I am incredibly excited to announce I have pivoted my investment focus to center on improving and saving people’s lives by backing founders that are applying deep insight technology to biology and chemistry. I have a personal passion for companies dedicated to making advancements in the areas of cancer, heart disease, and neuro/brain disease (CHNB).
One thing I think we can all agree on is that good health is a critical thing to have. I am looking for entrepreneurs who want to make people’s lives better, because that’s what I want to do. If you have ideas that will truly impact people, thank you from all of us.
CRV’s Deep Insight Bioengineering program will build off the necessary programs to power this community forward. Below, I’ll discuss our first investment from CRV’s Deep Insight Bioengineering program — Freenome, what Deep Insight Bioengineering means to me, and a few initial investment areas where I believe Deep Insight Bioengineering can radically expand over the next five years.
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Earlier this month we were proud to announce our first Deep Insight Bioengineering investment: Freenome. See the company’s announcement here.
Freenome is building tools for early detection of cancer and other diseases. They are building technologies that provide accurate, accessible, and non-invasive screenings through liquid biopsies. They have a highly sophisticated understanding of cancer genomics and use machine learning to create deep learning models. These models have allowed them to produce incredibly sensitive, selective and accurate technology for the detection of cancer. They use the outputs of machine learning and deep learning, gathered from their work on cell-free fragmented DNA from a cancer tumor, to generate proprietary insights that allow them to go the next step and generate even more sophisticated models and insights.
Because of their work’s compounding results, they are in the zone of being able to build systems for deep insight now. Cancer mortality is on an exponential curve. Research has shown if you can detect it early, there is a very high chance of surviving. I feel proud to contribute to a company that is helping people in this way.
So, what is Deep Insight Bioengineering?
It is the application of advanced computational systems and engineering technologies into classic problems in biology and chemistry. These advanced computational systems can include deep learning, machine learning, and big data analysis in combinations with each other and massive cloud resources. They can also feed each other at different layers for highly sophisticated results. Additionally, the introduction of engineering systems and technologies are also involved. These engineering systems and technologies include the breadth of application systems that range from remote and simulated testing, trial digitization, bioelectrical neural systems, and synthetic biology.
The purpose of our Deep Insight Bioengineering program is to back founders to create deep insights and solutions for researchers, developers, and medical professionals to create breakthroughs in their line of work. Our goal is that these companies will make tremendous advancements in the detection, management, and treatment of CHNB diseases.
Over the next five years, I believe deep insight bioengineering will radically expand to completely change the pace of innovation of our understanding of biology and chemistry. And provide the key solutions for professionals to offer solutions unavailable today to save people’s lives early on.
Solutions will range from “deep playbooks” that act as a massive real-time augmentation of memory and learning for some, or as a platform to generate end products like diagnostics, medications, antibodies, food or new organisms. It will use existing facilities to perform tests and digital simulations, thus speeding up the number of attempts to build products and ability to prototype them.
As we navigate down this technology path, the word autonomous will start to replace algorithmically. Just like deep learning has now replaced machine learning.
— George Zachary
