Marcel Botha

Venture Studio, Connected Health

[Ole Lehmann @itsolelehmann]

Demis Hassabis says he can cure every disease in 10 years.

Most people roll their eyes when they hear this, but I don't.

Demis is the guy who just won the Nobel Prize for solving protein folding with AI (a problem biologists had been stuck on for 50 years).

But that was just one milestone in his much grander plan.

In 2010, he founded DeepMind with a 2-part mission: "solve intelligence, then use it to solve everything else."

Step 1: make AI good enough to do real science.
Step 2: point that AI at humanity's biggest problems.

Step one was AlphaFold.

He used AI to figure out the 3D shape of every protein in nature (which is basically what every drug attaches to).

Demis said it would have taken "a billion years of PhD time" to do by hand.

Step two is curing all disease.

And as of today, step two is fully funded.

Isomorphic Labs (his AI drug discovery company inside Google) just raised $2.1B led by Thrive Capital.

Here's where the money goes and what Demis thinks happens next:

> Drug discovery currently takes 5-10 years and costs billions per drug. That math is why most diseases don't have good treatments today.

> AI fixes the math. Their drug design engine compresses development from years to months. Maybe weeks.

> Isomorphic's first AI-designed cancer drug enters human trials this year.

> Their pipeline expands beyond the current 17 programs across cancer, immune diseases, and heart disease into more health domains.

> The endgame is personalized medicine: drugs designed overnight for your specific biology and your specific disease.

That last one is the whole point.

Today's drugs are mass-produced for an "average" patient who doesn't really exist.

So most existing treatments work inconsistently from person to person, and most rare diseases never get a treatment at all (no market = no drug).

When drug design gets fast and cheap, that whole calculus flips.

Cancer variants get drugs designed for that specific variant, rare diseases get treatments because economics stop mattering, and drug-resistant infections get new drugs faster than they can evolve.

That's what curing every disease actually looks like.

Now imagine what your life looks like in 2036.

A doctor draws your blood, sequences your genome, sends your disease profile to an AI.

By morning the AI has designed a custom drug for your specific biology.

Side effects, dosage, drug interactions all worked out before you take the first pill.

You and your kids never see a cancer ward.

That's what $2.1B is buying today.

Demis was right about AlphaFold.

If you consider the possibility that he's right again, every disease alive today is on borrowed time.

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

Boeing, quality first.

[John Oliver @iamjohnoliver]

Here's our story from Sunday night about Boeing...https://t.co/9nAPJyExxr

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

No way this was self inflicted. Who is buying the movie rights? Sad that it had to end this way. We should all boycott any Boeing flights and the government should hold all these executives accountable https://t.co/y0sBVXRlVx @boeing #boeing

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@Delta I wonder if the other airlines give the same ballast/balance excuse twice in one day. I can drive faster to New York in the time it takes you to compose yourselves. #fakeexcuses #nyc #lga Would @Boeing 737 Max been a better choice. They have fake software to match your narrative.

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@elamadej @fiftyyears Do you negotiate term sheets while they are submerged?! :)

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@elliotfelix @MIT @mchris4duke @KVAMatx Love that space.

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@elonmusk Yes. Been putting it to good use in New York the last few days. The in car air quality is immediately apparent.

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@Ryan_Truex @SamHunt22 @MonsterMile HUGE!

[shaunabe @shaunabe]

We're growing! For the good folks who've already left for the other platforms that shall not be named, please do forward/share. https://t.co/N0lDXLylRH

[shaunabe @shaunabe]

Shout-outs to @jpmorgan @brexHQ @firstrepublic teams. All online this weekend working with founders and our team.

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@TheRealBuzz Congrats.

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

Fun interview about my childhood and formative influences: Marcel Botha, Founder & CEO, 10XBeta ROI Podcast Episode 247 https://t.co/lOCWoWOfyn via @roiconsult

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@shaunabe @tfadell Yes it is! Loved the book.

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@jchou @guspauw @nadinepauw @miss_lord @ruanbotha @andywalton @Cuie How did I miss this beautiful thread. Yes. Gus might visit early next year

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@jchou we will have to change this! @guspauw @nadinepauw @miss_lord @ruanbotha @andywalton @Cuie

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@elonmusk It is emotional prep for owning a wine estate; similar economics

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

Newlab Open House Party - Come see what 10XBeta has been up to, and where we are heading next! #10xbeta #newlab #bnydc #nyc #medtech #medtechinnovator

https://t.co/vLIf873QdH

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@PippaLamb @mikebutcher @misssaxbys @Maren_Bannon @SarahNoeckel @deenashakir @ThirdSphereHQ

[Marcel Botha @marcelbotha]

@henrikberggren This is great!