Transcribed

Lindsay Edwards went from producing UK top ten singles with Sting and Whitney Houston to pioneering the first data science group at GSK — and he's carried the same creative instinct into machine learning ever since. Now CTO of Relation Therapeutics, he's one of the clearest-eyed voices in the industry on where AI in biology is genuinely working and where it's still mostly noise. Lindsay joined Ben...

Jacob Berlin spent years perfecting a microarray chip the size of a fingernail before he thought about starting a company. Now, as cofounder and CEO of Terray Therapeutics, he's using that hardware to generate chemistry data at a scale the industry has never seen, and arguing that models without proprietary data aren't a moat at all. Jacob joined Benchling CEO Sajith Wickramasekara to talk about w...

Kate Haviland knows how to push through clinical setbacks and turn breakthrough science into life-changing therapies. As former CEO of Blueprint Medicines, she led the team that took Ayvakit from a failed Phase 3 to a $500M blockbuster — by cutting the dose by 87% and betting on a patient population nobody had treated before. Kate joined Sajith to talk about holding conviction despite ambiguity, e...

Janice Chen cofounded Mammoth Biosciences straight out of Jennifer Doudna's lab — and she's been rewriting the CRISPR playbook ever since. In this episode, she tells host and Benchling CEO Sajith Wickramasekara about what it really takes to build a platform company, why the biggest barriers to gene editing aren't scientific, and how a cruise ship outbreak in Oakland sparked a race to build a COVID...

Nicole Paulk talks about turning moonshots into companies, why unpopular ideas are the right ones to pursue, and how biotech has to move faster and cheaper to survive.

Gleb Kuznetsov talks about about ditching Google for grad school, what it takes to build a true platform company, and where AI-driven drug discovery is headed.

Andrew Bellinger discusses what it takes to build new drug modalities from scratch, the bold bets and tough calls that shaped Verve’s journey, and lessons in building new companies from first-in-class science. * Editor's note: The interview was recorded following the announcement of Verve's acquisition by Lilly, which has since been completed.

Jake Becraft reflects on making bold bets in mRNA, the journey from lab bench to biotech founder, and the state of science today. (00:00) Introduction to Jake Becraft (00:39) Betting big on mRNA — before it was a proven modality (11:34) Getting your drugs to patients (25:47) The state of modern biomanufacturing (34:30) Medicine is the best investment — and we need policy that reflects that (45:22)...

Karen Akinsanya unpacks the rise of computational drug discovery, what it takes to prove impact of new technologies, and the importance of setting realistic expectations for AI. (00:00) Introduction to Karen Akinsanya (01:54) Pursuing big technological shifts (06:24) How computation is setting the new standard of speed (10:27) Why you can't develop technology in a vacuum (14:08) Breakthroughs take...

Sara Kenkare-Mitra talks about resilience, risk, and the kind of leadership it takes to save failing drug programs — and make medicines that matter. (00:00) Introduction to Sara Kenkare-Mitra (00:36) Turning a (nearly) failed program into a bestselling drug (08:33) Learning from industry legends (22:59) Winning for patients, even if others take it across the finish line (27:30) Following your curi...

Patrick Hsu reflects on the early days of CRISPR, the power of mentorship, and how AI and open science will reshape the future of research. (00:00) Introduction to Patrick Hsu (01:06) Realizing how big CRISPR would become (06:20) Why Feng Zhang's lab is so high-impact (14:23) How to spot a breakthrough before it happens (18:18) Where the U.S. can't compete with China — and where it can (22:13) How...