# From Tehran to the C-Suite: Biotech CEO Ali Mortazavi on AI, Drug Discovery, and the Me-Too Problem

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-doctor-s-lounge-7442524/from-tehran-to-the-c-suite-biotech-ceo-ali-mortazavi-on-ai-drug-discovery-and-the-me-too-problem
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-doctor-s-lounge-7442524/from-tehran-to-the-c-suite-biotech-ceo-ali-mortazavi-on-ai-drug-discovery-and-the-me-too-problem.md
Podcast: [The Doctor's Lounge](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-doctor-s-lounge-7442524)
Published: 2026-04-03T01:00:00+00:00
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Duration seconds: 3546

## Resource

Guest: Ali Mortazavi | CEO, Tangram Therapeutics (formerly E-Therapeutics), London, UK Episode Summary: Ali Mortazavi is not your typical biotech CEO. A computer scientist by training, former professional chess player, and veteran of financial markets, he invested in an RNAi company in 2012 — and then, by his own admission, made the crazy decision to become its CEO with zero background in biology, chemistry, or medicine. What followed is a 14-year education in the brutal realities of drug development — and a front-row seat to the AI revolution now reshaping it. In this wide-ranging conversation, Mortazavi draws on his extraordinary personal story (fleeing revolutionary Iran as a child, arriving in London unable to speak English, rising through chess and finance) to offer a uniquely cross-disciplinary perspective on why biotech is stuck in a me-too loop, why the incentive system is the real bottleneck, and where AI is — and isn't — changing the game. 0:00 - Introduction & Ali's Background 1:07 - The Iranian Revolution at Nine Years Old 4:44 - Fleeing Iran, Arriving in London 6:38 - The Refugee Experience and Starting Over 7:49 - Computer Science in 1990 9:53 - Becoming a Professional Chess Player 11:06 - The Vishwanathan Anand Moment 13:17 - From Chess to Finance to Biotech CEO 14:44 - The Gleevec Illusion and the Reality of Drug Development 16:07 - Jay Bhattacharya, Reproducibility, and the PubMed Button 18:18 - LLMs as Scientific Compression Systems 20:15 - Why LLMs Give "The Average Answer" — The Co-Pilot Model 23:44 - Vibe Coding and the Explosion of Code 25:36 - AI Won't Replace 10x Coders — It Will Replace 90 of 100 26:16 - The GalNAC Case Study: 35 Years of Forgotten Innovation 31:10 - The Me-Too Algorithm and Biotech VC Incentives 34:40 - GLP-1s: Another 30…

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