Theory and Practice: Recent Episodes
GV and Google AI
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
For millennia, humans have believed that aging is inevitable. Yet thirty years ago, the work of Professor Cynthia Kenyon and her colleagues showed that a single gene mutation in a worm doubled its lifespan and postponed the diseases of aging. Recent work on the naked mole rat, a mammal like us, has shown that risk of death need not increase with age.
In the final episode of this season of Theory and Practice, we explore the genetic, cellular, and molecular basis of aging with Professor Kenyon and ask what harnessing this knowledge means for the future of healthcare.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
What is a thought? Some may think that question is quite abstract, but it has huge implications for science and computer design.
If we cannot define a human thought, how can we know if a computer can think? Only then can true Artificial Intelligence be achieved.
This week we speak to the “godfather of deep learning”, Professor Geoffrey Hinton, a cognitive psychologist and computer scientist. He is now an emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto, and an engineering fellow at Google.
Our wide-ranging discussion reflects on Professor Hinton’s journey into this field, his instrumental role in the deep learning revolution, and an analysis of when, if ever, computers might achieve the next level of intelligence.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
Psychiatry is changing and will be unrecognizable in the next 10-20 years, given our new understanding about the role of brain circuits in the generation of emotions and behavior.
This week we talk to Professor Karl Deisseroth, D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. We discuss his work on optogenetics and the insights it has given into the workings of the human brain.
Professor Deisseroth also explains the potential for the future of psychiatry: including deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and the use of our smartphone and digital data, known as our “digital exhaust”. Will these methods become a regular part of psychiatric practice in the future?
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
Using machine learningto predict how a protein folds helps solve a riddle in biology. But it is just the start.
These algorithms open up new opportunities to explore the physiological processes that have eluded research, adapt and create proteins for therapeutic purposes, and even power nano-molecular machines.
This week we speak with Professor David Baker about the enormous scope for making new proteins and how that translates into practical uses to tackle diseases, such as Covid-19.
We also discuss the “technological molecular design revolution” and how nanomachines could work like tiny vacuum cleaners to clear arteries from atherosclerosis or our brains from Alzheimer’s amyloid plaques.
David Baker also explains why none of this is possible without a sense of community in the lab.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
In the last 20 years or so, many new cancer treatments have emerged that provide greater precision and targeting of cancer cells.
Today, we have a better understanding of the genetic components of cancer.
Through novel technology and cutting-edge science, we’re now able to understand how the accumulation of molecular alterations in the genome leads to the coding of proteins that can promote uncontrolled cell division.
New treatments are emerging at the genetic and molecular level, along with novel approaches to targeting the new microenvironment that cancers create.
On this episode of Theory and Practice, we explore the future of cancer medicine, and there’s no better leader to turn to for that discussion than Dr. Jay Bradner. Since 2016, he’s been president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he leads the discovery and development of life-changing therapies to benefit patients.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
Gene editing is the process by which alterations are made to DNA.
There are three major challenges: make precise edits at a chosen site, make edits that do not result in subsequent mutations, and have an editing process flexible enough to address the mutations which cause human disease.
This week we talk to Professor David Liu of Harvard University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. They discuss the progress that has been made to overcome these challenges, following the development of the base editing and prime editing methods in his lab.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
For the third season of Theory and Practice, we wanted to ask: what lies ahead for the intersection of life sciences and data sciences in the next ten years?
In this episode, we explore the vastness of the "dark genome" and why "junk DNA" has been overlooked for so many decades.
Our guest is Dr. Rosana Kapeller-Lieberman, A GV Fellow and the CEO of Rome Therapeutics with over 25 years’ experience in science and therapeutics. Rosana discusses her team's scientific approach, and how they have tackled investigating the 60% of our genome that we previously thought was just filler, or repeatable DNA.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
This season we'll dive deep into the languages of life through explorations of the "dark genome", genome editing, protein folding, the future of aging, and more.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
We first shared Julia's daughter's story a few weeks ago in our interview with Dr Timothy Yu about the first "N of 1" drug trial.
Tim recounted the journey in developing her treatment, and the intellectual and operational challenges that he faced in order to find a therapy and get it approved.
Today we hear Julia's perspective, as a parent who desperately looked for ways to help her child, Mila. All too often in these cases, there are no readily available therapies, and most patients don't have the benefit of extraordinary physicians like Tim, who refuse to accept conventional wisdom about what's impossible.
Julia Vitarello is the mother of Mila Makovec, and the Founder and CEO of Mila’s Miracle Foundation.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
It's rare to meet a true visionary, someone who sees where the world can go before anyone else sees it. And it's even rarer to meet someone who not only recognizes the opportunity, but also has the conviction and energy to make it a reality. For us, the person who most exemplifies these characteristics is Dr. Aviv Regev, who leads Genentech's Research and Early Development (gRED) team.
Human genetics has had a transformative impact on drug development. Single cell genomics is at a similar place to where human genetics was ten years ago, and I can't imagine a better person than Aviv to lead us on this journey.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
Physicians make very big decisions in people's lives. Whether or not to put in a heart valve, whether to do a stent or surgery, what chemotherapy to dose. We often make these big decisions with very little data for decision support. This has to change. As we discuss in this episode, the future of medicine will involve advanced machine learning to improve clinical decision making, and better ways to match patients to personalized therapies.
Dr. Amy Abernethy is an oncologist, specialist in palliative care medicine, researcher, previous Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, previous Scientific and Medical Chief Officer of Flatiron Health, and previous Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
David Altshuler is Executive Vice President, Global Research and Chief Scientific Officer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
I first met David when I was a medical student, and I spent my last year of my MD-PhD working in his lab at Massachusetts General Hospital. At the time, a new type of DNA sequencer (Solexa, soon to be acquired by Illumina) had just arrived at the Broad, and I raised my hand to be one of the people in his lab to get it up and running.
At the time, most of David's lab was working on genome-wide association studies (GWASs), but David believed that sequencing was the next horizon. This gave me the opportunity to work with him closely, and figure out how next-generation sequencing could impact human genetics.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
Every so often, someone comes up with a new idea that is truly visionary. The first time you see it, you may not immediately appreciate how transformational it might become.
As an attending physician in Boston Children's Hospital's Division of Genetics and Genomics, Tim was caring for a young patient with a devastating genetic mutation. He suspected her condition could be treated with an adaptation of an existing class of therapies, and he also knew that she was likely the only person in the world who would benefit from that drug. Instead of accepting the conventional wisdom that N of 1 means you don't have a valid experiment, Tim asked himself a bold question: "Why not try to give her the therapy?"
Tim went to the FDA, created a toxicology package, got it approved, manufactured it, and created a lifetime supply for his patient.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
Krishna Yeshwant is Managing Partner at GV, and a practicing physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Krishna embodies this mix of being both an intellectual and a business person. Most of his investments are at the intersection of life sciences and data sciences, like Flatiron Health, Foundation Medicine, EQRx, and Imagen. He's interested in finding companies at that interface. You'll hear him talk about starting his first company, making the mistake of hiring his friends, and the bumps and bruises of learning.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
Theory and Practice speaks with Dr. Caroline Uhler, currently the Henry L. and Grace Doherty associate professor in EECS (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science) and IDSS (Institute for Data, Systems and Society) at MIT, and associate member of the Broad Institute where she is co-director of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center.
Theory and Practice is a presentation ofGVand Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
This week on Theory and Practice, we speak with Jennifer Listgarten, a professor in UC Berkeley's Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences department and the Center for Computational Biology. Before Jennifer joined UC Berkeley she spent ten years at Microsoft, working in the New England Research Lab.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
We speak with Professor Sir Rory Collins, Head of Nuffield Department of Population Health at Oxford University and BHF (British Heart Foundation) Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology. Professor Collins is also Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of the UK Biobank.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
On this season of Theory and Practice we explore one of the art of being a great biologist – marrying a problem to a solution, choosing the right biological question, and pairing it with the right technology.
Dr. Anne Carpenter is the inventor of CellProfiler and designed a method for coloring and analyzing cells. She works at the Broad Institute as the Senior Director of the Imaging Platform and is an Institute Scientist.
One of the things that strikes me about Anne's work is how visionary it is. She started doing this a decade ago or more, at a time when computer vision was not nearly as mature as it is today. The idea that you could just image cells and extract biologically meaningful information from them was not at all obvious when she first started.
Theory and Practice is a presentation of GV and Google AI.
Hosted by Anthony Philippakis (Venture Partner at GV) and Alex Wiltschko (Staff Research Scientist with Google AI), Theory and Practice opens the doors to the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field.
One week until Theory and Practice returns! Join Anthony and Alex as they discuss cutting-edge health developments with leaders in biology and computer science.
The hosts interview a panel of distinguished guests, including life sciences entrepreneur and investor Alexis Borisy, Finale Doshi-Velez of Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Pardis Sabeti of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Zach Weinberg is the co-founder, president, and COO of Flatiron Health. He discusses his entrepreneurial journey and Flatiron Health's approach to accelerating cancer care and improving patient outcomes.
Cori Bargmann is the head of science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. She is also the head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior and the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor at The Rockefeller University in New York. She joins the podcast to discuss advancing science on a larger scale.
Professor Daphne Koller is the CEO and founder of insitro. She joins the podcast to discuss how machine learning and biology can advance drug discovery and patient care.
David Sontag, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, explores how artificial intelligence can transform medicine, and discusses the importance of fairness in machine learning.
Episode notes on research attribution:
Steven Horng
Yoni Halpern
Rahul Krishnan
Fredrik Johansson
Uri Shalit
Irene Chen
Eric Lander, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, joins the show to discuss human genetics and computational biology.
Greg Corrado, senior research scientist with Google AI, examines the impact of artificial intelligence and machine learning on medicine and delves into the future of biological neuroscience.
In this episode, Sir Peter Donnelly, CEO of Genomics Plc and Professor of Statistical Science at the University of Oxford, explores the relationship between genetic variation and complex human diseases and talks about his career at the intersection of statistics and genetics.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt talks about the foundations of computer science, reflects on the role of data in healthcare, and discusses his views on the intersection of technology and life sciences as the next frontier.
Jessica Mega, Chief Medical Officer at Verily, discusses her career path, the intersection of data science and healthcare, and how medical tools can augment positive health outcomes.
In this episode, Princeton University’s Barbara Englehardt reveals what she’s working on in epigenetics and exploratory data analysis, and examines the theoretical foundations for machine learning and how they are applied in practice. Barbara is currently on leave from Princeton University and is a principal scientist at Genomics Plc.
Theory and Practice explores the cutting edge of biology and computer science through conversations with leaders in the field. This week, your hosts Alex and Anthony introduce themselves and discuss the origins of the show.