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START pod: Jeff Liu, CEO & Co-Founder, FinalDose "Programmable DNA drug destroying all cancers, unlocking 80% of targets"
Description
Most cancer drugs target proteins
FinalDose thinks the real opportunity is one layer deeper: DNA
Jeff Liu and his team are building a programmable drug platform that uses genetic mutations to identify and selectively destroy cancer cells
Cells without those mutations are not targeted
Instead of creating a completely new drug for every cancer type, the platform is designed as a reusable system with different genetic instructions
One chassis.
Different disease targets.
The broader bet: DNA is more deterministic than proteins, which could unlock therapeutic approaches traditional drugs struggle to reach
Search.
Destroy.
"A programmable cell elimination platform."
🎙️ Jeff Liu, Cofounder & CEO of FinalDose on START
00:11 Why proteins may be the wrong layer for cancer treatment
01:14 Using DNA mutations as programmable kill signatures
03:20 Building a reusable therapeutic platform instead of one-off drugs
05:00 Why hard biotech problems require interdisciplinary teams
06:00 Getting into YC after a 4 a.m. interview in Japan
08:00 Sam Altman’s $2M AI token offer — and why FinalDose passed
10:08 How AI-native biotech is accelerating programmable medicine
12:00 Why the future of medicine may look more like engineering
13:05 The regulatory bottleneck for programmable therapeutics
Learn more at finaldose.ai