A Hypothesis-Agnostic Approach to Accelerating Drug Discovery - Dr. Chris Gibson, Co-Founder and CEO of Recursion

12/14/22 • 31 min

“I’m currently sitting 100 feet away from a giant lab full of robots where we can do up to 2.2 million experiments a week,” says Dr. Chris Gibson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Recursion, a company whose mission is to create a more efficient path to drug discovery. You are going to hear a lot of mind-boggling numbers from Chris in today’s Raise the Line episode, but they all boil down to this: advances in genetics, computing, artificial intelligence, mRNA capability and other technologies are all converging to accelerate the testing of drugs at an incredible pace. This is particularly good news for people with rare diseases who are often in a race against time for development of therapies. Although only founded nine years ago, Recursion already has four programs in clinical trials. A key factor in this success is a bold departure from the traditional hypothesis-based approach to science driven by lab failures Chris experienced while earning his MD-PhD. Once he and his colleagues cast aside their bias about what was driving the disease in question, they achieved success in animal testing. “We just modeled the genetic loss of function because we knew that incontrovertibly to be true, and then asked the cells what was actually driving the disease and what could make it better.” Don’t miss this fascinating look at reengineering drug discovery through gene mapping, training neural networks and other leading-edge technology.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.recursion.com/

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/raisethelinepodcast

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.recursion.com/

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/raisethelinepodcast

Previous Episode

Taking Quality from the ‘Back of the House’ to Front of Mind: Stephanie Mercado, CEO of the National Association for Healthcare Quality

You might think improving healthcare quality is largely in the hands of the clinicians providing the care, but much of this challenging work is actually done behind the scenes by professionals who lead quality reviews, institute new protocols for safer care and focus on performance improvement, among many other efforts. “We are on a journey to really change the perception of what quality is. We want to make it more prospective and actually solve problems for patients and the healthcare workforce,” says Stephanie Mercado, CEO and Executive Director of the National Association for Healthcare Quality. On this episode of Raise the Line, we get an inside look at this critically important function in healthcare, and at the Healthcare Quality Workforce ReportNAHQ recently released that recognizes the field’s progress, but also outlines places for improvement. “The areas most important for the future of healthcare are things where the workforce is performing at lower ends of the competency spectrum. Those include health data analytics, change management and payment models. So, we have a lot of work to do.” Check out this revealing conversation with host Michael Carrese to learn what the future holds for quality professionals as healthcare challenges mount.

Mentioned in this episode: https://nahq.org/

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/raisethelinepodcast

Next Episode

A Reservoir of Hope Drives Research Into a Rare Brain Disorder - Scott Reich, Co-Founder of Believe in a Cure

“There's a reservoir of hope, energy and optimism many of us have that we may not know about until we're really tested,” says attorney and author Scott Reich. The heavy test he and his wife Ilissa have endured for the past three years started when their infant son Eli was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder called FOXG1 Syndrome which causes severe seizures and impedes normal movement, speech and sleep, among other problems. Scott vividly recalls the moment when Eli’s doctor explained there was no hope for treatments or a cure. “I just felt an instantaneous gravitational pull that despite the intense emotion that overtook us in the doctor's office, we were going to do something about it.” That “something” includes starting the nonprofit foundation Believe in a Cure which is currently funding over fifty research and development projects worldwide focused on this pernicious disorder. Join us for this enlightening conversation with host Shiv Gaglani to learn about the multi-pronged strategy scientists are pursuing to overcome the mutation in this so-called master gene, the promising results emerging from preclinical programs and the supportive global community Believe in a Cure has helped create for the hundreds of other families fighting the same battle.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.webelieveinacure.org

If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/raisethelinepodcast