About this video

• Video Title: Robert Langer: Edison of Medicine | Lex Fridman Podcast #105
• Channel: Lex Fridman
• Speakers: Lex Fridman, Robert Langer
• Duration: 01:02:14

Overview

This video is an interview between Lex Fridman and Robert Langer, a professor at MIT and a highly cited researcher in biotechnology. They discuss Langer's work in drug delivery systems and tissue engineering, his experiences with scientific discovery and failure, the process of creating startups, and his views on the future of medicine and science.

Key takeaways

• Scientific Discovery and Failure: Langer shares his experiences with rejection of his research papers and grants, emphasizing that failure is a part of the scientific process and can lead to better explanations and stronger work.
• Innovation in Medicine: The conversation highlights key areas of Langer's research, including developing drugs to stop blood vessel growth (angiogenesis inhibitors), advancements in drug delivery systems, and the potential of tissue engineering for regenerative medicine.
• Entrepreneurship and Startups: Langer discusses the critical role of business acumen in launching successful biotech companies, emphasizing the need for strategic planning, good leadership, and effective fundraising.
• The Future of Bioengineering: The discussion touches upon the integration of AI and nanotechnology in medicine, the challenges and possibilities of tissue engineering, and the long-term vision for treating diseases like cancer.
• Mentorship and Legacy: Langer expresses immense pride in his students and their achievements, viewing their success and contributions as his most significant accomplishment.

The "invisible pack" magic trick involves a deck of cards where one card is secretly turned upside down. The magician instructs a volunteer to pick a card, show it to them, and then imagine placing it back in the deck and turning it upside down. After shuffling, the magician reveals that only one card is upside down, which is the volunteer's chosen card. The trick is that the magician already has a deck prepared with one card upside down in their back pocket.

Here are 10 interesting claims from the podcast:

1. Magic and Science Share Fascination: Robert Langer believes that both magic and science share a common element of fascination, as both can surprise us with unexpected outcomes.
2. Rejection Fuels Progress: Early rejections of his groundbreaking research by journals like Nature and Science were upsetting but ultimately pushed him to refine his explanations and persevere.
3. Cancer's Lifeline is Blood Vessels: The growth of blood vessels into tumors is crucial for their survival and spread (metastasis), making anti-angiogenesis a key strategy against cancer.
4. Drug Discovery is a Long and Costly Road: Developing a new drug can take over 28 years and cost billions of dollars, with clinical trials being the most expensive and critical phase.
5. AI's Role in Drug Discovery: AI has the potential to analyze vast amounts of chemical data from high-throughput screening to identify patterns and predict promising new drug candidates.
6. Tissue Engineering is Building Organs from Scratch: The field aims to create organs or tissues from the ground up, with early successes including FDA-approved engineered skin for burn victims and diabetic ulcers.
7. Smart Drug Delivery Systems are Emerging: There's potential for drug delivery systems to become "intelligent," responding to physiological signals like glucose levels to release medication accordingly.
8. Patents are Essential for Medical Innovation Funding: Despite potential drawbacks, the patent system is crucial for attracting the significant investment needed to develop new drugs and medical devices.
9. The Best Startup Ingredient is Business Acumen: While scientific discovery is fundamental, Langer emphasizes that successful startups heavily rely on strong business people, strategic planning, and effective management.
10. Inspiring Researchers is Key to Lab Success: Langer believes the most important aspect of leading a successful lab is ensuring researchers are happy, feel their work is important and impactful, and are inspired to keep pushing forward.

Here are the details from the transcript related to the claim that blood vessels are crucial for cancer:

• Tumor Growth Dependency: If cancer exists, blood vessels grow into the tumor. This is part of what enables the tumor to get bigger.
• Metastasis Facilitation: The growth of blood vessels into a tumor is also part of what enables the tumor to metastasize, meaning to spread throughout the body.
• Ultimate Harm: The spread of cancer through metastasis can ultimately kill a person.
• Therapeutic Target: This understanding was a primary motivation for Langer and his colleagues to try and find substances that could stop blood vessels from growing, which led to the development of anti-angiogenesis therapies.
• Starving the Tumor: By cutting off the blood supply to a tumor, it is starved of nutrition, which can cause it to become very small or even disappear.
• Enhancing Other Therapies: A smaller tumor, starved of its blood supply, becomes much more amenable to other therapies like chemotherapy or immunotherapy.
• Historical Skepticism: The idea of targeting blood vessel growth to treat cancer was not widely accepted initially; some people thought it was a "crazy" idea when first proposed.
• Long Development Time: It took 28 years and billions of dollars, involving many companies, from the initial research (published in 1976) to the FDA approval of the first drug targeting this mechanism (Avastin in 2004).
• Approved Applications: Avastin has since been approved for various cancers and even for certain eye diseases where abnormal blood vessel growth occurs.