Dr. Jo Zayner

Dr. Jo Zayner is a visionary biochemist and genetic designer. For over 15 years, she has pioneered work in the field of bioengineering, publishing a number of scientific papers on the topic. Jo received her PhD in Biophysics from the University of Chicago, winning several awards for their work on engineering proteins. She then spearheaded work on developing engineered microbes for Mars terraforming at NASA, eventually leaving to start The ODIN, a bioengineering company based in Austin, Texas that is working to make genetic engineering accessible to everyone. Zayner’s groundbreaking work in human genetic engineering and medicine has been the focus of many documentaries, including the Netflix documentary Unnatural Selection and the NYT documentary Gut Hack. She has been made fun of on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and written about in media all over the world including The New York Times, The New Yorker, El País, Le Monde, Time, Scientific American and NPR, among others.