2024 is off with a bang! 🧨

For those of you who just accomplished dry January, congrats! To those of you who borrowed from a few days in March, touché. In the spirit 🍸 of new beginnings, let's get things rolling with Volume 15 of BrainFood.

The Wild West of AI Investing 🌵

With AI breakthroughs happening almost daily (improved planning, reasoning, comprehension, automation) it's tough to know which horse to bet on. In medicine, it's even trickier; Pharma and med-tech are heavily regulated industries by the FDA and others. There's a strong case for that...forget about just losing money; when you make mistakes in healthcare, the repercussions can be disastrous. Therein lies a huge opportunity, the AI healthcare market is expected to hit $173 billion by 2029. Who better to share insights around Security, Privacy, Safety better than our resident AI investors Sarfraz N. , Jin Lee, Ph.D , Jukka Alanen , and Adry Elmilady .

What are some real world applications? 🧐

Shout out to Zahava Stroud for the collaboration on SZ 118! Grateful for our panel of aficionados who deftly unraveled the transformative impact of this watershed moment. If you want to learn more about how AI is reshaping the investment sphere. watch the full episode here.

Chip Conley is changing how we look at mid-life; it's not a crisis, it's a chrysalis 🦋

This masterful storyteller was part of the reason for Airbnb 's meteoric success (which all started via a text message from Brian Chesky ). Aside from personalization and localization, he also helped the founders tap into a sense of belonging. And Chip knows hospitality - The NYT best selling author and founding board member of the Burning Man nonprofit also founded & sold Joie de Vivre Hotels. Chip dove into the changing workplace dynamic:

"The majority of American's by next year will have a younger boss. This whole new workplace is like an inter-generational potluck, and we all have something to bring to the table." -Chip Conley

"I was fascinated by the idea that the more digital we got, the more we needed to be in person and have that kind of sense of festivity. And, so I was intrigued by festivals of all kinds: food festivals, film festivals, transformational festivals, religious programs. They were all growing at a time when we were online."        

This guy is a Warrior 💪🏽

Chip received his 30th treatment of chemo the morning of his talk - and still had energy to bring the heat at the Park James Hotel - Talk about commitment! Sharyn Bires and Chip's long-time friend HOOMAN KHALILI moderated with Nick Larson in what was a truly unforgettable evening. A few days later, Chip was on Good Morning America for his book tour, Learning to Live Midlife - Amazon link here. It's an extraordinary read on creating the blueprint for your life, highly recommend.

Brian💥 Sparkes had a superb question: "How do you nurture the leadership around you so it spreads and builds a culture?"

Chip's answer: "To improve on your EQ, ask yourself what 5 adjectives would you like strangers to say you in an anonymous 360° survey? Then find out what habits you need to operate with to achieve those traits."

And our relationships dictate a lot. In fact, here's a hot take on a longevity 🔥 The number one variable for living a longer, happier, healthier life is your social wellness. Of course eating right, sleeping enough, and working out are all crucial. But more importantly is how connected you are to other people and how we build relationships. A lot of his work leading Modern Elder Academy is focused on just that: Navigating Transitions, Cultivating Purpose, Owning Wisdom. Be sure to watch the full episode here.

Rational Super-Charged Drug Discovery 💊

Before Artificial Intelligence dominated the space, we had Phenotypic drug discovery. This process identified pharmacologically active molecules that gave a response during a screening of the compounds (though often without understanding the underlying biological mechanisms). Fast forward to rational drug discovery, which focuses on understanding the underlying biology of a disease and targeting specific molecules involved in the disease process; think designing a puzzle piece to fit another 🧩 This is where the leap forward in computational science and biology occurs...a greater understanding in genomics, transcriptomics, and bioinformatics (the tools/analytics that capture & interpret biological data). Because if you can't measure, you can't manage.

How to Design a Molecule ✍🏽

In effective molecule design, you must have the right properties: 1. Must hit the right target 2. Have the right bio-availability 3. Have the right safety profile 5. Be sure not to hit other targets in the body. As it turns out, these multi-parameter optimizations are perfect for Machine Learning! 🦾

Proteins aren't amorphous blobs, they have structure. We can see their complex structure by crystalizing them under specific conditions then passing X ray's through them. Now we can do multiple proteins at once - then search for 'pockets' to add compounds or peptides and change the activity.         

JPM Health Tech Week in SF was 🔥

And thanks to Lior Zorea at Nixon Peabody LLP , we hosted some of the brightest minds in the space, including: Tari Suprapto - Director at Novo Nordisk , Immanuel Lerner, Ph.D. - CEO of Pepticom Ltd. Stacie Calad-Thomson - Vice Chair of the The Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAIH) and Liza Lichtinger , founder of Future Design.

Tari Suprapto (academic tech transfer expert) helped us crack the code on business models, building partnerships and finding the next big thing. However discoveries in the lab and accessible treatments are two separate things entirely. What does she look for as a scout? "Focus is everything. In the end, you still have to shoulder the burden from the test tube to the ML model to the patient. But if it's a disease that effects the general population, you'll need a broad study size," she says.

Virtual Representations of a Drug, Process, or System 🖥️

"There are digital twin technologies that are enabling smaller trials...but the majority of the failures are due to translation; a molecule may work in a mouse, but not in a human."

-Stacie Calad-Thomson

AlphaFold: Unlocking the Human Genome 🧬

This AI system (developed by Google's DeepMind) predicts a protein's 3D structure from its amino acid sequence. "Hugely impactful for science and humanity," says Immanuel Lerner, Ph.D. , who is pioneering Peptide Design. Pepticom Ltd. is able to analyze vast datasets, enabling the identification of novel peptide sequences (short chains of amino acids) with desired properties.

The dynamic of therapeutic research over the years has become much more collaborative- an essential element of the circular economy which Liza Lichtinger referred to. That circular economy is bolstered by human capital development in the quest for personalized medicine. Equally important is building your data on the right model; like building a house on a good foundation.

Shout out to Sarah Benson-Konforty, MD, board member of the AAIH, for helping coordinate this wonderful evening. Watch the full episode here.

Zombie of the Month 🧟

Longtime fan of the show and delightful human Cory Warfield is our Zombie of the month! Congrats to Cory for not only surpassing 500k followers, but also achieving the LinkedIn Top Voice badge 🏆

Cory is a terrific example of a servant-leader; he's humble, positive, leads with value, and has a great sense of humor! Excited to have him on the show in 2024, where we'll explore UBI (Universal Basic Income) and how the blockchain + music will change the game for creators. Looking to grow your LinkedIn influence? Interested in #techforgood? He's your guy. Parabéns, Cory!

Interesting AF 🇦🇷

AI company dubbed Argentinian president Javier Milei at Davos. He spoke on the disaster of collectivism, and how to move forward.

In 1913, Argentina was top 10 GDP per capita on earth. Vibrant economy, flourishing art scene, leading innovation, and strong growth. Almost a dozen Military coups later (between 1930 and the 1970s, which were championed by relativism and socialism), the country had changed a lot; Good intentions but with a bad outcome. Milei hopes to usher in a new chapter, we wish him luck!

Upcoming Shows

Be sure not to miss Alex Cahana, MD and Sahirzeeshan (Sahir) Ali on our 122nd episode, 'A Rising Tide' - where we'll explore emerging tech's impact on humanity and how we can bend the arc so that everybody wins. Thanks to our partner Park James Hotel for providing a beautiful atmosphere where we can listen - learn - apply - and grow!

Job Board

Looking for a role? Looking to hire? Reach out to us and get in front of the right folks! Here is a list of open positions - and be sure to connect with talent placement pro's like Ben Lewis 😎

Asimily: Customer Success Manager, Australia

Concentric: Director, Sales Engineering, Bay Area, NYC

Curie: Founding Engineer, Sunnyvale, CA

Evinced: QA Manager, Tel Aviv, Israel

Kentik: Director, Field Engineering Americas, Remote

Kognitos: Software Engineer (backend), Bangalore, India

Menlo Security: Sr. Director, Commercial Legal, Mountain View, CA

Nexla: Dir. of Product Marketing, San Mateo, CA

Oodle: Founding Engineer, San Jose, CA

Robust Intelligence: AI Security Engineer, Japan

vFunction: Field CTO, Evangelist

YotaScale: Multiple positions

 That's all from us, catch ya next month. Until then, be good to yourselves, and be good to each other ❤️

Big thanks to our sponsors:

Necodex - your remote team in Mexico for digital products + augmented staffing

Primero Negocios - The best marketing team to you get local customers

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