Nico is driven by a vision to create lasting impact for future generations—by empowering others or shaping the future himself. Fascinated by Synthetic Biology’s endless possibilities, he pursued his thesis in Drew Endy’s lab at Stanford, later winning the iGEM competition with Team Paris Bettencourt. In Jay Keasling’s lab, he explored SynBio’s potential for producing chemicals biologically before earning his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for his work on multicellular networks. Believing research alone isn’t enough, Nico co-founded GASB, Germany’s grassroots SynBio organization, now in its 4th generation, for which is still serves as advisor. After a Novo Nordisk Foundation independent Postdoc fellowship in Denmark, he joined BlueYard Capital as Fellow, which inspired him to co-found BioHalo, developing novel biomaterials to replace PFAS. Besides, he strives shaping the future beyond by empowering and supporting innovators as a Senior Analyst at SPRIND, Germany’s innovation agency.
