Magnet-Controlled Medicines — Andrew York & Maria Ingaramo

Nonfiction Laboratories is building a technology called “magnetogenetics” that promises to control proteins inside the body — such as antibodies or enzymes — using small magnets. In this episode, co-founder Maria Ingaramo and scientific advisor Andrew York explain how they engineered a protein, MagLOV, that responds strongly to magnetic fields, why most prior attempts have failed to replicate, and how the mechanism of magnetically-controlled proteins actually works. They also get into the “dream” use cases, like cancer drugs that activate only at the tumor, which might have a lower toxicity inside the body. This podcast is made possible by Astera Institute.Notes from our discussion: https://nikomc.com/essays/protein-magnets.html00:00 - Opening00:54 — Introduction01:35 — The dream05:38 — Why magnets vs. light or ultrasound10:05 — The physics17:48 — On the name "magnetogenetics"21:25 — Birds and cryptochromes27:09 — Why is the field filled with so much junk?29:51 — Adam Cohen's molecule33:24 — Markus Meister’s debunking38:06 — The experiment46:22 — Finding the LOV domain54:11 — Singlets, triplets, and cysteine56:54 — What the magnet is actually doing1:05:13 — The conformational-change red herring1:12:46 — The Quantum Biology Institute1:19:31 — Founding Nonfiction Labs1:24:38 — How to convince skeptical investors1:29:39 — What a magnetogenetic medicine might look like1:38:50 — First clinical indications1:45:12 — The regulatory path1:48:01 — What the field needs1:54:30 — Appendix: Whiteboard lecture