Ben Woodington is the cofounder and CEO of Coherence Neuro. Coherence's lead product, the SOMA-1, is a brain computer interface (BCI) that is designed to treat Glioblastoma (a type of brain cancer). Coherence's cancer focus sets them apart from other BCI companies like Neuralink and Synchron. Ben joins Brom Rector on the podcast to discuss:

(0:00) - Intro

(1:38) - What does BCI (brain-computer interface) even mean?

(3:55) - The deadly brain cancer that Coherence is treating

(8:01) - How can you treat cancer with electricity?

(9:54) - Coherence’s billion dollar comp

(12:52) - How does the Coherence device actually work?

(19:00) - How MRI makes brain computer interface

development difficult

(20:30) - Ben’s startup journey

(21:30) - How implants are more convenient than drugs

(24:55) - Is neurotech getting overhyped?

(28:04) - Are the obvious ideas taken?

(29:00) - What will enable the next generation of BCIs?

(30:30) - What is the best dimension along which to analyze BCIs?

(33:36) - Will people have multiple BCIs simultaneously?

(35:45) - Is it easier to get a device approved by the FDA than a drug?

(40:15) - When is Coherence’s first trial?

(42:00) - It’s capital allocators all the way down (clip)

(44:20) - Advice for PhD students considering starting a company

Check out Coherence here: https://coherenceneuro.com/

And check out Brom's VC fund, XEIA Venture Partners here: https://www.xeiavp.com/

Laura Hsieh is the founder of TippingPoint Biosciences, an epigenetic medicine startup that has developed a breakthrough method of drugging the entire chromatin network to create first-in-class epigenetic therapeutics. Laura sits down with Sam Tabone and Brom Rector to discuss:

(1:11) Laura’s background and the history of TippingPoint

(5:30) What is Epigenetics and what is Chromatin?

(10:30) What diseases are driven by Epigenetics and dysfunctional Chromatin?

(14:00) - TippingPoint’s platform and secret sauce

(19:10) - How TippingPoint runs high throughput screening

(23:00) - What is DIPG - the deadly pediatric brain cancer TippingPoint is treating?

(38:30) - What does “disease modifying” mean?

(40:00) - How TippingPoint’s technology can be applied to aging and longevity

(45:00) - What motivates Laura

(49:00) - Could epigenetic medicines be used for human enhancement? How does diet influence Epigenetics?

(55:00) - Academia vs the startup world: does the PhD experience prepare you to be a founder?

(59:00) - Laura’s advice for raising money and pitching VCs

(1:04:00) - Why we invested in TippingPoint

Check out TippingPoint: https://www.tippingpointbiosciences.com/

Brom Rector and Sam Tabone from XEIA get specific on what Human 3 actually looks like in practice by analyzing 10 startups through the Human 3 lens.

We analyze the companies on the 5 pillars of Human 3

• Distribution shifting potential - can this company elevate the already healthy in addition to healing the sick?
• HERO - is the company inspired by Historical Examples of Real-world Outcomes
• Step Change potential - if this thing works, will it be an order of magnitude better than the standard of care?
• Endogenous Accelerant - does the company have a built in flywheel?
• X-disciplinarity - does the innovation happen at the intersection of multiple disciplines?

Timestamps and companies mentioned:

0:00 - what defines a Human 3 startup?

16:00 - Mindstate Design Labs: AI designed psychedelic therapies

25:00 - Kadence Bio: treatment for premature ejaculation

34:20 - NeuroBionics: minimally invasive deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's

42:00 - Motif Neurotech: minimally invasive TMS for depression

51:45 - Xylo Bio: non-hallucinogenic psychedelics

1:01:45 - Pangea Bio: AI to identify natures hidden cures

1:11:00 - Kerna Labs: AI model to unlock the therapeutic potential of mRNA

1:20:00 - Superpower: concierge longevity medicine on your iPhone

1:30:00 - Coherence: closed loop neuromodulation to treat brain cancer (Glioblastoma)

1:40:27 - Beond: treating Opiate addiction with Ibogaine

1:52:00 - closing thoughts

Sam Tabone, Partner at XEIA joins Brom on the podcast to discuss XEIA's "Human 3" thesis.

Check out XEIA at https://www.xeiavp.com/

Timestamps

0:00 - why we created Human 3 - going from psychedelic medicine to the broader Human 3 space

8:00 - critiquing the Human 3 manifesto

12:00 regulatory and social drivers of Human 3

19:00 - what Human 3 is NOT

31:00 - what defines Human 3 / what Human 3 is?

50:00 - areas where Human 3 can make the biggest impact

58:00 - distribution shifting technologies 1:10:00 - how Human 3 is useful outside of Neuro

1:20:00 - closing thoughts

The Human 3 Manifesto:

Human 3: the new epoch of health, wellbeing and performance

While modern medicine (Human 2) benefited society in incalculable ways, it ultimately fell short of its promise because the available tools forced it to operate at an incremental pace with long feedback loops.Today, exponential technologies like AI - which can parse through terabytes of scientific literature and data in seconds - and brain-computer-interfaces, biosensors and CRISPR - which enable real-time, read-write access to our biology - promise to rapidly accelerate the scientific method flywheel and lead to an exponential explosion in health, wellness and performance.

Human 3 will elevate every area of health and wellbeing, but will have the biggest impact in areas where modern medicine has made the least progress: the mental health crisis, neurodegeneration, chronic disease and aging. These are the “focal points” of our investment strategy.

Human 3 is not a “sector” - our companies combine life sciences, AI, hardware, software, deep tech & health tech in novel ways that often defy conventional categorization. Human 3 is a philosophy of vitality. It is a knowing that the “user experience” of the human body and mind is long overdue for an upgrade. It is the willingness to build and invest in that future. This is Human 3.

This movement marks the third great epoch of human health:

• Human 1 was defined by medieval practices like bloodletting and humorism - medicine before evidence.

• Human 2 was the era of “modern” medicine, which began in the 1850s when Louis Pasteur popularized the germ theory of disease and the scientific method became the gold standard. Human 2 was constrained by both incremental tools and artificial boundaries between disciplines.

• Human 3 builds on Human 2’s legacy of scientific rigour, but is accelerated by exponential technologies, transdisciplinary collaborations, and driven by a belief that we can do so much more to not just heal the sick, but to prevent illness in the first place and elevate the already healthy.

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Marcus Capone is founder of TARA Mind. TARA Mind is an employee benefit provider that allows companies of all sizes to offer Ketamine therapy to their employees as a mental health benefit.Marcus is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of VETS: Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, VETS is a non profit that provides resources, research, and advocacy for U.S. Special Operations veterans seeking alternative mental health treatments. Marcus is a Veteran Navy SEAL, Marcus retired from active duty in 2013, after several tours at SEAL Teams 10 and 6.More on TARA Mind: https://www.taramind.com/

XEIA Venture Partners (Brom's VC fund) is an investor in TARA Mind: www.xeiavp.com

Amit Deshwar is the Founder & CTO of Kerna Labs. Backed by Gradient Ventures (Google's AI fund), Kerna Labs is building foundational AI models that aim to unlock the full potential of mRNA as the universal toolkit for genetic medicine. Kerna Labs' CSO is Melissa J. Moore, the former CSO of Moderna who helped lead the development of the Moderna COVID vaccine.

Brom Rector: https://x.com/therealbrom

Ramsay Brown, founder of Mission Control - a leading provider of AI agents / synthetic workers to the defense industry, joins us to discuss the end of the Anthropocene, what a world filled with synthetic labor looks like, Project Stargate, Trump and AI, why you need to be Rick Rubin and more.

Dillan DiNardo, the founder and CEO of Mindstate Design Labs, a drug development company using AI to enable the precision design of altered states of consciousness joins the podcast to discuss the state of psychedelics, AI, consciousness, why Marc Andreessen hates psychedelics, and the intersection of all these things.

Today’s guests are MJ Antonini & Nicki Driscoll, the founders of NeuroBionics, a neurotech startup out of MIT. NeuroBionics is making Deep Brain Stimulation minimally invasive though the development of nano fibers that are 10X thinner than traditional Deep Brain Stimulation leads - allowing them to be inserted endovascularly into the brain.

Lars Wilde is the cofounder of Pangea Bio - startup that uses AI to identify natural compounds and traditional remedies that may have medical applications. Prior to starting Pangea, Lars cofounded Compass Pathways and ATAI life sciences, both of which IPOd on the NASDAQ.