Part 1 of 3.
My guest for this week’s episode is Alok Tayi, Founder of Vibe Bio, a life science company focused on funding & guiding high-potential drug programs through value inflection points. Vibe Bio’s core is a community of scientists, patients, and partners that are dedicated to helping biotechs find the promising treatments that patients deserve.
Prior to Vibe Bio, Alok started and ran several life science-focused software companies, including PreScouter, TetraScience, and the Life Sciences division at Egnyte.
Join us as we sit down with Alok to talk about how his experience at SUNY as a teenager sparked his journey into science and showed him the combination of software and science that has been a common trend throughout his career.
Alok also speaks to the importance of mentors, especially those he found at Cornell, Northwestern, Tokyo, and Harvard. Alok also covers how his time as a postgraduate working with George Whitesides changed his outlook on how to think, focusing on how to make an impact. Please enjoy my conversation with Alok Tayi.
Find Our Guest, Alok Tayi, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aloktayi/ https://www.vibebio.com Find Our Host, Jon Chee, at these links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncheehttps://www.excedr.comSocial & WebsiteLinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/ Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@excedr
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/excedr_inc Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ExcedrInc Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/excedr TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@excedr Podcast Website:
https://www.thebiotechstartupspodcast.com/Timestamps:00:00 Intro
01:45 Episode start, Alok’s early journey into science, the combination of software and science
03:41 Serendipitous timing and its influence on Alok’s trajectory, the intersection of tech and biotech, the importance of good mentors
06:33 Experience at Cornell, the growth of materials science after the dot com bubble burst, motivation to get a PhD
09:45 Choosing Northwestern for a PhD, the benefits of working in Sam Stupp’s lab
14:27 Equipment in labs not being utilized, the difficulty of keeping people in the scientific discipline
18:33 Being a JSPS Fellow at University of Tokyo, Japan’s culture of hard work and other differences
23:33 Time at Harvard, pursuing a postdoc with George Whitesides
25:55 George Whitesides’ view on how does one think, working on things that have an impact, solving problems
28:17 Outro
Enriched Notes:
Topics Mentioned:University at Albany, SUNY
https://www.suny.edu/ Materials Science
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Materials_science General Lab Equipment
https://www.excedr.com/general-lab-equipment Liquid Handlers
https://www.excedr.com/general-lab-equipment/liquid-handler Industrial Robots
https://www.excedr.com/general-lab-equipment/industrial-robots High Content Imaging
https://www.excedr.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-content-imaging What Are Immunoassays
https://www.excedr.com/resources/what-are-immunoassays Cell Imaging Systems
https://www.excedr.com/microscopes/cell-imaging-system Bioanalyzers
https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-does-a-bioanalyzer-work Nanotechnology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology Molecular Biology
https://www.excedr.com/blog/what-is-molecular-biology X-Ray Crystallography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_crystallography Organic Electronics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_electronics Northwestern University
https://www.northwestern.edu/ Science Exchange
https://ww2.scienceexchange.com/s/ Scientific Equipment Leasing
https://www.excedr.com/leasing Staffing Your Startup
https://www.excedr.com/blog/staffing-your-startup “Todai” University of Tokyo
https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/JSPS Fellowship
https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-fellow/ Harvard University
https://www.harvard.edu/ Li Ka Shing Center
https://bds.berkeley.edu/lks Quad Chart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_chart First Principles
https://fs.blog/first-principles/ People Mentioned:Michael Carpenter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-carpenter-a6705a142/George Malliaras
https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgemalliaras/ Sam Stupp
https://stupp.northwestern.edu/cv/ George Whitesides
https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-whitesides-7ba1189/ Stephen Sass
https://www.mse.cornell.edu/news/memorial-stephen-l-sass Elizabeth Iorns
https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethiorns/ Fraser Stoddart
https://stoddart.northwestern.edu/fraser-stoddart/ Aida Takuzo
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aida-takuzo-b38672150/