Tech on Drugs with Shai Shen-Orr Season 3 - Episode 2 - The Single Cell Revolution - Prof. Fabian Theis
Aug 13, 2025
Prof. Fabian Theis, a pioneering computational biologist known for his work in single-cell RNA-seq and AI in biology, joins Shai Shen-Orr for a captivating discussion. They delve into the transformative impact of the single-cell revolution on the industry and the potential of foundation models in research. The conversation explores futuristic concepts like virtual biotech labs and one-person operations, alongside challenges in causal inference and integrating diverse data types. Ultimately, Fabian shares valuable advice for early-career scientists pursuing their curiosity.
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From Hating Biology To Computational Biology
- Fabian Theis hated biology in high school and pursued math, physics and CS instead.
- He discovered biology later by applying machine learning and pivoted into computational biology.
Single-Cell Data Became A New Modeling Substrate
- The single-cell revolution created rich datasets that reshaped biology and AI modeling.
- Startups and companies now build perturbation atlases and models for drug-relevant tasks.
Early Methods Faced Skepticism
- Fabian recalled early skepticism when applying computational PCA adaptations to single-cell data.
- He highlighted their 'diffusion pseudotime' work as a turning point despite initial resistance.