17: Genome edited food - the answer for healthier diet and climate change? Interview with Lynsey Wenger, CFO of Pairwise

In todays episode, I am speaking with Lynsey, CFO of the US startup Pairwise. Their mission is to build a healthier world through better fruits and vegetables by using CRISPR as technology. 

Prior to joining Pairwise in 2020, Lynsey served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer at Calysta, a biotechnology company developing alternative protein ingredients. She also spent 16 years with Goldman Sachs, including spending the greater part of a decade specializing in global natural resources investment banking.

We are speaking about CRISPR, the perception of genome edited food and it’s potential for improving yields and productivity for farmers as well as better taste, nutrition and convenience for consumers.  You will learn about the key scaling factors for a food tech company and the potential of using CRISPR in accelerating the healthy food transition and reducing the climate impact of food production. 

More about pairwise: 

Please check out show notes and background information: www.sustainnow.ch
Ideas for a podcast episode? Please contact us here: fvw@forestrock.ch

Chapters

• 1:44 Can you please introduce yourself and explain your journey which led you to Pairwise as a CFO?
• 4:01 Is there something from your prior experience which you think is a critical skill to deploy now in this food tech company?
• 7:19 Can you give the audience a quick overview of what Pairwise is doing?
• 12:38 Can you explain for non-scientists what exactly CRISPR is and what the applications are?
• 15:36 How do you do change DNA in gene editing?
• 18:43 What are the other appliances for CRISPR?
• 22:45 Where do we stand now with genetically modified food? Did perceptions change and did the technology change?
• 26:27 So this would be the first product which is going to launch this year? Do you have any products lined in future?
• 27:39 What is the ultimate end-game?
• 29:12 We talked a lot about the health side, what about environment? Are they better for the environment?
• 33:16 Coming back to the scaling factors - what are the scaling factors you need to focus on to get this technology to scale?
• 38:19 What do you see as the two biggest challenges in the next 2-3 years
• 42:22 What makes you confident that we will solve the climate crisis?
• 45:06 How can people contact you if they want to know more about Pairwise and you?