John Cumbers

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John Cumbers
Born1979 (age 44–45)
Alma materBrown University, University of Edinburgh, University of Hull
Known forsynthetic biology, investing, biostrategy, space settlement
AwardsNational Academies Keck Futures Initiative in 2010
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Synthetic Biology
InstitutionsSynBioBeta, NASA

John Robert Cumbers (born 1979) is a British molecular biologist living in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is founder and chief executive officer of SynBioBeta which promotes synthetic biology to build a more sustainable universe.[1] He founded BetaSpace, a space settlement innovation network aimed at sustaining human life on and off our planet and is an operating partner at DCVC, a firm in Silicon Valley focused on investments in biotechnology.[2]

Education and early life[edit]

John Cumbers was born on October 5, 1979, in Watford, Hertfordshire, Eastern England, 15 miles north-west of London. Since childhood, he showed a keen interest in biology and information technology. Cumbers attended Queens' School in Bushey, Hertfordshire for high school. In 2004, he obtained his BSc in Computer Science with Information Engineering at the University of Hull, a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire. For his master's in science and bioinformatics, he studied at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. He obtained his PhD in molecular biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University, under the supervision of Lynn J. Rothschild at NASA Ames Research Center where they initiated a program in space synthetic biology for NASA.[3]

Career[edit]

After obtaining his doctorate, Cumbers served as lead for the Planetary Sustainability Initiative of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),[4] the US federal agency responsible for aerospace research, aeronautics and the civilian space program. Between 2008 and 2015, Cumbers worked at the NASA Ames Research Center as a student and then contractor bioengineer and co-organized the first workshop on the applications of synthetic biology for space exploration.[5] He spent seven years in NASA's synthetic biology program, engineering organisms to provide food, fuel, medicine and other support materials for space missions [6] as well as mission design for space resource utilization, terraforming asteroids and life support.

In 2012, Cumbers founded SynBioBeta, a network for biological engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs who use biology to build a better and more sustainable universe.[7][8] SynBioBeta hosts the Global Synthetic Biology Summit in San Francisco, California, every October. The Summit showcases the developments in synthetic biology that are transforming how people fuel, heal and feed the world.[9] [10] In addition to the Summit, SynBioBeta hosts a podcast and weekly digest.

In 2018, Cumbers founded BetaSpace, an innovation ecosystem investigating an off-Earth planet future. BetaSpace is focused on the broad areas of food and agriculture; water and waste; energy; and habitat and materials.[11][12]

In 2017, Cumbers joined the Silicon Valley investment firm Data Collective (DCVC), a venture capital fund that backs entrepreneurs applying deep tech to transform giant industries.[13]

Publications[edit]

Cumbers is the author, with Karl Schmieder, of What’s Your Bio-Strategy? How to Prepare Your Business for Synthetic Biology[14][15]

Cumbers has written on aging and insulin signalling,[16] the characterization of biological parts,[17] resource utilization on space missions,[18] synthetic biology in space,[19][20] extremophiles (cyanobacteria and tardigrades)[21] and the impact of space resources on financial markets.[22] He is a regular contributor to Forbes.com,[23] writing on the impact of synthetic biology on manufacturing industries[24]

Awards and achievements[edit]

In 2010, Cumbers received the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Award for his work in using synthetic biology in NASA's missions.[25]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jacobsen, Rowan. "John Cumbers is the connector of the gene-editing world". Quartz. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  2. ^ "Space entrepreneurs and dreamers gather in the desert to stargaze and make plans". The Seattle Times. 27 April 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Space entrepreneurs and dreamers gather in the desert to stargaze and make plans". The Seattle Times. 27 April 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Planetary Sustainabilty Initiative" (PDF). NASA. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  5. ^ Chapter 4 Fifteen Years of Innovation and Impact in COLLABORATIONS of CONSEQUENCE: NAKFI'S 15 YEARS IGNITING INNOVATION AT THE INTERSECTIONS OF DISCIPLINES. National Academies Press. 2018. ISBN 978-0-309-48365-0. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  6. ^ "Ames-Industry Team uses the Rapid 'Ice' Method to Assess Synthetic Biology Applications to NASA's Asteroid Grand Challenge". NASA. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  7. ^ Check Hayden, Erika. "Tech investors bet on synthetic biology" (PDF). Nature. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  8. ^ Morton, Oliver. "The engineering of living organisms could soon start changing everything". The Economist. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  9. ^ LeMieux, Juliana. "One-Stop-Shop Genome Editing Product Launched by Inscripta". Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. Mary Ann Liebert. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  10. ^ "Codexis Spreading the Promise of Engineered Proteins at SynBioBeta Summit". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
  11. ^ "BetaSpace: The innovation ecosystem for our on-and off-planet future". SynBioBeta. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  12. ^ Dean, Sam. "As Coachella raged, the L.A. tech world made plans to live on Mars". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  13. ^ Buhr, Sarah. "Data Collective and SynBioBeta founder John Cumbers launch a seed stage biotech fund". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  14. ^ Cumbers, John (2017). What's Your Bio-Strategy? How to Prepare your Business for Synthetic Biology. Pulp Bio Books. p. 190. ISBN 978-0999313619. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  15. ^ Albert, Helen. "Here are our 10 favorite biotech books you should read this summer". Labiotech.eu. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  16. ^ Flatt, Thomas; Min, Kyung-Jin; D'Alterio, Cecilia; Villa Cuesta, Eugenia; Cumbers, John; Lehman, Ruth (23 April 2008). "Drosophila germ-line modulation of insulin signaling and lifespan". PNAS. 105 (17): 6368–6373. Bibcode:2008PNAS..105.6368F. doi:10.1073/pnas.0709128105. PMC 2359818. PMID 18434551.
  17. ^ Kelly, Jason; Rubin, Adam; Davis, Joseph; Ajo-Franklin, Caroline; Cumbers, John; Czar, Michael (20 March 2009). "Measuring the activity of BioBrick promoters using an in vivo reference standard". Journal of Biological Engineering. 3: 4. doi:10.1186/1754-1611-3-4. PMC 2683166. PMID 19298678.
  18. ^ Menezes, Amor; Cumbers, John; Hogan, John; Arkin, Adam (6 January 2006). "Towards synthetic biological approaches to resource utilization on space missions". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 12 (102). doi:10.1098/rsif.2014.0715. PMC 4277073. PMID 25376875.
  19. ^ Montague, Michael; McArthur, George H; Cockell, Charles; Held, Jason; Marshall, William; Sherman, Louis (10 December 2012). "The Role of Synthetic Biology for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)". Astrobiology. 12 (12): 1135–1142. Bibcode:2012AsBio..12.1135M. doi:10.1089/ast.2012.0829. PMID 23140229. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  20. ^ Menezes, Amor; Montague, Michael; Cumbers, John; Hogan, John; Arkin, Adam (6 December 2015). "Grand challenges in space synthetic biology". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 12 (113). doi:10.1098/rsif.2015.0803. PMC 4707852. PMID 26631337.
  21. ^ Horikawa, Daiki; Cumbers, John; Sakakibara, Iori; Rogoff, Dana; Leuko, Stefan; Harnato, Raechel (6 June 2013). "Analysis of DNA Repair and Protection in the Tardigrade Ramazzottius varieornatus and Hypsibius dujardini after Exposure to UVC Radiation". PLOS ONE. 8 (6): e64793. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...864793H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064793. PMC 3675078. PMID 23762256.
  22. ^ Cahan, Bruce; Pittman, R Bruce; Cooper, Sarah; Cumbers, John (1 September 2018). "Space Commodities Futures Trading Exchange: Adapting Terrestrial Market Mechanisms to Grow a Sustainable Space Economy". New Space. 6 (3): 211–226. Bibcode:2018NewSp...6..211C. doi:10.1089/space.2017.0047. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  23. ^ Cumbers, John. "Contributor Bio". Forbes. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  24. ^ Cumbers, John. "5 Reasons Jeff Bezos Should Bet Big On Synthetic Biology". Forbes. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  25. ^ "KECK FUTURES INITIATIVE AWARDS $1.25 MILLION FOR 13 RESEARCH PROJECTS". National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. National Academies. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
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