Biohub: The Future of Biology is Open-Source with Co-Founders Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, and Head of Science Alex Rives

Biohub started with an ambitious goal of curing, preventing, and managing all disease by the end of the century. A decade later, thanks to the convergence of frontier AI and biological data, that goal may have been too conservative. In this episode, Elad Gil and Sarah Guo sit down with Biohub co-founders Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, alongside Biohub Head of Science Alex Rives. Together, they discuss Biohub’s $500 million virtual biology initiative, which integrates frontier AI with wet-lab work to build predictive world models of cells, proteins, and systems. They also talk about their newly announced open-source engine for digital protein and antibody design, ESMFold2; why Biohub is a nonprofit rather than a venture-backed startup; and how hierarchical simulations will soon allow doctors to treat patients at an individual, mechanistic level.  

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Chapters:

00:00 – Cold Open

01:02 - Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, and Alex Rives Introduction

01:26 – Why Biohub and Their Mission

08:27 – Integrating Frontier AI and Frontier Biology

09:45 – Micro to Macro Biological Modeling

14:22 – Mechanistic Interpretiability 

16:58 – Why Biohub is a Non-Profit

21:41 – Understanding How Biology Works

24:23 – Timeline for Curing All Diseases

26:25 – Translating Research to Patient Impact

28:04 – Launch of ESMFold2

32:13 – Tackling Off-Target Effects and Edge Cases

38:39 – Putting the Tech in Individual Hands

41:06 – Talent at Biohub

44:25 – What’s Next After ESMFold2

46:10 –  Connecting ESMFold2 to Agentic Systems

46:51 – The Virtual Cell

49:33 – Defining Success for Biohub

51:52 – Biohub Strategy Update

56:20 – Conclusion