Powerhouse Biology

Spotted in the wild: Powerhouse Biology's @rachel8407 hits our very first #JPM running at @cglifeagency's Sweat Equity 5K. We are building a new therapeutic platform centered on mitochondrial control, arguably one of the most underexploited levers in age-related disease. Find us tonight at @statnews @ #JPM26 to learn how we’re opening a new frontier in drug development.

What happens when you gather hundreds of builders and researchers at the frontiers of science and tech for three days of bouncing ideas, parties, and lab tours? This weekend, we hosted our flagship event Vision Weekend! With a strong track record of matching scientists for collaborations, entrepreneurs with their first investors, and startups with early employees, we love seeing how these gatherings help turn big ideas into reality faster. Thank you for building a better future with science and tech! Recordings of the talks will be available on our YouTube channel in a few weeks. And a special thanks to our partners: @AsteraInstitute @netholabs @protocollabs @ARIA_research @RetroBio_ and Poseidon Research

@foresightinst's Vision Weekend kicked off at @altos_labs, partied at the @internetarchive on Saturday, and culminated at Lighthaven this Sunday. Boy do I love this community of future-ready gnerks. It's a place where you can think and talk freely about frontier tech. At @Powerhouse_Bio, we have a deep focus on mitochondrial biology as a tractable entry point into a new therapeutic space: they're enclosed by two lipid bilayers, contain a heritable information carrier in the form of DNA, their biology is in a sense well studied because we can learn from prokaryote biology, and they're a subsystem that we can readily model computationally. Amused to say that advancing the human species was definitely not the wildest item on the communal to-do list.

Towards genome editing for mitochondrial diseases nature.com/articles/d4158…

We have been awarded a prize in the Catalyst Phase of the Healthy Longevity Global Competition of @theNAMedicine! Particularly proud because it’s a meaningful science-first signal for our bold new endeavor to enhance cellular resilience and durability. NAM selected 15 awardees from 662 U.S. submissions. Announcement: buff.ly/70WSH9i

It's a true pleasure to work with Christina Jensen, an exceptional scientist and person. Christina joined Powerhouse Biology at the start of September - our first Experimental Biologist actively pushing forward what was a wildly ambitious mission in a pitch deck in February. Christina brings pedigree from stellar labs: deep expertise in hiPSC model development, plus broad experience applying frontier technologies in molecular biology to design and validate synthetic systems with real biological impact. And yes, her former lab’s tongue-in-cheek motto “anything can be high-throughput if you work hard enough” is currently making the rounds at MBC BioLabs in San Carlos.

On Powerhouses and Foodstuff: in this delightful primer in Life Sciences Insights, a @CALifeSciences magazine, co-founder and CSO @rachel8407 explains why we do what we do at Powerhouse Biology. Have a read on how we use high content data to resolve multidimensional, mitochondrial behaviors that drive age-related diseases. "Enhance, enhance!" ca-ls.org/lsi-ai-powerho…

First day on site! @arubikscube joined Powerhouse Biology as a Computational Scientist. He’s our trailblazer on multi-modal network models and ML analysis, and he’s set to grow and shape our computational team. We were instant fans: his creative spark and bold move (yep, he packed up and left Boston for the Bay!) are pretty telling. Welcome to sunny California, Aru - super excited to have you!

Few things solidify a reputation better than a sticky nickname. 68 years ago this month, Philip Siekevitz called the mitochondrion “a small body which appears to play a central role in the oxidation of foodstuff,” and popularized its now iconic title: the powerhouse of the cell. - Vol. 197 No. 1 (July 1957), p. 131 @sciam scientificamerican.com/article/powerh…

Life is beautiful. We want to give people more of it.

We can't wrap our head around how she does it all - our champion CSO @rachel8407 just published "The AI drug revolution needs a revolution" in npj Drug Discovery. Rachel co-founded Powerhouse Biology with a vision to implement AI-guided multi-modal analysis of mitochondrial biology for therapies by grounding algorithms in physiologically relevant, real-world data that capture true human variability. Curious how that mindset rewires drug development? Read her Comment here: t.co/WtqjlFCvBO

First data in!! We've transferred into the brand-new office and laboratory space at MBC BioLabs in San Carlos! Huge thanks to the MBC team for moving mountains to get us (and many others) to work, and to @LeicaMicro for helping us hit the ground running with core equipment and support. It’s awesome to share space with fellow founders and tech optimists - they make the good days exponentially better, and on the tough days, they help solve the seemingly impossible. (The sun terrace and well-stocked fridge don't hurt either.) Curious how we’re rebooting the human powerplant? Check out powerhouse.bio, or hop in for coffee!

Thanks to everyone who joined our AI x Bio workshop this weekend! 180 scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, and funders gathered to explore how AI can accelerate longevity research. The workshop included presentations on the current state of the field and its biggest bottlenecks, with insights from experts like @bettslacroix @DrMorganLevine @SGRodriques @jrkelly, as well as working groups to develop promising projects at the intersection between AI and biology.

Happy #NewMemberMonday! 👩‍🔬 @Powerhouse_Bio makes precision peptide therapeutics to combat mitochondrial dysfunction 💡 @serna_bio leverages AI to discover RNA-targeting small molecules 👨‍🔬 @TelixPharma drives radiopharmaceutical innovation from its base in Australia

Technically challenging and historically siloed from broader genomics and therapeutic innovation, mitochondrial biology is now at the center of converging tools, data, and demand. We are incredibly excited to see @virushunter and @ARIA_research opening up an opportunity space in bioenergetic engineering. Check it out: aria.org.uk/opportunity-sp… There's so much important work ahead: designing, synthesizing, and assembling human mitochondrial DNA; reconfiguring coding sequences currently encoded in the mitochondrial genome for expression in the nucleus; and ultimately extending healthy human lifespan by enhancing mitochondrial biology with superior, mitochondria-centric traits. Let's build!

Here we go!! We’re hiring a Computational Scientist and an Experimental Biologist to join our fast-paced platform therapeutics startup! We need scientists and engineers who own their work, adapt quickly without losing precision, and stay laser-focused on what truly matters. We are looking for exceptionally skilled pioneers with a translational mindset - people who don’t just explore problems but drive solutions. We do things thoroughly, well, and at speed, because that’s what it takes to make an impact. If you thrive in a high-impact, no-nonsense environment* where we innovate together to drive results, we want you on our team! *much like the mitochondria in a cell! Learn more and apply here: tally.so/r/w5M6Ob

NIH grants frozen. Discoveries delayed. PhDs pushed out. Academia getting gutted. Innovation must continue. There’s never been a better time for scientists to build startups.

A human metabolic map of pharmacological perturbations reveals drug modes of action go.nature.com/3CreANg

Top altmetrics score 2024: #16🏆✨ @mitopinionated (@karolinskainst) and co-authors describe how inhibition of mitochondrial transcription reduces #OXPHOS capacity but increases fatty acid oxidation in the #liver, protecting against #obesity🧫🐭 nature.com/articles/s4225…

New in @Nature: Analysis of 56,434 human mitochondrial genomes through a constraint model for mtDNA. It reveals which positions are highly constrained - that's a huge advance in our understanding of pathogenic variants and mitochondrial disease. Importantly, though, it's also an indicator of what we might be able to change. nature.com/articles/s4158… @NicoleLake @theFourier2k @YaleGenetics @YaleMed @gnomad_project @Mito_News #mtDNA #gnomAD