The Future of Medicine
In Episode 4 of Reimagine podcast, I spoke with two trail-blazing scientists, Aviv Regev and Jim Collins, about their breakthrough work in cell biology, inventing new viral tests, and harnessing advanced computing to unlock new frontiers in the fight against disease. How will advances in biology open up a new era of medicine?
Let’s imagine a future pandemic — I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there will certainly be one. And let’s imagine that a global competitor, such as China, not only invents the solution, but keeps it to themselves. How would we feel?
How would we react if leadership in something as fundamental as biology and medicine wasn’t prioritized, so that America lagged rather than led in healthcare innovation?
We are nearing a golden age for biology and, in particular, synthetic biology. Scientists are on the verge of understanding whole new levels of cellular processes — what makes us sick, and how the immune system works. And never before have our tools been as powerful, from advanced computing to sensing to imaging.
We are entering a chapter in medical history where new understanding of biological processes will truly give us the chance to reimagine medicine and improve the health of millions.
But there’s a problem. Science funding in the United States is at a low point. In fact, it’s the lowest it’s been since 1957. Only 0.7 percent of our GDP is spent on federal research and development. For context, science funding hasn’t been that low since before Sputnik.
America is not investing in our future in the way we should be. While some corporations are trying to make up the gap, there’s no alternative for long-term, stable, federal and state funding for our universities. So many of the things that matter most to our daily lives — from the Internet to the high speed chips that run our cars and computers — were started by a research grant that, ultimately, went to a set of typically young people trying to do an experiment. And those experiments led to breakthroughs that rewrote the future.
Science needs our support for society to thrive.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we are a highly interconnected world. Prioritizing science, innovation, and research is the best down payment we can make for global prosperity.
Imagine if we could eliminate a whole category of diseases because of an AI-enabled discovery that is made possible by publicly-funded research and experimentation.
While we have a great deal of information about cells and disease, we still don’t know a lot about so many underlying mechanisms. To unlock the next level of progress, we need more funding, more innovation, and more collaboration between biology, medicine, computer science, technology, and machine learning. Humans can ask questions, and computers can potentially provide new solutions.
Just imagine the possibilities. The more we know about how biology works, the better we can understand the way a virus takes over the cells. From there, we can better understand how to stop the replication that makes new viruses, and prevent so much sickness and death.
This pandemic has engaged the creativity and tenacity of our medical community to the fullest extent. They are doing heroic work. But my hope is that we will never have to stress our healthcare workers this much ever again. A new era of medicine would mean a new era of pandemic preparedness.
Just glimpsing new approaches to medicine invented by our two guests on Reimagine — Aviv Regev and Jim Collins — shows the leaps of progress that are possible. Their work reflects the spirit of Schmidt Futures — betting early on exceptional people making the world better.
It’s crucial that America invest in medical innovation. Without it, we won’t drive our industries forward and we’ll be unnecessarily vulnerable to other future health threats. We are a country filled with curious people with the right tools asking the right questions to make the world better. Now, we just need to commit the funding to make that better world a reality.
