In this episode, Matt Wilsey joins Jorge Conde to share the profound personal story of his daughter Grace's diagnosis with NGLY1 deficiency and how it catalyzed his journey to founding a biotech startup, Grace Science, aimed at developing a cure for his daughter’s condition.

Matt emphasizes the importance of strategic partnerships, like his collaboration with Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, and sheds light on the search for gene therapies for rare diseases.

Check out our previous episode with Carolyn Bertozzi here.

Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi joins Jorge Conde to unravel the concept of bioorthogonal chemistry.

Carolyn traces her pioneering path from early studies in carbohydrate chemistry to how her lab developed the revolutionary ability to manipulate chemical reactions inside the human body.

Together, they highlight the intersection of cutting-edge academic research and the challenges of translating discoveries into market-ready solutions. They also discuss navigating the science-to-startup journey, balancing academic and commercial ambitions, and leveraging precision therapies to address unmet medical needs in cancer and beyond. It’s a compelling case study for founders looking to push the frontiers of biotech.

In this episode, a16z partners Jorge Conde and Jay Rughani sit down with Sajith Wickramasekara, CEO and cofounder of Benchling, to unpack the evolution of Benchling from idea to transformative software platform. Saji discusses his journey from software engineer to building Benchling and digitizing biotech workflows for industry giants like Sanofi. Together, they also talk about the increasing complexity of biology, the expanding role of AI in drug discovery, and the power of well-structured data.

The 21st century isn't just the century of advanced biology—it's also the era of creating tools that supercharge scientific discovery.