Attacking Cancer With Code And Winning - EP 48 Jake Becraft
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
Jake Becraft, CEO of Strand Therapeutics, shares how his company is revolutionizing cancer treatment through programmable mRNA technology. (01:36) Working on mRNA years before COVID made it mainstream, Strand has developed a way to program mRNA to target diseased cells specifically while leaving healthy tissue untouched. (09:00) Their first clinical trial in melanoma has shown remarkable results, with some stage IV patients experiencing complete disease disappearance after being told to consider hospice care. (24:00) Beyond cancer, Becraft envisions mRNA as the future infrastructure of medicine, capable of delivering CRISPR, CAR-T therapies, and other genetic medicines throughout the body.
- Main Theme: Strand's programmable mRNA platform represents a paradigm shift from traditional drug delivery to intelligent therapeutics that can sense their cellular environment and act accordingly, potentially transforming how we treat cancer and genetic diseases.
Speakers
Jake Becraft
Jake Becraft is the CEO and co-founder of Strand Therapeutics, a Boston-based biotech company developing programmable mRNA therapies. He earned his PhD from MIT, working in Ron Weiss's synthetic biology lab starting in 2013, where he developed the foundational technology for programmable mRNA. Growing up in Germantown Hills, Illinois (near Peoria, the birthplace of mass-produced penicillin), Becraft has been working on mRNA therapeutics for over 12 years, well before the COVID pandemic brought mainstream attention to the technology.
Key Takeaways
Program mRNA for Cellular Intelligence, Not Just Delivery
Rather than focusing solely on getting mRNA to specific locations in the body, Strand developed sensors that allow mRNA to recognize what type of cell it has entered and decide whether to activate. (24:00) This approach solves the fundamental problem of specificity - ensuring therapeutic proteins are only produced in diseased cells like tumors, not healthy tissue. For professionals, this demonstrates the power of first-principles thinking: instead of following conventional wisdom about delivery mechanisms, Becraft's team identified that controlling protein expression was more critical than controlling delivery location.
Speed is Life-Saving in Drug Development
Becraft emphasizes that delays in drug development directly translate to lost lives. (78:00) He notes that if their clinical trial had been delayed by six months, their first successful patient would likely have died. This urgency drives their "making medicine move faster" philosophy. For ambitious professionals, this illustrates how speed can be a moral imperative in fields where delays have serious consequences, requiring teams to maintain relentless focus on acceleration without compromising quality.
Build Platform Technologies, Not Just Single Solutions
Each drug in Strand's pipeline serves dual purposes: helping patients and answering fundamental questions about their platform technology. (74:40) Their melanoma drug proves mRNA can work therapeutically, while their next IV drug will demonstrate bloodstream delivery to non-liver targets. This strategic approach maximizes learning while building commercial value. Professionals can apply this by ensuring their projects generate both immediate value and broader capabilities that enable future opportunities.
Embrace Being Called Stupid - It Often Signals Opportunity
Throughout his PhD and company-building journey, Becraft was repeatedly told his approach was a "colossal waste of time" and "stupid." (55:00) Rather than being deterred, he viewed this skepticism as validation that he might be onto something significant. His contrarian bet on programmable mRNA while others focused on delivery vehicles has proven prescient. For professionals, this demonstrates the importance of maintaining conviction in unconventional approaches, especially when facing widespread skepticism from established experts.
Focus on Infrastructure, Not Just the Sexy Technology
Becraft compares the biotech industry to building "faster and faster cars" (advanced gene therapies) while driving them on "gravel country roads" (poor delivery systems). (66:00) He positions mRNA as the infrastructure that will enable all other genetic medicines to reach their potential. This perspective helped him identify a less glamorous but more impactful opportunity. Professionals should look for infrastructure plays in their industries - the foundational technologies that enable others to succeed, even if they're less immediately exciting than cutting-edge applications.
Statistics & Facts
- Stage IV melanoma patients who fail first-line therapy have only a 9-11% response rate to currently available second-line treatments, making Strand's patient population extremely challenging to treat. (23:00)
- Strand's first melanoma patient had 40 additional lesions appear in just 13 days between screening and treatment, demonstrating the rapid progression typical in end-stage cancer patients. (19:00)
- After two doses of Strand's therapy, 40% of tumors in their first patient had visibly "melted off," with complete disease disappearance occurring over 4-5 months and remaining clear after 15+ months. (20:00)
