Five years ago, in the middle of COVID-19, I started Nucleus. It looked way different than it does today.

I was 20 years old, alone in my bedroom, with no money, no degree, and no co-founder. But that didn’t matter. I already had the most critical things: determination and imagination.

When someone asks me to most accurately describe the process of creating Nucleus — of bringing an idea from the depths of my soul into the physical plane — I can’t help but describe it in a single word: alchemy. Medieval alchemy is really a metaphor for enlightenment. In that way, alchemy to me not only means literal creation of a thing but also a spiritual actualization.

A startup perfectly encapsulates these two concepts. You are not just creating a thing, but also exercising your deepest calling — your destiny if you will. Hence the name High Alchemy. For it’s not just any alchemy, but the highest, most sacred form.

This newsletter — and corresponding podcast — will be the best place in the world to learn about the intersection of Silicon Valley and healthcare.

There are many great thinkers who pontificate all day on statistics and healthcare economics, but the purpose of this newsletter isn’t to intellectualize. Instead, it’s to relay what I’m seeing — and where we’re going — at the frontier of technology, health care, and genomics. 

That frontier has historically belonged to the old guard. The old U.S. health care industry is run by people with two to three-letter acronyms after their names who fill out reams of paperwork from quiet cubicles. 

But the old system isn’t working. 

That system forces doctors, nurses, and providers to waste time navigating administrative hassles instead of treating sick patients. At the same time, it punishes patients with expensive procedures, long wait times, and limited access to providers. Most of all, it profits off of people getting sick — instead of focusing on preventing disease altogether. 

This system doesn’t just fail us — it fails in an exorbitantly expensive way. We spend $4.5 trillion on healthcare every year, or the equivalent of $12,300 per person annually. And, yet, our life expectancy averages nearly a decade below countries like Japan, Australia, and Switzerland — countries who spend about half as much as we do.

It’s nothing short of a tragedy. In 2021, preventable diseases like heart disease and diabetes claimed 1.8 million lives — more than four times the number of deaths caused by COVID-19.

The good news is we don’t need decades to fix this. We need builders, doers, and disruptors to act — now. In fact, the tides are already turning. 

There’s never been a genomics company like Nucleus, started by a dropout with no formal scientific training and no insider network, raising money from his bedroom at his parent’s house. Nucleus is just one example of a budding health revolution happening right now in Silicon Valley.

I like to say one of the most remarkable things about Nucleus is that — after five years — I’m still working on the same thing I dreamed up all those years ago. In fact, on page one of the very first notebook I conceptualized Nucleus in, I noted that I wanted to build the application layer for DNA. All these years later, my goal remains the same.

Sometimes people tell me their startup is their first act — and then they're going to do what they really want to do. Well, this is the newsletter for people whose lives don’t have second acts. Because there is no second act when you’re doing high alchemy.

Let’s ride.

I’m thrilled to share that we've raised a $14 million Series A, bringing our total backing to $32 million. 

The new financing accelerates our ability to run a software playbook — one that’s scalable, accessible, and user-first — in healthcare, a legacy industry that’s resisted change for decades.

There are more than 5,000 genetic biomarkers known to cause diseases. Pioneering gene editor and CRISPR wizard Feng Zhang joined Peter Attia to discuss the future of gene editing.

We went viral for Making America Healthy Again at the Paul v. Tyson fight in November. 

Now, founder, physician, author, and speaker Mark Hyman is reiterating his support for longtime friend Robert Kennedy with a letter of support that has so far garnered the signatures of nearly 5,000 physicians and researchers.

Gene-editing treatment Casgevy is finally being used to treat blood disorders in roughly 35,000 patients in the U.S. and Europe. 

The potential of CRISPR to save lives has long inspired me. Eight years ago, I was in the Wall Street Journal for engineering yeast at Genspace. Check it out — can’t say enough about the amazing community lab they run.

Don’t miss Erik Newcomer’s deep dive into why Bench’s board booted the company’s founder. VC firms should always be founder-focused — but when does that strategy hit its limit?

The clean food movement has shifted from niche leftist co-ops to today's tech discourse. Bryan Johnson’s food testing project highlights the growing intersection of health, consumer demand, and politics.

Longevity practices are the most pervasive health mandate today.

A section dedicated to the before-and-after of everyday creation.

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