Yosemite links AI to faster oncology company building
Reed Jobs’ oncology-focused venture firm is using AI as part of a broader model for turning early cancer research into biotech companies.
AI is becoming more than a drug-discovery buzzword in biotech. It is starting to shape how new companies get built from the lab.
What happened
Reed Jobs discussed Yosemite, the oncology-focused venture firm he launched in 2023, and how it is trying to turn early academic cancer research into new biotech companies.
The firm combines philanthropy and investment capital, and is targeting a second fund. AI is becoming part of its work across areas such as drug discovery and clinical trial design.
Rather than only backing later-stage biotech companies, Yosemite is focused on helping promising research become company-ready earlier.
Why it matters
This is a useful AI-biotech signal because the application is not just model hype.
Cancer research has long bottlenecks: identifying targets, validating mechanisms, designing trials and moving discoveries out of universities. AI could help speed up parts of that process, especially when paired with capital and company-building support.
For venture capital, the model is also interesting. It shows investors trying to move closer to the origin point of scientific breakthroughs.
The bigger picture
Biotech venture is becoming more hands-on.
Instead of waiting for startups to appear, specialised firms are increasingly helping form them around academic research, platform technologies and specific disease areas.
If AI can make that company-formation loop faster or less risky, oncology could become one of the clearest test cases for AI-native biotech investing.