From day one of his PhD program, Zack Abbott knew he wasn't going to be a professor. While other students dreamed of running university labs, he had a different vision: using science to build real-world products that could help people.
Join Bora Celik as he chats with Zack Abbott, the co-founder of ZBiotics.
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"I told my PhD mentor in one of our first meetings, 'Look, I don't want to become a professor. I don't want to work in academia,'" Zack recalls. "I'm getting this PhD so I can go work somewhere and develop some kind of product that would solve problems."
Little did he know that his research on bacterial genes would lead him down an unexpected path. While studying how bacteria adapt to their environment, Zack had an epiphany. These microscopic organisms weren't just causes of disease – they could be programmed to help us.
"It's like a bacteria API," he explains, lighting up at the analogy. "You sort of have this platform of ability to execute these functions in the same way you would build apps."
But what problem should he solve first? His initial idea was... interesting. "I wanted to create a bacteria that could help you recover from radiation exposure," Zack laughs. "I pitched it at competitions and people's eyes would glaze over."
Then, almost as an afterthought during one pitch, he mentioned they could potentially help people feel better after drinking. Suddenly, everyone perked up. People started approaching him after the presentation, eager to learn more about this "hangover idea."
The journey from concept to product wasn't easy. Zack and his co-founder, Stephen Lamb, handed out over 10,000 samples at events across the Bay Area over two years, having countless conversations to refine their approach. They learned that people were deeply skeptical of free samples promising to make them feel better. "Why are you giving this away for free? What's wrong with it?" was a common reaction.
Finding a manufacturer proved even more challenging. "I really felt like, look, humans have been growing microbes in vats forever. We make beer, we make probiotics already – this should be easy," Zack remembers. But it wasn't. They had to talk to over 100 manufacturers before finding one willing to work with their novel engineered strain.
Most manufacturers were set up for massive production runs – 100,000 liters or more. Zack needed something between 1,000 and 5,000 liters. "If we did one 100,000-liter run, we would be set up for like five years of demand. We couldn't do that."
In August 2019, ZBiotics finally launched the world's first genetically engineered probiotic product. Five years later, they've expanded beyond their flagship product with a new offering that converts sugar to fiber in your gut, with more innovations in the pipeline.
"We're targeting problems of modern human health," Zack explains. "Alcohol is only something humans have been ingesting intentionally for the last 6,000 years. That's relatively new in 150,000 years of human history. Same with processed foods, pollution, heavy metals in our drinking water – these are new problems our bodies didn't evolve to handle."
For Zack, it all comes back to that original drive that led him to science: solving problems and making an impact. Only now, instead of just working in a lab, he's building a future where beneficial bacteria can help humans navigate the challenges of modern life.
The scientist who never planned to be an entrepreneur has found himself exactly where he needs to be – at the intersection of breakthrough science and everyday solutions. And he's just getting started.
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