About | Asimov — Intelligent Design

Engineered biology will be the most important technology of the 21st century. We empower the genetic designers who are building the future.

History

Computer-aided design has transformed our world

Every engineering discipline has been revolutionized by computer-aided design in the past 50 years.

1970

Today

Computer engineering

Semiconductor circuits were once laid out manually, with scalpels and stencils being the primary tools to pattern silicon with photolithography.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1970

Today

Computer engineering

Computer-aided design has enabled our digital world, putting a supercomputer with billions of transistors in your pocket.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1970

Today

Aerospace engineering

Stencils, rulers, and protractors were once the most precise tools at aerospace engineers' disposal.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1970

Today

Aerospace engineering

Computer-aided design transformed our ability to understand aerodynamics and thrust, enabling reusable rockets for orbital transportation.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1970

Today

Structural engineering

Paper and pencil were the tools of the trade for structural engineers to manually design bridges and buildings.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1970

Today

Structural engineering

Computer-aided design enabled humanity to push the limits of the built environment, transforming city skylines across the world.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1970

Today

Computer engineering

Semiconductor circuits were once laid out manually, with scalpels and stencils being the primary tools to pattern silicon with photolithography.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1970

Today

Computer engineering

Computer-aided design has enabled our digital world, putting a supercomputer with billions of transistors in your pocket.

1970

Today

intel

Altium designer

1912

Today

Aerospace engineering

Stencils, rulers, and protractors were once the most precise tools at aerospace engineers' disposal.

Mechanical Drawing Class

T-flex cad

1912

Today

Aerospace engineering

Computer-aided design transformed our ability to understand aerodynamics and thrust, enabling reusable rockets for orbital transportation.

Mechanical Drawing Class

T-flex cad

1970

Today

Structural engineering

Paper and pencil were the tools of the trade for structural engineers to manually design bridges and buildings.

Mechanical Drawing Class

T-flex cad

Altium designer

1970

Today

Structural engineering

Computer-aided design enabled humanity to push the limits of the built environment, transforming city skylines across the world.

Mechanical Drawing Class

T-flex cad

Altium designer

History

Computer-aided design has transformed our world

Every engineering discipline has been revolutionized by computer-aided design in the past 50 years.

Intel

Computer engineering

Semiconductor circuits were once laid out manually, with scalpels and stencils being the primary tools to pattern silicon with photolithography.

1970

Today

Altium designer

Computer engineering

Computer-aided design made our digital world possible, putting a supercomputer with billions of transistors in your pocket.

1970

Today

Mechanical Drawing Class

Aerospace engineering

Rulers, protractors, and book-based tables of mathematical functions were once the most precise tools at aerospace engineers' disposal.

1970

Today

Space-X

Aerospace engineering

Computer-aided design transformed our ability to understand aerodynamics and thrust, enabling reusable rockets for orbital transportation.

1970

Today

Technical Drafter

Structural engineering

Paper and pencil were the tools of the trade for structural engineers to manually design bridges and buildings.

1970

Today

Libre CAD

Structural engineering

Computer-aided design enabled humanity to push the limits of the built environment, transforming city skylines across the world.

1970

Today

We’re building the first CAD platform for biology

By applying abstraction, standardization, characterization, and modeling to biology, we aim to transition genetic engineering into a fully-fledged engineering discipline.

APE

Genetic engineering

Historically, the only ubiquitous software tool in genetic engineering was a DNA sequence viewer, a low-level text editor for A, T, G, and C.

1970

Today

kernel

Genetic engineering

We are building a true computer-aided design platform to advance the precision and reliability of engineering complex genetic systems.

1970

Today

roadmap

Our story so far

As genetic designers, we started Asimov to build the tools we always wanted.

Roots in the Voigt and Densmore labs

Our company's story begins in the labs of our co-founders, Chris Voigt (MIT) and Doug Densmore (Boston University). Over the course of a multi-year collaboration, Chris and Doug worked to build the foundations of genetic logic circuit design to program living cells. Alec Nielsen, Asimov's co-founder and CEO, joined the Voigt lab as a PhD student during this time.

Cello for genetic circuit design

In 2016, Chris, Doug, Alec, and collaborators at NIST released Cello, a platform for automated genetic circuit design. Cello was made possible through extensively-engineered modular genetic logic gates, standardized host cells, and software for algorithmic design and simulation.

Raja Srinivas, Chris Voigt, Alec Nielsen, and Doug Densmore, founders of Asimov

Asimov founded to tackle genetic design

In 2017, Chris, Doug, Alec, and Raja Srinivas founded Asimov, receiving early backing from Andreessen Horowitz and DARPA. Our approach stems from the same philosophy used for Cello – integrate state-of-the-art synthetic biology in the lab with computational tools.

our values

Ours is a culture of recombination

Recombination

Genetic engineering recombines genes from different species into new systems. At Asimov, we're working toward an ambitious mission that will only be possible by recombining disciplines, backgrounds, and perspectives.

Mission first

Our prime directive is to radically advance humanity’s ability to design living systems, enabling biological technologies with outsized societal benefit. Every decision flows from this mission.

Continuous learning

Biotech is advancing rapidly – we’re surfing that wave and also helping drive it forward. A curiosity to learn new things and an ability to teach other team members is critical to living at the cutting edge.

Thoughtful communication

Our team comes from varied technical domains; we constantly strive to consider people's backgrounds, tailoring our communication to maximize understanding and alignment.

Evolution

As we grow, we’re unafraid to evolve, adapt, and improve all aspects of our company's technology, products, and operations. We must avoid getting trapped in a local optimum.

Urgency

Time is of the essence to deliver on our mission. We channel this pressure into a superpower that lets us make decisions quickly, prioritize with purpose, and operate with a sense of urgency.

Our team