Accelerating Cancer Research

A Conversation with Hani Goodarzi of Arc Institute, UCSF, Exai Bio, Vevo Therapeutics

Source: Arc Institute

Last week, the field of AI for life science hit a milestone with the release of Evo 2: the largest AI model for biology to date, trained on over 9 trillion DNA tokens from over 100,000 species. Evo2 is a generalist model that can, for example, predict whether a specific genetic mutation might cause a disease, such as cancer.

This model was developed through a partnership between NVIDIA and the Arc Institute - an innovative nonprofit research center.

As the Arc team was preparing for Evo 2’s release, I had the opportunity to sit down with Hani Goodarzi, a Core Investigator at the Arc Institute, quantitative and computational biologist, associate professor at UCSF, and co-founder of two startups, one of which – Exai Bio – is focused on the early detection of cancer.

A fun anecdote: when OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman took a sabbatical last year, he spent part of that time collaborating with Hani and the Arc team to help them overcome the engineering challenges that come with scaling a biology foundation model of this size.

Source: x.com/gdb

In my podcast interview with Hani we explored:

• The Emerging Promise of Biology Foundation Models Such as Evo 2

• Hani's Experience Partnering with NVIDIA and Greg Brockman of OpenAI

• Building Multidisciplinary Teams to Tackle Grand Challenges In Life Science

• The Science Behind The Early Cancer Detection Platform Developed by Exai Bio

• How Startups Help Bridge the Gap Between Academia and Industry Scale

Watch or Listen Now

If you're interested to get a peek into the hopeful future of early cancer detection and treatment through the use of powerful AI models, join us for this conversation:

Also available on:

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Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40sQCu9

Episode Buzz

We were happy to see Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe and the Arc Institute, re-share our episode with Hani:

More community reactions:

Show Notes

Episode Links:

• Arc Institute https://arcinstitute.org/

• Goodarzi Lab https://arcinstitute.org/labs/goodarzilab

• Exai Bio https://www.exai.bio/

• Vevo Therapeutics https://www.vevo.ai/

• UCSF Cancer Center https://cancer.ucsf.edu/people/goodarzi.hani

• Hani's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hgoodarzi/

• Greg Brockman's Post https://x.com/gdb/status/1864052838256808339?lang=en

• NCI Cancer Stats https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Teaser

• 02:12 - Episode Introduction & Preview

• 07:35 - Hani’s Path Into Quantitative and Computational Biology

• 11:55 - The Emerging Promise of Foundation Models Such as Evo 2

• 15:53 - Dry Side vs. Wet Side of Biology

• 22:23 - Pivoting Into AI for Life Science From Unrelated Domains, and the Importance of Culture in Cross-Functional Teams

• 27:28 - How to Develop Multidisciplinary Teams: Brutal Honesty

• 30:07 - How Arc Institute’s Org and Funding Structure Enables Innovative Science

• 36:24 - How Tech Founders Are Pushing Biotech Innovation

• 39:07 - Hani’s Collaboration with NVIDIA and Greg Brockman of OpenAI

• 43:57 - The Science Behind Exai’s Early Cancer Detection Platform

• 52:05 - DNA Methylation to Improve Cancer-Specific Signals From Blood

• 55:25 - UCSF’s Application of This Technology for Breast Cancer Detection

• 58:34 - How Startups Help Bridge the Science “Valley of Death”

• 01:04:24 - Supporting Hani’s Work Through Scientific Contributions, Evangelism, and Applying the Scientific Method Across Disciplines