I started in 2005 and I thought about what I really wanted to do. It was necessary to think big. I tried to discover what it was in this intersection between technology and solving real problems.

Cancer, for example, is an important challenge for society. Cancer comes from a genetic mutation, but it also may not be caused by a genetic mutation. So then a challenge appears. The way in which cells reproduce leads to a tumor. Sometimes tumors are created and then disappear, and sometimes they start to grow and invade the entire body. Cancer releases cells very quickly and then acts as a mechanism of selection and tries to eliminate the more aggressive cells. With Doctor Massagué we are working with new drugs to alter this biological process.

Another one of my passions is sustainability and new sources of energy. Through the experience with ethanol, we want to redesign the world of fuel, so that it will be cheap and organic. We are searching for the best path to hydrocarbons. However, it is a limited focus, because if you use sugar, this is limited. So what is unlimited? The sun. How can we harness its energy? Trees capture light very well, by means of photosynthesis. With the tools of genetic engineering, we are using light from the sun and waste water to obtain fuel. At present we have a half-hectare plant operating in the south of Texas. We are preparing a thousand-hectare plant in New Mexico to produce nearly 70 million liters of fuel per year. And it can grow. It’s only a question of deciding where we stop. It is a facility that can be installed anywhere that has both sun and water.

Explore the possible. Based on what we know, we can take information from here and there. We are also concerned about world nutrition. 800 million people are starving. By 2050 there are expected to be between 3.5 and 9.5 million inhabitants of the Earth who will go hungry. Can we take advantage of our knowledge and feed these people? If we could create pure nutrients without depending on drinking water and arable land, and do it at low cost, what would happen? 70% of water goes to agriculture. If we can change the food chain, we can change the world. Nutriculture that unites CO2 and nonpotable water to create the essential nutrients needed by human beings. The components of meals require a lot of energy and now we can create nutrients with less energy. We are starting this program in Ethiopia.