FYI - For Your Innovation

Today on FYI – For Your Innovation we are joined by Dr. George Church for a high-level discussion with ARK’s genomics analysts, Simon Barnett and Manisha Samy, on the current and future status of the field of genetics. Dr. Church is a pioneer of synthetic biology and an influencer in the field of genomics. He is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, the Director of personalgenomics.org and a cofounder of a multitude of companies! His innovations have led to technological breakthroughs in the areas of next generation DNA sequencing and CRISPR gene editing, amongst many others. Our conversation in this episode covers a wide range of topics within genomics including next generation oncology, the security and regulation of genetic information, gene editing and the increasing speed of the genomic revolution. Dr. Church really gives us the inside and expert scoop and how exciting things in his world are and how this may become more of a reality for all of us sooner than you think. For all this and more be sure to join us!

On today’s episode your host and ARK analyst, Tasha Keeney, sits down with the chairman of Materialise, Peter Leys. Materialise NV (“Materialise”) is a leading 3D printing firm that specializes in software and solutions for 3D printing for the medical and manufacturing space. You might know the company for their Materialise Build Processor, one of the most commonly used pieces of software across many different 3D printing manufacturers. Peter has been with the company since 2013 but has long been involved in an advisory capacity and has witnessed Materialise’s development to date. We discuss the multitude of advantages of 3D printing, including significantly reducing production costs and enabling greater creativity and freedom of design. Peter talks about the different industries that can benefit from this technology and how the transformation from traditional manufacturing to additive manufacturing is a slow yet inevitable process. He also shares his views about the level of investor interest, what the main focus of Materialise is and how the market will increasingly become consumer rather than product orientated. Be sure to join us for more about the exciting world of 3D printing!

Disclosure: As of 4/30/19, ARK holds more than 5% of the shares outstanding for Materialise.

On today’s show we welcome Dr. Daniel Chen MD PhD, formerly Vice President, Global Head of Cancer Immunotherapy at Genentech/Roche and now Chief Medical Officer at IGM Biosciences to continue our current exploration of immunotherapy in the fight against cancer. In April we spoke to Charles Graeber, author of The Breakthrough, and today we are very lucky to welcome Dr. Chen, one of the leading pioneers of immunotherapy from Charles’ book. In the show he furthers our understanding of the state of cancer immunotherapy and its recent advancements. Dr. Chen expertly balances the excitement and passion around the amazing leaps that have been made with a keen sense of purpose and caution around over playing the hand medicine has currently been dealt. We chat about Dr. Chen’s own experience in the field over the last 20 years and what it has meant in the last decade to bring the latest drugs to market. Our guest unpacks a host of the technical terms and concepts, so that even the most uninitiated can grasp the basics of immunotherapy for cancer. We go on to talk about which forms of cancer are seeing the best results in response to immunotherapy and why, what the next few years may look like and the important role that big data, machine learning and AI can play in the progress we so badly need. For all this and more be sure to tune into our show today!

Today on the show we are joined by Jeffrey Ding, creator of the ChinAI newsletter. He is here to tell us all about his work in the AI field and his focus on translating the developments from China to a more western audience. We start off by talking about the reasons why he started his newsletter, namely that the AI community in China are mostly abreast of advancements from the US and UK, while the same cannot be said in the opposite direction. This language asymmetry, as Jeffrey calls it, means there is a gap in the knowledge base in the Americas and Europe around the burgeoning Chinese AI scene. Jeffrey answers a host of questions around rumors and myths related to China’s forays into AI and unpacks some of the key concepts including semiconductors, the facial recognition field, data labelling and data leakage. He brings into contrast many common ideas that misrepresent the state of technology and its motivating factors in China and does a great job of clarifying important touch points such as privacy and government policy. For this fascinating chat, be sure to tune in!

Today Nicolas Crouzet and Filippo Mezzanotti, join us to talk about their research paper (joint with Ph.D. student Apoorv Gupta), which explores the digital wallet adoption in India, after the country voided the two largest denominations of its fiat currency in circulation in 2016. Both Nicolas and Filippo are professors of finance at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. The paper, called Shocks and Technology Adoption: Evidence from Electronic Payment Systems, investigates the diffusion of technologies subject to positive adoption externalities and argues that “in the presence of externalities, large, temporary shocks can lead to persistent waves of adoption.” They share some insight into what led to the demonetization and the effects it had, along with what the long-lasting implications of the shock have been in relation to digital payments. They also explore some of the global payment trends and discuss where India fits into the picture of payment digitization. For all this and much more, join us today!

Today’s guest is Charles Graeber (@charlesgraeber), author of the book The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer. Charles tells us about the amazing strides that have been made recently in finding a cure for cancer. The progress is so notable that Charles was comfortably able to use the word ‘cure’ in the book’s […]

Today’s guest is Charles Graeber (@charlesgraeber), author of the book The Breakthrough: Immunotherapy and the Race to Cure Cancer. Charles tells us about the amazing strides that have been made recently in finding a cure for cancer. The progress is so notable that Charles was comfortably able to use the word ‘cure’ in the book’s subtitle! That means that cancer is on the way to becoming not just treatable but actually curable for millions of people all over the world. The book and today’s conversation center around the fact that up until now, researchers have been on the wrong trail when it comes to finding the answer posed by this deadly disease. Immunotherapy works by leveraging our body’s own immune system to kill cancer cells, which was previously considered impossible by the scientific community. Charles unpacks some of the history of these ideas, why they have remained on the fringes for so long and why they are now being viewed in a new light. We discuss broader trends in medicine and tech and Charles goes quite in-depth explaining what we know so far and how it is and might be used going forward. For an inspiring chat on this life-changing topic, be sure to join us!

On today’s episode, James Wang, web analyst at ARK Invest, joins us again to provide his always valuable insights—this time about IT and the cloud. While these topics may not seem as exciting as more talked about tech topics, interestingly enough we believe enterprise computing is valued at an estimated four trillion dollars. James talks about the history of cloud computing and how it has progressed to where it is today as well as its current trajectory. He also discusses some of the current big players and what inroads are being made by them and where they may be falling short. James makes the case for cloud computing and argues, as it currently stands, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Tune in to find out more about the exciting future of cloud computing.

On the show today we welcome Professor Steve Masiclat (Newhouse School, Syracuse University) to explain his ideas around the innovation pipeline and the issues he sees arising when it comes to reaching the next level of disruptive innovations. Buckle up for this episode, as we are diving deep into AI and big data. In our […]

On the show today we welcome Professor Steve Masiclat (Newhouse School, Syracuse University) to explain his ideas around the innovation pipeline and the issues he sees arising when it comes to reaching the next level of disruptive innovations. Buckle up for this episode, as we are diving deep into AI and big data. In our discussion we cycle through many examples from the technology world, in particular AI, and use these to explore what Steve argues is a lack of sufficient expertise to further the fields of research study that are currently available to us. We talk about deep neural nets, uneven distribution of technology and expertise, and the slowing effect this may have in the tech fields. We also discuss the different arenas in which research takes place, contrasting the strengths and weakness of academia, industry and startups. Lastly, Steve shares some perspective on his years of teaching and things that have changed over time. He contrasts student attitudes, technologies and social settings. For all this and a whole lot more, be sure to join us today on the For Your Innovation podcast!