Raising Health

AI-Enabled Continuity of Care with Ed and Todd Park

Vijay Pande, founding general partner of a16z Bio + Health, chats with the builders (and siblings) behind Devoted Health, Ed and Todd Park.  The Park brothers, with decades of expertise in healthcare and policy, including as EVP and COO at athenahealth (Ed) and Chief Technology Officer of the United States (Todd),  started Devoted with the idea of building a healthcare model from scratch. Together, their discussion underscores the sector's urgent need for technological innovation and the ga...

Grand Challenges in Healthcare AI with Vijay Pande and Julie Yoo

Vijay Pande, founding general partner, and Julie Yoo, general partner at a16z Bio + Health, come together to talk through the grand challenges facing healthcare AI today. The discussion covers the implications of AI integration in healthcare workflows, AI as a potential catalyst for value-based care, and the potential for innovation in clinical trials. They also talk about the AI startup they each wish would walk through the door. 

Behind the Buy: Payors and Providers on AI Adoption

As any healthcare founder knows, it can be difficult to get into a room with the executives making purchase decisions for payors and providers—so we’re bringing the executives to you. This episode features interviews with payor and provider leaders about what they’re seeing and how they’re thinking about AI. Guided by Julie Yoo, general partner, and Jay Rughani, investment partner at a16z Bio + Health, you'll hear from the executives about how they're utilizing AI, the KPIs they use to gaug...

Biotech Revolution with Software Engineering Daily

"There is a revolution unfolding in biotech. The confluence of new biological methods like CRISPR, virtually unlimited computational capacity, and machine learning has fundamentally transformed our ability to engineer biology for wide-ranging applications." Vijay Pande, founding general partner at a16z Bio + Health, joins the Software Engineering Daily podcast to talk about innovation in biotech and healthcare, the biotech startup landscape, the impact of AI, and much more. You can see a t...

Dark Genome Hunting with Rosana Kapeller and Marty Taylor

Rosana Kapeller, CEO of Rome Therapeutics, and Marty Taylor, physician-scientist at Harvard Medical School, join Vineeta Agarwala, general partner, and Bryan Faust, investment partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they discuss Rosana and Marty's recent publication regarding a virus-like element in our genome known as LINE-1. LINE-1, part of our "dark genome," was ignored as junk DNA for years, but is increasingly recognized to contribute to the pathology of autoimmunity, cancer, neurodege...

DNA as Data Storage with Vijay Pande

Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health, dives deep with a16z Podcast host Steph Smith into the potential of DNA as a data storage mechanism. This episode, a cross-post with the a16z Podcast, draws parallels between Moore's Law and the race for "Moore's Law for DNA." Vijay discusses the density, longevity, and ubiquity of DNA, and how this could be leveraged into a data storage solution. Vijay and Steph mix technical advancements with futuristic speculation as they talk about wha...

The Most Interesting Healthcare Companies You've Never Heard Of with Julie Klapstein

Julie Klapstein, founding CEO of Availity, long-time healthcare executive, and a16z Bio + Health's newest advisory partner, joins Julie Yoo, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they delve into Julie Klapstein's rich career journey, which has spanned several decades of progress in healthcare. They also discussed building Availity, her time at MultiPlan, and the network effects undergirding both businesses. Finally, they talk about how AI could impact healthcare—for payors, provid...

CRISPR by Design with Benjamin Oakes

Scribe Therapeutics cofounder and CEO Benjamin Oakes, PhD, joins a16z Bio + Health founding general partner Vijay Pande. In this episode, Benjamin traces his journey from PhD student to pioneering CEO in genome editing. Benjamin discusses his early exposure to CRISPR technologies, his hands-on experience of transforming these bacterial immune systems into "genome editing scalpels," and the founding of Scribe. The conversation sheds light on the challenges of engineering these molecules, as ...

Metrics for a Complex Machine with Josh Clemente

Josh Clemente, cofounder and president of Levels, joins Vijay Pande, founding general partner, and Daisy Wolf, investment partner at a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, engineer-turned-entrepreneur Josh charts his journey from SpaceX and Hyperloop to cofounding metabolic health-focused company Levels. With a relentless drive for data-led health monitoring, Josh highlights the potential of wearable tech for tracking various biomarkers. Josh, Vijay, and Daisy also discuss how AI can simplify ...

Transitioning From Gymnast to Investor with Aly Raisman

Former gymnast and current investor Aly Raisman joins general partner Julie Yoo and investment partner Daisy Wolf of a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, Aly Raisman shares her quest for healthier living—physically, mentally and financially—on her journey from gymnast to a business investor. Having herself transitioned from an intensely structured routine, Aly emphasizes the need for more open conversations about mental health and financial literacy. She speaks passionately about the gap in ...

Finding PMF in Healthcare (After Tasting it Elsewhere) with Eren Bali and Max Cohen

Max Cohen, cofounder and CEO of Sprinter Health, and Eren Bali, founder and CEO of Carbon Health, join Julie Yoo, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they talk about becoming healthcare entrepreneurs despite non-healthcare backgrounds and what they had to learn along the way. They also discuss finding product-market fit, how they track PMF using KPIs, and the evolving investor landscape as the digital health space expands and matures. Additional reading: Digital Health Builder...

IRA, AI Regulation, and the Future with Joe Grogan

In this episode, Joe Grogan, a senior fellow at the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics and a former senior government official, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health to discuss all things regulation. Together, they dive into Joe’s experience working in the early days of the Covid pandemic, how he thinks about the Inflation Reduction Act’s effect on pharmaceutical R&D, and the future of AI regulation. Additional reading: Check out Joe's latest op...

Drag & Drop Genome Editing

Today's episode features the CEO of Tome Biosciences, Rahul Kakkar, alongside John Finn, CSO of Tome. They are joined by Jorge Conde, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, the three of them discuss the technology underlying Tome's work, known as PASTE, a genome editing technique. They also dive deep into how this technology could be applied to help patients, making cell therapy more accessible for more people. Editorial note: We mistakenly identified Rahul Kakkar and John Finn as...

Past, Present, and Future of AI with Vijay Pande

Bio Eats World is now Raising Health! Vijay Pande, founding partner of Bio + Health, is joined by Daphne Koller, Andrew Ng, Aviv Regev, and Jakob Uszkoreit. Vijay leads us on a reflective journey through the monumental achievements in AI from the 1980s to today, with a focus on the progress in healthcare and life sciences. This episode is drawn from the episodes we recorded in 2023 with Daphne Koller, Andrew Ng, Aviv Regev, and Jakob Uszkoreit, which are linked below. This blend of expert...

Fireside Chat with Sean Duffy

Bio Eats World is now Raising Health! On this first episode of Raising Health, Sean Duffy, cofounder and CEO of Omada Health, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of Bio + Health. Sean and Vijay discuss the building and growth of Omada, from the early days to now. As the cofounder of one of the original digital health companies, Sean has unique insight into the growth of both the digital health field and the changing venture capital environment.  They also talk about the future of AI, how O...

Introducing: Raising Health

Generalist Medical AI with Pranav Rajpurkar

Pranav Rajpurkar, PhD, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, Pranav and Vijay discuss a future with generalist medical AI. This is the idea of a medical AI that isn’t narrowly tailored to one specific task. As Pranav notes in the episode, the research and development process in medical AI development so far has been siloed by specialty, but generalist medical AI exists outside those siloes. If generalist medical AI is successful, it could act as a dynami...

Gate Unveiling with Jordi Mata-Fink

Jordi Mata-Fink, PhD, cofounder of Gate Bioscience, joins Vineeta Agarwala and Ben Portney of a16z Bio + Health. In this episode, Jordi discusses how he and his cofounders are working to commercialize a novel class of therapeutics, termed 'molecular gates.' His company, Gate, is working to exploit a previously uncharted avenue in cell biology—the secretory translocon—for therapeutic intervention. This approach has the potential to combat diseases otherwise resistant to existing therapeutics...

How to Build an AI-Native Health Plan with Mario Schlosser

Mario Schlosser, cofounder, former CEO, and current President of Technology at Oscar Health, joins Julie Yoo of Bio + Health. The conversation explores how AI advancements can revolutionize traditional healthcare models by enhancing efficiency, personalizing care journeys, and integrating real-time data insights. Mario also discusses "benefit-less" benefit designs, where healthcare plans learn from and adapt to individual consumer patterns, at least theoretically leading to the holy grail o...

Bridging AI, Ethics, and Consumer Trust with Miriam Vogel

Miriam Vogel, President and CEO of EqualAI, cohost of the podcast In AI We Trust?, and Chair of the National AI Advisory Committee, joins Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Miriam offers pragmatic insights for founders on ethical integration of AI. She also outlines concrete steps to build trustworthy AI. Finally, she discusses the regulatory landscape and the state of politics around AI today.

Clinical Copilots: Augmenting Human Care with Suchi Saria

AI trailblazer Suchi Saria, in conversation with Vijay Pande, sheds light on the winding path that led her to launch Bayesian Health, a bold effort to infuse intelligence into clinical workflows. With infectious optimism, Suchi describes her vision to create "clinical copilots" that augment human capabilities and unburden care teams. Yet she acknowledges the delicate balancing act required to implement AI ethically, emphasizing the need for continuous monitoring and oversight to build trust....

The Worlds She Sees with Fei-Fei Li

Fei-Fei Li, PhD,  Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute, joins Bio + Health founding partner Vijay Pande. In this candid conversation, Li unfolds her transformation from a young immigrant to an influential figure in AI. The conversation explores the birth of ImageNet, a pivotal step that bridged the gap between visual intelligence and accessible AI technology. They delve into the notion of a 'Dignity Ec...

Supercharging Discovery with Evan Feinberg

Evan Feinberg, PhD, founder and CEO at Genesis Therapeutics, joins Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Together, they talk about how Evan’s work in the lab (ironically, Vijay's lab at Stanford!) translated to the creation of Genesis, which is tackling the problem of drug discovery through AI. They also discuss how the Genesis team is building specifically to carry on work at the intersection of ML, biotech, and chemistry.

Evolving Biotechnologies with Olga Troyanskaya

Olga Troyanskaya, a professor in the department of computer science at Princeton and Deputy Director for Genomics at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Biology, joins Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health. Together, they talked about Olga's background and how she got involved in genomics, as well as how evolving biotechnologies have improved scientists’ ability to see different views of the cell. They also discussed social determinants of health, and how, in the ...

CMO vs. CPO with Peter Shalek and Reena Pande

Peter Shalek, a Chief Product Officer, currently at Stellar Health and formerly at AbleTo, and Reena Pande, currently a strategic advisor and formerly the Chief Medical Officer of AbleTo, join Julie Yoo and Justin Larkin of a16z Bio + Health.  As Julie mentions during the episode, there’s international relations, and then there’s CMO/CPO relations. Peter and Reena talked about working together to improve their relationship and the outcomes of their teams, and they get granular about what wo...

Interpretability and the AI "Clear Box" with Surya Ganguli

Note that due to technical difficulties, the audio quality of this episode may vary. Surya Ganguli, PhD, an associate professor at Stanford University and a neural dynamics researcher, joins Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Together, Surya and Vijay chatted about the interpretability of AI and how the AI black box could someday become a "clear box." They also talk through a future of AI-augmented humans, and where humans might excel compared with AI. 

AI Revolution with Daphne Koller

This episode is live from our recent AI Revolutionaries (AIR) conference. In this episode, Daphne Koller, founder and CEO at insitro and AI expert, chats with Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. You can check out the full conversation with video and transcript at https://a16z.com/digital-biology/. 

When Quantity Becomes Quality with Aviv Regev

Today's episode features Aviv Regev, PhD, the Head and Executive VP of Genentech Research and Early Development, and founding co-chair of the Human Cell Atlas. She is joined by Vijay Pande of Bio + Health. Together, Aviv and Vijay talk about how Aviv's love of both abstractions and details led her to biology, how CRISPR really set the field into motion, and how AI could transform the process of biological and medical discovery.

Navigating the Future of AI with Andrew Ng

Andrew Ng, PhD, a distinguished authority in the field of AI, is known for founding DeepLearning.AI and multiple other ventures. He also co-founded and led Google Brain and serves as an Adjunct Professor in Stanford University's Computer Science Department. In this episode, he is joined by Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health. Andrew has thought deeply about the implications of integrating AI into many areas of our lives, going so far as to put out a public social media call f...

Unleashing CAR T with Carl June

Carl June, MD, an immunologist and oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania, joins Jorge Conde, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, Carl and Jorge talked about Carl's pioneering work in CAR T therapy — including the terrifying moment where he thought he had accelerated one of his patient's deaths, how he started working in human immunology, and his take on where cancer treatment is headed next.

Becoming a Partnership Pioneer with Dan Nomura

Dan Nomura  is a distinguished professor at UC Berkeley and an Investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute, specializing in Chemical Biology and Molecular Therapeutics. He serves as the Director of the Novartis-Berkeley Translational Chemical Biology Institute and founded Frontier Medicines and Vicinitas Therapeutics. He’s also a16z Bio+Health’s newest advisory partner. In this episode, Dan joins general partner Jorge Conde and investment partner Becky Pferdehirt to discuss how he got...

Wartime and Peacetime: Being a Leader with Ben Horowitz

In this exclusive conversation from the Bio + Health BUILD summit, founding partner Ben Horowitz sits down with general partner Jorge Conde. They discuss everything from the inspiration behind Ben’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things, how the open Internet was secured, the difference between wartime and peacetime CEOs, scaling culture, and understanding how bio and healthcare differs from other forms of technology.

Medical Education and AI with Lloyd B. Minor

Together, Lloyd and Vijay chatted about how AI could change the practice of medicine, and what the implications are for medical students now and in the future.  join Lloyd and Vijay as they discuss AI and medical education—from how students learn to how doctors become licensed.

The Path of a Healthtech CTO with Margaret McKenna

Together, Margaret and Julie chatted about Margaret’s background — and how she taught herself to program — her time at Devoted, and the advice she gives to healthtech CEOs. Join Margaret and Julie as they discuss building a developer-friendly environment in healthcare, introducing engineers to the complexity of the industry, and how AI might affect engineering in healthcare.

The AI-Flipped Clinic with Zak Kohane

Together, Vijay and Zak talked about having been through AI winters and hype cycles before, and why they think this time could be different. They also talked about how AI could revolutionize the healthcare model — what Zak calls the “flipped clinic.” Join Zak and Vijay as they talk about how AI could flip the clinic, how foundation models could quickly transform the discovery and development of drugs, and how Zak thinks about the future.

Putting the Pro in Provider Networks with Dan Rosenthal

Dan Rosenthal, a provider network expert and the newest advisory partner for a16z Bio + Health, joins Julie Yoo, general partner. Together, they talk about the 101 and 201 of provider networks, tactical advice for digital health builders, and how AI could theoretically change the way networks are constructed.

The Exec Hiring Playbook with Ben Horowitz and Ali Ghodsi

The holy grail of company building is finding product-market fit. But what most people don’t tell you is that once you’ve found it, product-market fit brings its own set of challenges, particularly when it comes to scaling rapidly and hiring the right executives at the right time. Drawing from their extensive experiences, a16z cofounder Ben Horowitz and Databricks cofounder and CEO Ali Ghodsi sit down with Steph Smith of the a16z podcast to talk about the hardest things about executive hiri...

Drugging the Undruggable with Greg Verdine

When Greg started out in science, he heard other researchers referring to certain targets as “undruggable.” In response, he’s devoted his life to drugging the undruggable, cofounding the field of chemical biology along the way. After a robust career founding multiple biotechs and serving as the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of FogPharma, he is the newest venture partner at a16z Bio + Health. Join Greg, Vineeta, and Jorge as they talk about Greg's upbringing and career, and how he thinks abou...

Forecasting Human Health with Jeffrey Kaditz

After his own health scare, Jeffrey got obsessed with how MRIs work—and decided that they were too unscientific to really track human health over time. In response, he built a new kind of imaging, creating a “digital twin” that can be tracked over time. And if health can be tracked over time, in theory it could eventually become as forecastable as the weather. Join Jeffrey and Vijay as they talk about human imaging, health forecasting, and how a digital twin could change healthcare.

Will AI Kill Us All? with Marc Andreessen

AI has the potential to save the world — that’s the thesis of Marc’s most recent article, linked below. This episode was recorded right after Marc published his article, live from a16z Bio + Health’s first summit. Join Marc and Vijay as they talk about how AI can save the world, and where it can go wrong. Additional reading: Why AI Will Save the World  

AI, Innovation, and Regulatory Insights with Amy Abernethy

AI is not just a sci-fi concept anymore; it's being woven into the fabric of healthcare, revolutionizing everything from research to patient care. It has the potential to create more streamlined and efficient processes. The challenge now is how we adapt and regulate this ever-evolving technology, while ensuring safety and trust. Amy Abernethy, former Principal Deputy Commissioner at the FDA and now the President of Product Development and Chief Medical Officer at Verily Life Sciences, joins...

From Faculty to Founder: Building Startups from Academia

In this episode, taken from a live a16z event, Bio + Health general partner Vineeta Agarwala moderates a panel of UCSF faculty founders, including Michelle Arkin, Jimmie Ye, and Natalia Jura (full bios below). Together, they discuss fundraising, the decision to stay in or leave  academia after founding a company, and their tips for managing the IP process.  Michelle Arkin is a professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at UCSF, chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and a co-direct...

Curing the Trust Problem with Mark Cuban

Today’s episode is with Mark Cuban, founder of multiple businesses, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, one of the sharks on Shark Tank, and cofounder of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. He is joined by Vijay Pande, founding partner of a16z Bio + Health.  Together, they talk market forces in healthcare, the importance of trust to patients, and Mark’s ideas to tackle the Gordian knot that is American healthcare.

The Founders Reinventing Healthcare with Fintech

Today’s episode is a cross-post with the a16z podcast. It features founders—Chris Severn, Florian Otto, Andrew Adams, Jade Chan, Jimmy Chen, and Fay Rotenberg—chatting with a16z podcast host Steph Smith, about how they're trying to reinvent the healthcare system, using fintech. Additional reading: https://a16z.com/healthcare-meets-fintech/ https://a16z.com/2023/02/07/healthtech-x-fintechs-biggest-prize/ https://a16z.com/2022/06/01/payvidors-unbundled-opportunities-in-healthcare-fintech/

Adapting Biopharma to AI with Greg Meyers

Today’s episode is with Greg Meyers, EVP and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Bristol Myers Squibb (or BMS). He is joined by a16z Bio + Health general partner Jorge Conde. Together, they talk about how AI could transform drug discovery and development at a large biopharma company—and how a company might have to adapt to harness AI; modalities they’re excited about; and Greg’s do’s and don’ts for startups looking to partner with a company like BMS.

Healthcare x Fintech with Julie Yoo and David Haber

Healthcare payments are difficult, confusing, and opaque. But Julie and David discuss the ways that technology could change that for the better, and where they see the greatest opportunity for founders to solve big challenges. Additional reading: https://a16z.com/healthcare-meets-fintech/ https://a16z.com/2023/02/07/healthtech-x-fintechs-biggest-prize/ https://a16z.com/2022/06/01/payvidors-unbundled-opportunities-in-healthcare-fintech/

Journal Club: Engineering Logic into CAR T Therapies with Robbie Majzner

In this episode, a16z Bio + Health investment partner Becky Pferdehirt chats with Robbie Majzner, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Stanford, and co-founder of Link Cell Therapies. Together, they discuss Robbie's recent paper published in Nature. The paper outlines a new approach to develop logic gated intracellular network, or LINK CAR T cells, as a means to simultaneously enhance both the safety and efficacy of these novel cell therapies. ...

The Future of Cheese with Magi Richani

Today’s episode is with Magi Richani, founder and CEO of Nobell Foods. She is joined by a16z Bio + Health general partner Vijay Pande. Together, they talk about the details of engineering plants to create the future of food, why Nobell started with soybeans to produce their cheese, and her dream of finding a cheese pizza—with Nobell cheese—at any pizza shop across the country.

Reengineering Healthcare and Medicine with Technology with Vineeta Agarwala

This is a crossover episode with The Bioverge Podcast, hosted by Neil Littman. Neil is joined by Vineeta Agarwala, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they chat about Vineeta's dual role as a clinician and investor, the adoption curve of digital therapeutics, how Vineeta thinks about platforms and a modular, engineering-driven approach to biotech, and much more.

Bio x American Dynamism with Katherine Boyle and David Ulevitch

Today’s episode is with a16z’s American Dynamism team: Katherine Boyle and David Ulevitch. Katherine is a general partner focused on national security, aerospace and defense, public safety, housing, education, and industrials. David is a general partner focused on companies promoting American dynamism, as well as enterprise and SaaS companies. They are joined by a16z Bio + Health general partner Vijay Pande, and editorial lead Olivia Webb. Together, we talk about the idea behind American Dy...