Abdelrahman Mahmoud explains how his company CellRewire is building AI architectures that can predict disease onset years before symptoms appear and computationally reprogram diseased cells back to healthy states. The conversation spans the fundamentals of single-cell genomics, why existing foundation models in biology have underdelivered, and how reinforcement learning agents can compress decades of drug discovery into weeks.
Dr. Abdelrahman Mahmoud is the founder and CEO of CellRewire, a biotech-AI company pioneering "predictive and reprogrammable medicine." He holds a PhD from DKFZ / Heidelberg University and is currently based at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
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Abdelrahman explains:◼️ How AI can decode the 20,000 switches that control every cell in your body◼️ Why billion-dollar foundation models in biology are being outperformed by simple linear models◼️ The "medical copilot" vision: an AI that helps doctors diagnose and patients understand their own health◼️ How CellRewire compressed 30 years of cardiac drug discovery into a single month◼️ Why lab automation — not compute — is the true unlock for AI-driven medicine
00:00 Introduction: The Future of Medicine at the Cellular Level00:47 Meet Dr. Abdelrahman Mahmoud01:02 The 20,000 Switches Inside Your Cells02:27 What Is CellRewire? Predictive and Reprogrammable Medicine03:34 The Most Surprising Thing AI Has Taught Us About Biology05:29 What Data Goes Into the AI and What Comes Out?06:27 How Single-Cell Genomics Works08:40 Learning From Failure: The Frustration That Sparked CellRewire10:33 How to Prioritize When Data Is Overwhelming12:30 CellRewire Today: Team, Stage, and Next Steps14:13 Two Products: Medical Copilot and Cell Reprogramming Therapeutics17:49 Data Privacy: Federated Learning and Hospital-Level Security19:48 The Compute Question: Do You Need a Supercomputer?22:14 Hardest Decisions and the Power of Following Fundamental Questions24:01 The Future of Research in 5 Years: Will AI Replace PhDs?27:09 The Most Exciting Frontier in Single-Cell Biology29:32 Abdelrahman's Personal Journey Into Science31:23 How to Fix Biomedical Research Worldwide35:09 Advice for Aspiring Researchers and Closing Thoughts
Follow Abdelrahman:https://www.linkedin.com/in/abdelrahman-mahmoud-264b37138/
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