happy to host an AMA style explainer and engagement.

Mike Koeris Director, DARPA BTO YC W22

Is there a reason why this specifically has to happen in living cells? I get that you can skip the hassle of DNA delivery, but it makes the entire thing about 1,000x more difficult - which seems to offset the posited benefits.

Not to mention that the requirements in the solicitation for speed, accuracy, and length of product are each at least an order of magnitude above what is possible in current in vitro oligo synthesis. And that's just for the intermediate, 19-month goal, much less the later ones.

Certainly, DNA synthesis has been a limiting factor in bio R&D and both the cost and turnaround time have remained fairly stagnant, especially for gene-length products and given the near-term explosion in demand from AI-designed proteins.

I can appreciate that DARPA is a fan of moonshots but would it be advisable to break this into sub-projects such as generally improving DNA+gene synthesis, developing new methods for cell transfection, error correction, in vivo assembly, etc? Focusing on in vivo and light-directed only (and together) might not be the best path forward, though it certainly sounds sci-fi.

Hi Michael,

Really cool of you to be willing to engage with people on this stuff, thanks. I would ask if there would be pathways or initiatives for smaller biotech research teams or med startups to collaborate with DARPA GO for their various goals? Seems like the possibilities are endless. In your mind, could GO one day be used to change traits in an organism that aren’t fixed at birth, but can be influenced by genes? Where do you see the impact or practical use cases for GO in 10-15 years?

Thanks again and looking forward to learning about whatever other crazy things you guys are working on!