Vijay is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he focuses on investments in biopharma and healthcare. As the founding investor of a16z’s Bio Fund, he leads the firm’s investments at the cross section of biology and computer science. Previously, Vijay was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Structural Biology and of Computer Science at Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, Vijay co-founded Globavir Biosciences and the Folding@Home Distributed Computing Project for disease research. Vijay remains an Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University and holds a BA in Physics from Princeton University and a PhD in Physics from MIT.
Disclaimer: a16z investments are discussed in this conversation. None of the content should be taken as investment advice. See a16z.com/disclosures for more information.
[0:59] - How Vijay ended up at the intersection of biology and technology
[6:15] - The academic shift from physics towards biology
[12:32] - The difficulty of scaling education
[16:38] - Vijay's predictions for the future of work and The San Francisco Bay Area
[26:31] - Using distributed computing to simulate protein folding with Fold@Home
[38:19] - The rising cost of healthcare and where the industry is moving
[49:46] - Targeting longevity as a solution to harmful diseases
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