In this episode, software-engineer-turned-biotech-entrepreneur Andy Lee, CEO of Vincere Bio, joins host Javier to discuss how reprogramming cellular energy factories—the mitochondria—could transform treatment for Parkinson’s disease and possibly aging itself. Lee explains how computational biology, artificial intelligence, and drug discovery intersect to identify new mitochondrial repair mechanisms.

Key Points:

This episode bridges computing and biology, showing how data-driven tools can reveal hidden cellular mechanisms. Andy Lee’s work demonstrates that repairing mitochondria may hold the key to treating Parkinson’s and slowing aging. The future of medicine, he suggests, lies in programmable biology, where AI helps us fine-tune life’s own code.

• From code to cells: Lee describes his unconventional path from software engineering to biotechnology, merging his computing background with his neuroscientist wife’s Parkinson’s research to model cellular systems and identify new drug targets.
• Why mitochondria matter: His team discovered that mitochondrial quality control failure, not just dopamine loss, is a central driver of Parkinson’s. Their computational models showed that both genetic and sporadic cases share this defect.
• Restoring cellular cleanup: Vincere Bio’s drug candidates aim to boost mitophagy—the recycling of damaged mitochondria—by releasing the “brakes” (via USP30 inhibition) without harming healthy cells, potentially slowing disease progression.
• AI and biology converge: Lee outlines how AI-driven simulations and protein-interaction networks allow researchers to predict new druggable targets beyond the few hundred proteins currently addressed by existing medicines.
• Beyond Parkinson’s: Enhancing mitochondrial repair may benefit multiple age-related conditions, from kidney injury to heart aging, illustrating mitochondria’s broad role in health and longevity.
• Rethinking longevity and innovation: The conversation expands to aging, reprogramming, and consciousness, exploring how emerging technologies—from partial cellular reprogramming to AI-assisted drug design—could reshape medicine and our understanding of life itself.