Infinite Loops

Key Takeaways

Finding novel ways to understand epigenetics will advance precision medicine by taking into health state beyond sequencing and coding
- The cell doesn’t just work because it’s affiliated with a phenotype – the environment and everything sitting on top of the cell play a huge role in our dynamic life
AI and LLM can interact with other innovations to be able to accomplish much more in biology and medicine – we are at the beginning, not the end
- But we need much more understanding to feed models the right data
The FDA is a health company, not a scientific company; their concern is whether something will harm you, not how to understand how it works
- The FDA paradigm needs to change to make real advances in biology
- The people writing the regulations don’t have a deep understanding of the field they are regulating – they just want to be able to label something as non-lethal
Data collection goal to advance the field of biology: Reduce barriers to data collection so it doesn’t involve the use of biopsy, tagging, staining, and leaves something unperturbed

Parmita Mishra is a computational biologist and the founder & CEO of Precigenetics, a company aiming to become a rocket to precision medicine.

Parmita is deeply knowledgeable about cutting-edge biology, particularly epigenetics — how behavior and environment can affect gene function without altering genetic code. Her passion for advancing our understanding of diseases is inspiring (and contagious: OSV is an investor in Parmita’s company!)

In our conversation, Parmita and I discuss everything from the curious case of male baldness to how her parents have saved 50,000 lives.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. For the full transcript, highlights, and bucketloads of other goodies designed to make you go, “Hmm, that’s interesting!”, check out our Substack.

Important Links:

Show Notes:

Explaining epigenetics to a golden retriever
The curious case of male pattern baldness
How to think about biology: start from first principles & beware binary thinking
The lens you look through determines what you see
The problem of data collection in biology
Why the FDA needs to change its approach
Why we still don’t understand the human brain
Garry Tan’s advice: “Get an idea. Get a co-founder.”
What’s been surprising about foundership?
Failure is a ladder
Obsession & how Parmita’s parents have saved 50,000 lives
The most surprising things about America
Parmita as World Empress

Books Mentioned:

What is Life?; by Erwin Schrodinger
I should have loved biology; by James Somers
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America; by John D. Gartner

Parmita Mishra — How to Think About Biology (EP.244)

Podcast Notes Playlist: Latest Episodes