Over the past 15 years, the field of synthetic biology has been actively experimenting with models of interdisciplinary collaboration and responsible innovation. In this talk, I will reflect on my experiences as an embedded social scientist in this field, and my recent work using the “politics of care” as a lens to study and shape the relationship between bioengineers and their work. The case study for this talk is the biofoundry, an emerging type of facility developing new technologies and business models for high-throughput biomanufacturing. Biofoundries are currently sites of great innovation, and they are making all kinds of design choices that could prove very consequential to the future of biotechnology and society. It is thus important to attend to, and develop tools to care for, the futures that are being shaped through biofoundries.