The IQT Podcast

The Intersection (debut): Startups and Working with the Government

The debut of The Intersection: Mission Investing for National Security. Hosted by IQT President Steve Bowsher, the inaugural pod with TJ Rylander from Next47 features insights about sourcing and supporting startups, a company's makeup to work with the government market, and more.

Synthetic Biology for Enhanced Biosecurity: New Genetic Circuits and Switches

As synthetic biology continues to evolve, the ability to control engineered organisms is more important now than ever. In this episode, B.Next's Dr. Kevin O'Connell is joined by Gabriel Lopez, the Co-founder and CEO of Synvivia, a company focused on building protein switches to control the behavior of genetically engineered organisms. Learn more about these protein switches, their commercial applications, how they can enhance biosecurity, and more. 

Learn more at synvivia.com

Getting Back to Work and School: Enhancing Access to COVID-19 Testing

In the era of COVID-19, how do we create safe environments for people to return to work, school, and their daily lives? B.Next's Dr. Kevin O'Connell is joined by Troy Moore, Chief Scientific Officer and Founder at Kailos Genetics, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company providing cost-effective solutions that make genetic screening accessible to everyone. Listen in as the two explore the importance and impact of testing, genetic sequencing, the company's capture and enrichment methodology adapted to work with the COVID-19 virus, and more.

 

Synthetic Biology: A Core Capability for Biosecurity

B.Next's Dr. Kevin O'Connell is joined by Jason Kelly, Founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company using the most advanced technology on the planet—biology—to grow better products. Learn more about their platform that programs cells, and how they leverage this capability to expand biosecurity and pandemic response.

Learn more at ginkgobioworks.com. 

Navigating Available Testing for COVID-19 - Introducing the IQT Testing Database

With an abundance of information available on COVID-19 testing, where should one even begin? B.Next's Dr. Kevin O'Connell is joined by In-Q-Tel's Tommy Jones and Chenny Zhang to explore diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Now that various COVID-19 tests are available, it's important to determine which tests are compatible with each use case, where these tests may be taken, and how well each of the various tests perform. Learn more about the database IQT constructed to help people better navigate this testing world. 

For more information, visit covidtestdb.com.

Building Blocks for Precise Location Data and Powerful Developer Tools, with Mapbox’s Mikel Maron

In the final episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers are joined by Mikel Maron, Community Team Lead at Mapbox, a company offering location data platform for mobile and web applications. The rise in ubiquity of mobile devices has enabled the power of location-based tools. This episode explores how these tools can help us better understand and combat COVID-19.

References:

• mapbox.com
• Humanitarian OpenStreetMap

How Technology is Augmenting Public Health, with OmniSci’s Todd Mostak

In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Todd Mostak, CEO and Founder of OmniSci, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company focused on massively accelerated analytics and data science, joins Dr. Dylan George as they discuss the power of the company’s platform to understand patterns in movement and the spread of COVID-19, and its use in contact tracing and hot spot analysis.  

References:

• OmniSci’s COVID-19 Demo

Visualizing Data During a Pandemic, with Plotly’s Nicolas Kruchten

In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, Dr. Dylan George is joined by Nicolas Kruchten, VP of Product at Plotly, an In-Q-Tel portfolio company helping leading organizations close the gap between data science and the rest of the organization. Learn about the power of good data visualizations and how they can help guide decision-making and aid in COVID-19 response.

References:

• www.plotly.com
• Roundup of Dash apps made by community and partners: https://moderndata.plotly.com/covid-19-dash-apps/
• Singapore Ministry of Health: https://covidsitrep.moh.gov.sg/ 
• Nursing home data and app: https://covid-19-response.demo.socrata.com/stories/s/3eae-9zd5 and https://tylertech.plotly.com/
• Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases
• Tracking and Comparing projections: https://www.covid-projections.com/
• NVIDIA RAPIDS app: https://github.com/rapidsai/plotly-dash-rapids-census-demo/tree/covid-19 
• Traffic analysis app by Stantec: https://covid-vmt.stantec.global/

Risk Analytics in a Pandemic, with Metabiota’s Nathan Wolfe

In this episode of the B.Next Outbreak Analytics & Forecasting series, B.Next’s Dr. Dylan George and IQT’s Ryan Lewis are joined by Nathan Wolfe of In-Q-Tel portfolio company Metabiota. Tune in as they discuss Nathan’s work as a virus hunter, their hope for the novel coronavirus to be a once in a lifetime event, the need for real-time prediction system for pandemic risk, and more.

References:

• We Can Protect the Economy From Pandemics. Why Didn't We?
• Catastrophic Modeling and Risk Analytics, with Metabiota’s Nita Madhav
• https://www.metabiota.com/

The Effect Disease Modeling Has on Interventions and Planning Scenarios, with Marc Lipsitch

Marc Lipsitch, Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, and Director of the Center for Communicable Diseases and Dynamics joins hosts Drs. Dylan George and Caitlin Rivers as they consider data analytics, public health interventions, disease modeling, and the need for the public health community to be at the fore to help implement, design, and execute strategies to manage the COVID-19 response.

References:

• Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics