188. Which Came First: Chicken, Egg, or Medicine? Neion Bio Turns Evolution into a Precision Factory

What happens when an evolutionary biologist and an aerospace engineer both arrive at the same conclusion — that the future of drug manufacturing isn't steel, it's biology? In this episode, Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan sit down with Sam Levin (Co-Founder & CTO) and Dimi Kellari (Co-Founder & CEO) of Neion Bio to unpack one of the most counterintuitive ideas in modern biomanufacturing: producing therapeutic medicines inside genetically engineered chicken eggs. Rather than optimizing the same mammalian cell culture systems that have defined biopharma for 50 years, Neion Bio's Raptor platform replaces complex steel bioreactor infrastructure with a self-replicating, two-input biological system — chicken feed and water in, life-saving medicines out. The conversation covers their stealth-to-commercial journey, a multi-product monoclonal antibody partnership announced alongside $11M in seed funding, the scalability and supply chain resilience advantages of egg-based manufacturing, how they navigate FDA regulation with a living bioreactor, and their North Star: dropping end-to-end production costs of monoclonal antibodies below $10 per gram — an order of magnitude that could fundamentally reshape who has access to biologics and where they're made. Grow Everything brings the bioeconomy to life. Hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories and interview the leaders and influencers changing the world by growing everything. Biology is the oldest technology. And it can be engineered. What are we growing? Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.messaginglab.com/groweverything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Chapters: (00:00:00) - Intro & 4th of July: America's 250th anniversary celebrations (00:03:00) - America's Living Library Act & NDAA biotech provisions (00:06:00) - Midjourney's ultrasonic body scanner & patient data ownership (00:10:00) - NVIDIA's AI co-scientist, the AI value pyramid & AbbVie's $11B Apogee acquisition (00:20:00) - Introducing Sam Levin & Dimi Kellari of Neion Bio (00:26:00) - Neion Bio's Raptor platform: making medicines inside chicken eggs (00:33:00) - Scalability, onshoring & true supply chain resilience (00:39:00) - Downstream purification: cracking eggs vs. CHO cell lysate (00:47:00) - FDA pathways & batch-to-batch consistency in a living bioreactor (00:50:00) - Drug supply chain fragility & national health security (00:56:00) - $10/gram North Star: end-to-end cost breakdown (01:00:00) - Quickfire Q&A: engineering challenges, union demands & investor misconceptions (01:04:00) - Outro: calls to action & what's next for Neion Bio Links and Resources: Neion Bio Contact to partner with Neion Bio Chicken Eggs Become Biorectors Neion Bio Raises Oversubscribed $23 Million Series A to Advance Biologics Manufacturing Platform and Expand Pipeline 183. The American Biotech Blueprint: Senator Todd Young on Biodiversity as National Security 186. N.Y. Tech Week Live Demo: Engineering the Future of Manufacturing with Roebling's Brentan Alexander 170. There's a Bug for That: Sophia Xu on CarbonBridge's Notebook Bioreactors 176. Dare to Commercialize: Damien Perriman’s eXoZymes Playbook NVIDIA announces BioNeMo A.I. Value Pyramid - Murat Aktihanoglu AbbVie to acquire Apogee for $11B Grow everything LinkedIn BioInnovations Events - For 25% off use code: Grow Everything Topics Covered: chickens, eggs, biomanufacturing, therapeutic medicines, CHO cells, monoclonal antibodies, supply chain, biosimilars, Raptor, national health security Have a question or comment? Message us here: Text or Call (804) 505-5553 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Grow Everything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music by: Nihilore Production by: Amplafy Media