of people in the sports industry and in the music industry and this idea around fractional ownership for example where people are able to sell nfts which then you know similar to what you're doing can maybe fund a project or fund a new album if it's in the music space face or a new game if it's in sports space or whatever it might be but people are able to get that cash injection to fund um their project and the work they want to do as well as then and having the people who are your investors or your audience they literally have a vested interest in you becoming successful which is more so than just what would traditionally be maybe be the profit margin and with that being the focus of an investor whereas now you have community and supporters and followers who are the ones that will then also organically grow your audience on your behalf I think one of the things I was really interested to understand is why you decided to make Valley Dow a doubt rather than a traditional company infrastructure what I think is really interesting with the a Dao is the ability for you know more or less anyone to come in and start contributing whereas in you know traditional organizations there is this kind of like barrier to entry where you need for example certain credentials or certain merits or or you know you need to have a certain background basically and basically the dials allow more people to come together to work towards a common cause um and I think you know Dallas can also create a whole new incentive structures where the contributors that come in also have a direct stake in the activities and in the success of the organization so granting people ownership for their contribution contributions is a is a concept that I'm really uh you know looking forward and exploring more in in the future but also today like you know seeing how this can evolve and create whole new you know Network effects but also in terms of like bringing Innovations um to the market right so taking them from Academia all the way to you know a defined product or service yeah as a startup ninety percent of the time you're spending it and talking with other people so this could be door openers advisors um other research organizations that maybe you're collaborating with uh investors all of that and those are all human components right and as a Founder most of the time you're spending you're kind of like on this journey of finding the next person the next person the next person and with doubts and given the network effects they can create is that it can accelerate this journey because there's just so much to learn from these different Taos they're all creating you know their own internal human neural networks that are just you know iterating new ideas of how we can you know coordinate ourselves and you know build better systems and products and services what is it the web 3 has opened up for you as a Founder that you might not have been able to access from a web 2 world for example whether it's investment or that Community interaction what are the things that you found have been really important to you in as you're going to to set up this organization it's what's super fascinating with this whole field is it allows somebody that comes from like I'm coming from a you know a an academic background where we don't have that energy we don't have that enthusiasm we're you know we're told to to think in a certain way and not think outside certain boundaries and web3 then you know comes in there and completely crushes that way of thinking and allows us to start thinking in new ways in the case of synthetic biology and the things that we work on that's you know super quarters and with valida like we want to you know connect the nodes in the synthetic biology world so that we can all come together collectively work together but also share the outcomes of the things that we can do so I'm very new on my sinbio education journey and maybe it's through that lack of knowledge and lack of education on my part but I have this perception that genetically modified organisms are bad for the environment bad in general and I'm also aware from the news at the moment that there is a bit of a debate at the moment between the UK and whether they're going to follow an EU regulation point of view so I'd love to just learn a bit more and perhaps maybe you can change my perception you know I think It ultimately comes down to lack of lack of education and understanding of how these organisms actually work you know the ability to grow a plant that is much more nutrient dense is you know the benefit is obvious right um and the same thing you know modifying a certain plant that can grow where there is not enough water or you know the the the the the you know the the temperature drop is to too too much for it to handle we can modify the plan so that it can resist those kinds of environments so thinking from you know um a Global Perspective in countries where maybe there is not enough water um we can you know provide that those kinds of plans to those countries and they're able to you know grow food much more efficiently I think it definitely makes sense of validity be a doubt in the web 3 space is one of the The Core Concepts of web3 is this idea of collaboration not competition so while she can retain that ownership over your own IP and products and that's stored and it's safe and it's secure and it's on the blockchain and still being able to collaborate with other people in a similar space is kind of one of the ideas of where blockchain was originally born from if you'd like to get involved in the community you can find us on Twitter LinkedIn or you can send us an email at people valleydale.bio you can also visit our website where you'll find links to apply to become a contributor or to apply for research funding we look forward to hearing from you and thanks for watching
2023-04-20 04:03
