Healthcare payments are difficult, confusing, and opaque. But Julie and David discuss the ways that technology could change that for the better, and where they see the greatest opportunity for founders to solve big challenges.Additional reading:https://a16z.com/healthcare-meets-fintech/https://a16z.com/2023/02/07/healthtech-x-fintechs-biggest-prize/https://a16z.com/2022/06/01/payvidors-unbundled-opportunities-in-healthcare-fintech/

In this episode, a16z Bio + Health investment partner Becky Pferdehirt chats with Robbie Majzner, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Stanford, and co-founder of Link Cell Therapies.Together, they discuss Robbie's recent paper published in Nature. The paper outlines a new approach to develop logic gated intracellular network, or LINK CAR T cells, as a means to simultaneously enhance both the safety and efficacy of these novel cell therapies.Additional reading:Co-opting signalling molecules enables logic-gated control of CAR T cells, Nature

Today’s episode is with Magi Richani, founder and CEO of Nobell Foods. She is joined by a16z Bio + Health general partner Vijay Pande.Together, they talk about the details of engineering plants to create the future of food, why Nobell started with soybeans to produce their cheese, and her dream of finding a cheese pizza—with Nobell cheese—at any pizza shop across the country.

This is a crossover episode with The Bioverge Podcast, hosted by Neil Littman. Neil is joined by Vineeta Agarwala, general partner at a16z Bio + Health. Together, they chat about Vineeta's dual role as a clinician and investor, the adoption curve of digital therapeutics, how Vineeta thinks about platforms and a modular, engineering-driven approach to biotech, and much more.

Today’s episode is with a16z’s American Dynamism team: Katherine Boyle and David Ulevitch. Katherine is a general partner focused on national security, aerospace and defense, public safety, housing, education, and industrials. David is a general partner focused on companies promoting American dynamism, as well as enterprise and SaaS companies. They are joined by a16z Bio + Health general partner Vijay Pande, and editorial lead Olivia Webb.Together, we talk about the idea behind American Dynamism, how the American Dynamism team thinks about building within highly regulated industries, how trust is key to the procurement process, and how the team thinks about the regulation of AI.

Sean Duffy, cofounder and CEO of Omada Health, discusses his three rules of partnerships, Omada's plans for large-scale implementation, and how to structure the economic model of partnerships. They explore the founding story and distribution strategies of a digital health company, emphasizing the importance of partnerships and channels. They discuss the approach to building pipeline for partnerships, addressing the misconception that partnerships alone guarantee success. They highlight the importance of successful deployments and collaboration in channel partnerships, and discuss the benefits, challenges, and frameworks of channel partnerships.

This week, we’re releasing two episodes about all things channel partnerships. Today’s episode is with Florian Otto, cofounder and CEO of Cedar. He is joined by a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo. In today’s episode, Florian and Julie talk about how Cedar began engaging with channel partners, what happens when things go wrong, and how the Cedar team is structured to implement and nurture these partnerships.This episode was recorded as part of our research into our forthcoming Go to Market Playbook, focused on these partnerships. Stay tuned for that, which we’ll be releasing in the coming days at a16z.com/digital-health-builders. 

In this episode, Daphne Koller, founder and CEO of insitro—as well as the co-founder of Coursera, a MacArthur Award winner, and a former professor in the department of computer science at Stanford University—chats with a16z Bio + Health founding partner Vijay Pande. Together, they talk about Daphne’s career journey, how Daphne thinks about the last few decades of progress in AI, and how insitro leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to explore biology through new models of discovery.

Today marks the reboot of our journal club series, so you can look forward to seeing these episodes as part of our regular feed. This episode is a scientific deep dive on recent research published by Ben Cravatt, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute and co-founder of a diverse suite of chemoproteomic companies such as Vividion and Belharra Therapeutics, and Gene Yeo, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego and co-founder of Locana Bio, Eclipse Bio, and Trotana Therapeutics. Ben and Gene are joined by Vineeta Agarwala, general partner at a16z Bio + Health, and bio deal team member Bryan Faust. Together, they’ll discuss some unexpected mechanistic results of finding covalent binders to a class of proteins that we are just starting to understand — RNA binding proteins — and the subsequent translational implications that they described in a recent paper published by the Cravatt and Yeo labs in Nature Chemical Biology. The paper outlines a potentially new therapeutic approach that uses small molecules to fundamentally rewire transcriptional networks in cancer cells.Additional reading:Remodeling oncogenic transcriptomes by small molecules targeting NONO

In this episode, a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo chats with Bassett Healthcare Network president and CEO Tommy Ibrahim. Together, they talk about Tommy's journey from practicing physician to health system leader, the challenges facing rural healthcare today, and how Tommy thinks about partnering and integrating with digital health entrepreneurs as a hospital executive.