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SynBioBeta Speaker

James Joaquin

Obvious Ventures

Co-founder & Mng Director

James invests early in breakthrough technologies that move humanity forward. He’s passionate about the responsible use of AI to solve the unsolvable across trillion-dollar industries.As a co-founder at Obvious, he has led investments for the firm that span advanced materials (Diamond Foundry), plant-based protein (Beyond Meat), and labor marketplaces (Incredible Health).As an experienced startup operator, James served as President and CEO of Xoom.com (IPO). He was previously President and CEO of Ofoto from its early beginnings through acquisition by Kodak, leading its growth into the world’s largest online photo service. James also co-founded When.com, an Internet calendar and events service (acquired by AOL). He began his entrepreneurial career while studying computer science at Brown University, co-founding Clearview Software which was acquired by Apple, where he spent six years in engineering and marketing roles.James grew up in a Portuguese fishing community in southeastern Massachusetts. He is a drummer, sailor, puzzler, and master of puns.

Sessions Featuring

James

This Year

TBD

Session lineup still growing

Featuring

Speaker Coming Soon

Fireside Chat

12:00 AM

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8:30 AM

Human Health

From Cells to Patients: Solving the Scale Mismatch in Virtual Biology

Drug discovery often measures biology at the cell level while interventions work at the tissue, organ, or whole-patient scale. This mismatch can make accurate cell-level predictions irrelevant in the clinic. This session dives into strategies to bridge that gap: multiscale modeling that nests single-cell dynamics within organ-level simulations, spatial transcriptomics that preserve context, and surrogate models that translate cell-level outputs into clinical biomarkers. Speakers will ask: how do we ensure virtual biology reflects not just what cells do in isolation, but how biology behaves in the real complexity of patients?

Featuring

Speaker Coming Soon

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