a16z Podcast: On the Genomics of Disease, From Science to Business

The a16z Show

a16z

Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Science, Culture, Disruption, Technology, Software Eating The World

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2016

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Once we sequenced the human genome, we'd know the cause of -- and therefore be able to help cure -- all diseases... Or so we thought. Turns out, 20,000 genes (and counting) didn't really explain why disease occurred. Sure, some could be explained by ...

Transcript

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0:00.0	The content here is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal business tax
0:05.6	or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security and is not directed
0:10.3	at any investors or potential investors in any A16Z fund. For more details, please see A16Z.com
0:16.8	slash disclosures.
0:18.7	Hi, everyone. Welcome to the A6 and Z podcast. I'm Sonal and I'm here today with Gabriel
0:24.0	Ott, who is the co-founder and CEO of Fremome, which is a company that aims to cure cancer
0:30.0	through early detection using machine learning and other software techniques on DNA.
0:34.8	We also have our general partner, VJ Pondonday who heads up our bio fund. And we also
0:40.0	have Malinka Wali. Oh my God, I'm going to put you your last name. Walali Yadde. Perfect. And that's so
0:45.3	embarrassing because I'm Indian too and I really shouldn't know how to say your last name.
0:47.9	It took me a while, sir. It took me a while. So you were a while to your last name. That's good. It was like five probably. Well, great, you guys. Welcome.
1:00.3	We're talking about machine learning techniques brought to bio and what that opens up for us and what some of the challenges are as well.
1:01.5	So just to kick things off.
1:09.3	Yeah, I mean, one place to start is that, you know, ever since the Human Genome Project, people have been talking about all these great cures and things that will come from it.
1:11.1	And what is different now?
1:16.4	You know, why are we expecting to see something now? I think one of the biggest realizations of the human genome is that the human body and the genome is much more complicated than we thought.
1:21.8	Everyone thought we would know the cause of all diseases and therefore we would be able to cure
1:26.9	all diseases. As soon as we realized
1:29.0	that 20,000 genes just were not enough to explain while all these diseases occurred, it gave
1:35.5	life to all sorts of new fields of biology that have been built around understanding the genome.
1:41.7	What's different now as opposed to what was happening in 2000 is,
1:45.7	finally, the technology, the machine learning techniques as well as the hardware supporting that
	...

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