Golgi

Golgi Turns One: A Year of Innovation and Growth Today, Golgi celebrates its first anniversary! Reflecting on the past year, it’s clear that when every day presents a new challenge, a year can feel like a lifetime. It’s only been 12 months, but the journey has been filled with unforgettable experiences. Starting a business is an adventure, with exhilarating highs and challenging lows. Entrepreneurship is far removed from the comforts of a salaried job. Paychecks are uncertain, and each day is a test—perform or fail. The pressure can be intense, but the highs—methodological breakthroughs, landing our first customer—have been extraordinary. Golgi began as a simple idea—a daydream about what I could build. But once the wheels started turning, Golgi took on a life of its own. Colleagues from every stage of my career—from CU-Mathematics, UNC-Biostatistics, HMS-Cell Biology and Calico Life Sciences—reached out, eager to join the adventure. Thanks to a mix of serendipity, luck, and determination, we were able to bootstrap a business with no outside funding. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to our founding team. They didn’t have financial incentives—there was no money to drive them—yet they showed up and delivered, day in and day out. How many people would continue working if their salaries vanished, with only the love of the work and the potential for future rewards to keep them going? Not many, but that’s exactly what our team did. Every member believed in our mission and trusted each other to get the job done. Working with such a dedicated and passionate team has been a privilege I’ll cherish forever. Bootstrapping a business comes with its own set of challenges. Money is always tight, and every decision feels critical, adding layers of pressure. It’s not a path for everyone, but it worked for us. The financial constraints forced us to stay laser-focused on what mattered most—solving real problems for our early customers. Without the distractions of fundraising or job hunting, we dedicated ourselves to what we do best—building cutting-edge tools. The results have been nothing short of remarkable. Initially, we offered solutions to niche problems like eliminating rare outliers and improving performance in complex experimental designs. But thanks to R&D, we developed a transformative value proposition: we could double assay throughput with no loss in performance! This shift resonated with customers, quickly turning leads into paying clients. In our first 12 months, we built a powerful data analysis platform, initiated two patents, and secured an early customer base. There’s remains plenty of uncertainty the future of our young enterprise, but it’s hard to imagine a better start. To everyone who offered advice and encouragement throughout the year, thank you! Your words have made a difference and I’m looking forward to sharing many more milestones with you in the years to come. The journey has just begun! Jonathon O’Brien www.golgi.bio

Eric Dai and I wrote an essay on the impact of AI/ML in drug discovery and why so much discourse on the topic is confused. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/eFcayiym

Good people. Go work with them.

Nice post from David. Some thoughts... Efforts to create foundation models in biology quickly end up touching on the field of preclinical decision science. Ideally, discovery efforts are devoted to experiments with the highest predictive validity, eg. those that score therapeutic targets/candidates in a way that ultimately correlates well with clinical utility. Many therapeutic areas use models with poor (or unmeasured) predictive validity, so the duty cycle to understand whether any new discovery platform is performant is incredibly long. Probably the fastest way for an AI newco to go from foundational model--> traditional value-generating point in biotech would be to point their efforts initially towards clinically validated surrogate endpoints. As an example, LDL levels are monotonically associated with cardiovascular disease risk, so it would be compelling and fast for a newco to rapidly go from foundational model-->new CVD target--> actually compelling preclinical POC data. David's post also touches on the business model/economic considerations that foundation models in both tech and biotech have been grappling with: a) is there any defensibility to the business? Are foundation models a real catalyst to build a business around (or something closer to a science project)? b) Will benefits accrue to incumbents or newcos? c) is this a cheap parlor trick or a real innovation that solves real business problems better/faster/cheaper than the best alternative options?

Wondered how to estimate absolute amounts of glycopeptides by mass spectrometry without using any standards or calibration curves. Check out how ! "Standard-free quantification of glycopeptides via coulometric mass spectrometry" that appeared as cover article in JASMS https://lnkd.in/gyPcBF6U

Couldn’t have articulated this better myself. And shameless plug for some of the ones I’ve found particularly innovative of late if you’re looking for cool solutions - Golgi for mass spec data (#datanerdalert re how much I love the technical details of this one for this data type, and from truly deep experts in the field), and Ontologic for the simple flexibility they bring to data of all sizes.

Golgi's first ASMS conference ended all too quickly! I had a fantastic time reconnecting with old colleagues and learning about the latest emerging technologies. But more than anything else, I loved introducing Joseph Newhall to his first ASMS. Joe, who comes from a pure mathematics background, was blown away by the conference. He had no idea how much intellectual activity was happening just in the field of proteomics methodology. Experiencing it through his eyes made me feel ten years younger and gave me a renewed perspective on the mass spectrometry community. The ingenuity and sincere love of discovery that permeates every corner of ASMS is truly remarkable. It’s a community I am proud to be part of and a gathering I will always cherish attending. See you all next year! Jonathon #ASMS2024

Golgi is the hottest sub cellular component at ASMS and it’s not even close! Were the other organelles even trying? Kevin Dong Thao Nguyen #ASMS2024

Steve Gygi looking devastatingly handsome in his Golgi shirt! #ASMS2024