On this podcast episode, Faust and 23andMe alum Bo Lopker talk zombies, astronomical algorithms, and the insane revelations that unfurl when we start decoding the miracle of human conception & chromosome pairing.
Bo was a genetic engineering leader for DNA testing pioneer 23andMe, where he managed teams for Research Experience, Engagement, Clinical Trial Recruitment and Cloud Infrastructure. He learned firsthand how to translate science into products and ran large, global engineering teams to make it happen.
He has a BS in Applied Mathematics and an MS in Computer Science from UCSB. While a student, he worked with the Oakley Evolution Lab building phylogenetic trees on their supercomputing cluster. He built the space image viewer for Las Cumbres Observatory, empowering astronomers around the world to better understand the universe.
23andMe, Inc. is a publicly held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in Sunnyvale, California. It's known for providing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing service in which customers provide saliva samples that are laboratory analyzed, to generate reports for the customer's ancestry and genetic predispositions to health-related topics. The company's name is derived from the fact that there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in a human cell.
Bo is currently working on his new venture Totem, an app that brings people together for genuine interaction that helps break them out of their social media bubbles.