🧬eMalick Njie, Ph.D - Ecotone - Part 4 | Building Ecotone AI to Cure Rare Diseases | Diffusion Transformers in Genomics | Synthetic Genomes for AI Training | Long-Term Vision for Genetic Breakthroughs

The Biotech Startups Podcast

The Biotech Startups Podcast is brought to you by Excedr. Excedr provides life science startups with equipment leases on founder-friendly terms to accelerate R&D and commercialization.

Know anyone that needs lab equipment? Join Excedr’s referral program: Give Your Friends $1,000, and Earn $1,000 for Each Qualified Referral 💸.

Get your unique referral link by going to: refer.excedr.com/ZTHETY.

Part 4 of 4: Jon Chee hosts our latest guest, eMalick Njie, CEO of Ecotone AI, a healthcare company that is using AI to find cures for inherited diseases. eMalick is an experienced scientist and entrepreneur who has focused on blending his expertise in neuroscience with his knowledge of AI.

In addition to founding two AI companies, Ecotone and Genetic Intelligence, eMalick received his PhD in Neurobiology and Neuroscience from the University of Florida. His extensive and diverse experience from being a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia university to being the CEO of the AI thinktank NeuroStorm makes our conversation with him one you won’t want to miss.

Join us this week to hear about:

• Ecotone AI's mission: leveraging AI to decode the human genome and address rare genetic diseases.
• Ecotone's approach: using diffusion transformers to model genomes and generate synthetic genomic data.
• eMalick’s focus on intentional company building to ensure sustainable growth.
• Ecotone’s upcoming advancements in AI and genetics.

Please enjoy Jon’s conversation with Dr. eMalick Njie.

Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-biotech-startups-podcast/id1679591994

Find Our Guest, Barbara Alcaraz Silva, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emalick-njie-ph-d-ab82348/

https://ecotone.ai/

Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee

https://www.excedr.com

Excedr Socials & Website

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@excedr

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/excedr_inc

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ExcedrInc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excedr

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@excedr

Podcast Website: https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:

Ecotone AI: https://ecotone.ai/

OpenAI: https://openai.com/

St. Jude’s Hospital: https://www.stjude.org/

InstaDeep: https://www.instadeep.com/

Nvidia: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/

University of Florida: https://www.ufl.edu/

Eli Lilly Joins Forces with AI Startup Genetic Leap in $409M Deal https://www.geneonline.com/eli-lilly-joins-forces-with-ai-startup-genetic-leap-in-409m-deal-centered-around-rna-targeted-drug-discovery/

Diffusion Transformers: https://encord.com/blog/diffusion-models-with-transformers/

Language Models - Autoregressive vs. Diffusion-Based AI Models: https://sander.ai/2023/01/09/diffusion-language.html

AI Applications in Genomics: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8566780/

Synthetic Genomes: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32569517/

People Mentioned:

Wilton Williams, Ph.D.: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilton-williams-98332b225/

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:49 Ecotone’s Mission and Goals

05:42 AI Models: Diffusion Transformers

10:41 AI’s Impact on Modern Biotech

12:09 Early Achievements and Company Momentum

14:56 Synthetic Genomes for Rare Genetic Diseases and the future of AI adoption

19:19 Future Plans: DNA Sora Development

24:12 Shoutouts and Personal Reflections

26:24 Advice to 21-Year-Old Self

28:42 Outro

#biotech #startups #podcast #biotechstartupspodcast #lifesciences #sciencepodcast #neuroscience #AI #ArtificiaIntelligence #genomics #genomes

The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.