SynBioBeta Speaker
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Xaira
Chairman & CEO
Marc Tessier-Lavigne is co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Xaira Therapeutics. Previously, he held executive positions in the private sector at Genentech, where he was executive vice president for research and chief scientific officer, and in the academic sector, where he served as president of The Rockefeller University and then of Stanford University, where he remains professor of Biology (on leave). He also served previously on the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, and was an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Tessier-Lavigne has been a leader in understanding mechanisms that direct the wiring of the brain, and has helped elucidate mechanisms of neurodegeneration. He is the recipient of numerous scientific awards, including the 2020 Gruber Neuroscience Prize, and has been elected to multiple scientific societies, including the US National Academy of Sciences and US National Academy of Medicine; he is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of that country’s highest honors. Dr. Tessier-Lavigne has co-founded two neuroscience startups, Renovis and Denali, and served on the boards of Agios, Regeneron, Pfizer, Juno and Denali.
SynBioBeta 2026 Tickets are Live
Confirmed Speakers
Sessions Featuring
Marc
This Year
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Human Health
From Cells to Patients: Solving the Scale Mismatch in Virtual Biology
Drug discovery often measures biology at the cell level, while therapies must ultimately work across tissues, organs, and whole patients. This scale mismatch means that even highly accurate cellular predictions can fail to translate in the clinic. This session explores strategies to bridge that gap. How do we connect single-cell dynamics to organ-level physiology and patient outcomes? How do we preserve biological context while scaling models? And how do we ensure that virtual biology does not stop at simulation, but informs real therapeutic decisions? Speakers will discuss multiscale modeling that links molecular and cellular systems to higher-order biology; spatial and high-dimensional phenotypic data that retain context; and integrated computational–experimental loops that translate cellular signals into clinically meaningful biomarkers. Together, we ask: how do we ensure virtual biology reflects not just what cells do in isolation, but how biology behaves in the full complexity of patients?
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Featuring
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Xaira
Chairman & CEO
Neuroscience pioneer and former Stanford president building AI biotech.
Kim Branson
GlaxoSmithKline
SVP, Global Head
Drug-discovery AI architect turning data into medicines.
David Hallett
Recursion
CSO
Veteran “drug hunter” leading Recursion’s industrialized, AI-driven discovery.
Ron Alfa
NOETIK Inc.
Co-Founder & CEO
Physician-scientist and Recursion veteran building AI cancer therapeutics.
•
-
Human Health
From Cells to Patients: Solving the Scale Mismatch in Virtual Biology
Drug discovery often measures biology at the cell level, while therapies must ultimately work across tissues, organs, and whole patients. This scale mismatch means that even highly accurate cellular predictions can fail to translate in the clinic. This session explores strategies to bridge that gap. How do we connect single-cell dynamics to organ-level physiology and patient outcomes? How do we preserve biological context while scaling models? And how do we ensure that virtual biology does not stop at simulation, but informs real therapeutic decisions? Speakers will discuss multiscale modeling that links molecular and cellular systems to higher-order biology; spatial and high-dimensional phenotypic data that retain context; and integrated computational–experimental loops that translate cellular signals into clinically meaningful biomarkers. Together, we ask: how do we ensure virtual biology reflects not just what cells do in isolation, but how biology behaves in the full complexity of patients?
Get a Ticket
Featuring
Marc Tessier-Lavigne
Xaira
Chairman & CEO
Neuroscience pioneer and former Stanford president building AI biotech.
Kim Branson
GlaxoSmithKline
SVP, Global Head
Drug-discovery AI architect turning data into medicines.
David Hallett
Recursion
CSO
Veteran “drug hunter” leading Recursion’s industrialized, AI-driven discovery.
Ron Alfa
NOETIK Inc.
Co-Founder & CEO
Physician-scientist and Recursion veteran building AI cancer therapeutics.
Session lineup still growing
Get a Ticket
Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
•
-
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?
Get a Ticket
Featuring
Speaker Coming Soon
