Joe Betts-LaCroix, CEO of Sam Altman-backed longevity startup Retro Biosciences, joined DeSci Abu Dhabi as a surprise guest to discuss AI's growing influence on biomedical research:

"Biology is too hard for human scientists alone."

"There are around 20,000 human genes whose protein networks can generate on the order of 1M possible structural moieties. The best Harvard scientists specialize in only around 40."

Retro Biosciences recently worked with Open AI to create GPT-4b (b for "bio') aimed at uncovering biological insights and inventions which humans can't create on their own.

The model was used to uncover novel variants of the Yamanaka factors which achieve a 50x increase in reprogramming efficiency in vitro.

"The tools are here," Joe said. "Speed is the mantra. Regulatory infrastructure can slow things down, so we're looking to venues where people are innovating particularly on regulatory frameworks and human trials."