🧬 Terry Lo - Vizgen - Part 3

Episode Overview

• Terry Lo discusses his career journey from leading Akoya Biosciences in the nascent field of spatial biology to becoming the CEO of Vizgen, a pioneer in spatial genomics.
• The conversation highlights the critical importance of establishing a "ground truth" or "gold standard" in biological data, using technologies like MERFISH to enable foundational cell atlasing projects.
• The discussion contrasts the challenges of marketing complex scientific value (like data accuracy) versus simple quantitative metrics (like gene count).
• It explores the shifting economic landscape for startups, moving from a "growth-at-all-costs" mentality in 2021 to a current focus on efficiency, cash conservation, and profitability.

Key Concepts

• Spatial Biology vs. Spatial Genomics: The evolution from using molecular markers to identify cells and their interactions in tissue (spatial biology) to the deeper, RNA-focused analysis enabled by technologies like MERFISH (spatial genomics).
• Company Building and Scaling: The significant operational challenges involved in building a life sciences company from the ground up, including establishing international subsidiaries, supply chains, and manufacturing infrastructure after a divestiture.
• Establishing a "Gold Standard": The necessity of creating a foundational, highly accurate map of biology—a "ground truth"—before researchers can effectively determine what data is "good enough" for specific applications or make compromises on quality.
• Cell Atlasing: The current, massive effort in the life sciences to create comprehensive maps of cell types, their locations, and their interactions, particularly in the brain, to fundamentally understand biology and complex disease mechanisms.
• Communicating Scientific Value: The difficulty in conveying the importance of complex qualitative improvements, such as data quality and accuracy, to a market that more easily understands simple quantitative metrics.
• Navigating Shifting Economic Cycles: The stark contrast between the capital-rich, "growth-at-all-costs" environment of 2020-2021 and the current market's demand for efficiency, cash conservation, and a clear path to profitability for startups.

Quotes

• At 1:19 - "...this concept of spatial biology, which is again, really kind of looking at what's in the tissue using molecular markers to identify those cells... and then figure out how they're interacting to better understand the biology." - Terry Lo, providing a clear definition of spatial biology.
• At 5:31 - "This new area that we call spatial genomics... that was the opportunity that I said, 'Like, this is going to be massive.'" - Terry Lo, on recognizing the huge potential of the emerging field that would lead him to join Vizgen.
• At 11:31 - "The data quality itself is is kind of the primary goal here, right? Which is, a lot of what we're learning right now from being able to use a platform like this is really fundamental biology." - Terry Lo, emphasizing Vizgen's focus on enabling foundational discoveries by providing the highest quality data.
• At 16:27 - "Until we really have like gold standard and very clear like, you know, what is truth, what is ground truth, then you can kind of move off of that." - Terry Lo, on the importance of establishing a highly accurate baseline before making compromises on data quality for specific applications.
• At 18:22 - "Our vision statement is that every disease has a map, every cure has a path." - Terry Lo, sharing Vizgen's core mission, which underscores their focus on foundational biological mapping.
• At 22:50 - "We want companies that can generate profit. So don't burn a lot of cash... it's more important that you can be efficient with what you have, rather than, you know, just kind of growing at all costs." - Terry Lo, summarizing the shift in investor sentiment from the boom of 2021 to the tighter economic climate of 2023.

Takeaways

• To solve complex diseases like Alzheimer's, the scientific community must first invest in creating foundational "maps" of biology (cell atlases) to understand the underlying mechanisms, rather than searching for cures without this fundamental knowledge.
• When marketing a complex technology, focus on educating the market about the long-term value of qualitative improvements like data accuracy, as this builds a more durable advantage than competing on simpler, quantitative metrics alone.
• Startup leaders must remain adaptable to the macroeconomic climate; survival and success now depend on demonstrating operational efficiency and a clear path to profitability, not just rapid, cash-intensive growth.