2024 will be my year of the mundane (again)

I could've kicked off 2024 with a listicle of the top 10 ways that LLMs will revolutionize drug discovery this year. Or maybe some speculation about how the new AlphaFold will unlock an age of digital drug discovery. But I'm not going to do that. And not just because I couldn't think of way number 10. Instead, I want to start the year with a short tirade in praise of the mundane side of tech bio.

First off, I do think there’s an important role for hype and speculation about how the latest, cutting edge digital technology will revolutionize biotech. It draws people into the field - founders and data scientists, not to mention investors. It helps define the long-term direction of the field by identifying the things we need to invest in today so we can have those things in 5-10. And behind the hype are many smart people, genuinely working hard to make a difference.

But in my experience, a lot of the things we need to invest in today, regardless of whether we want LLMs or AlphaFold or whatever comes next, are rather mundane. Things like organizing data, capturing metadata, planning experiments,... you know, the things I write about on this newsletter. Without them, none of the fancy stuff is going to happen.

Now, to say that this mundane work is more important than the flashy stuff would be pompous and self-serving. To call it the "real work" of techbio would start to sound like gate keeping. To draw comparisons to trash collectors and nurses and other historically overlooked yet vitally important segments of society would surely be a bridge too far. (Of course, if you want to tell yourself all this, I won't stop you. Just don't be a jerk about it.)

But...

If you, dear reader, are one of the many people out their doing the mundane work while the rest of your organization loses its mind over the latest AI-hype headline, I want you to know that I see you. I'm there with you. And I'll keep writing about it as long as you keep reading.

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And if you need help with the mundane side of your biotech startup, check out my company, Merelogic. It’s not software - it’s services designed to unblock your data scientists from (mundane) technical problems so they can focus on the science.