AI shifts biotech bottleneck to delivery
The guest argued that while AI tools like AlphaFold have solved the protein discovery bottleneck, they have created a massive backlog of potential treatments that cannot yet be delivered to target areas of the body.
The argument
With discovery accelerated by AI, the primary challenge in medicine has shifted from 'what protein to use' to 'how to get the protein where it needs to go.' Companies building the delivery infrastructure (the 'rockets' for the 'payloads') will capture significant value.
The thesis, stress-tested
✓ What validates it
- ✓Successful in vivo delivery of AI-designed proteins in clinical trials
- ✓Partnerships between AI discovery firms and delivery platform companies
▸ Risks discussed
- ▸Delivery mechanisms may fail to target specific organs safely
- ▸High R&D costs for delivery vehicles
Hear it yourself
"He's a leading professor at the MIT yeah. Polymath, MIT Media Lab professor, health care entrepreneur, advisor to anyone who wants to know fancy things sort of guy. And then me. I'm already an investor in WholeBiome, Phil's company. Love what Jamie's up to and very interested in what he's building as well. We can put that in the show notes. We'll put all that in the show notes. And then we met and part of the reason I became very interested in Strand, there were a lot of reasons. So one is the technology, the results, the photograph, or I should say images that you showed me, which we'll get to in a second."
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