When a biotech leader stops for a minute to reflect on how the industry has changed over the course of their career, the sheer magnitude of innovation and breakthrough science can be eye-opening. It can also be motivating.

“From my Ph.D. to now, I always thought there had to be a better way — but I never really appreciated how much better it could get, and now that we're on that trajectory, I think it's going to get even better,” said Avak Kahvejian, who has launched and led about a dozen new companies through Flagship Pioneering. “One minute, you're sitting at the bench with latex gloves, pipetting, looking at a single protein, and it's taking you months to understand how that protein works. Now, we’re lightyears ahead of that already.”

In the span of 20 years — “only a microsecond in the existence of humanity” — Kahvejian has seen progress he couldn’t have imagined from his spot on that bench. Today, he and Flagship unveiled their newest venture, Etiome, an AI-powered biotech aimed at preventive medicine, which is an area that’s galled the industry for decades. And that’s just the beginning, said Kahvejian, who will lead Etiome as founding CEO.

“It's going to be an even faster acceleration as we generate reams of high quality data to make inferences and then to start programming biology,” Kahvejian said. “We're living that revolution. I think people barely even realize it.”

Today, we’re looking at Etiome’s launch in the budding preventive medicine arena and exploring Flagship’s overall philosophy of platform science and next-gen efforts.

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Editor’s note: Instead of running the annual PharmaVoice 100 list, we are now taking a new approach and featuring standout leaders all year round in a range of ongoing series. Find out more here and reach out if you know a leader who’d be a great fit.