SynBioBeta Speaker
Rico Meinl
Head of Applied AI
Retro Biosciences
YEAR
25
May 2025, SynBioBeta
Keynote Speaker
Rico leads the Applied AI team at Retro Biosciences, focusing on engineering proteins for enhanced cellular reprogramming and rejuvenation. With a background in computer science and machine learning, Rico co-led the development of GPT-4b, a specialized GPT model created by OpenAI and Retro to re-engineer proteins for precise cell-state control. This model has already demonstrated double-digit-fold efficiency improvements in reprogramming assays. Previously, Rico was the first employee at Talus Biosciences, where he built computational pipelines essential for discovering drug candidates targeting gene regulatory proteins. Rico is dedicated to leveraging AI to address the fundamental causes of aging and disease.
SynBioBeta 2025 - Keynote
How Breakthroughs in Cellular Reprogramming Could Transform Aging
Epigenetic reprogramming has rapidly become the hottest area in longevity biotech, attracting unprecedented attention and billions in investment in just the last two years. Building on Shinya Yamanaka's Nobel Prize winning iPSC reprogramming, a new wave of biotech startups are now racing to extend the concept to therapeutically rejuvenate the cells in our bodies. This panel brings together the leading researchers and entrepreneurs of this field to explore the science and recent breakthroughs driving the excitement, the challenges of bringing these therapies to market, and the future of a field that could redefine what it means to age.
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