Simulating Life & Accelerating Discovery: Deep Origin’s Biotech Vision | Michael Antonov (Part 4/4)

In this final episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast’s four-part series, host Jon Chee concludes his conversation with Michael Antonov, founder and CEO of Deep Origin. Michael reflects on the evolution from Formic Ventures to Deep Origin, detailing how his vision to simulate life at multiple biological scales is becoming reality. He explains how Deep Origin is building a unified platform for drug discovery—combining molecular docking, dynamics, free energy calculations, and pathway simulations with a conversational AI assistant, Balto, that makes these advanced tools accessible to scientists at every level. Michael discusses the company’s mission-driven culture, its blend of physics-based and AI-driven research, and the challenge of balancing accessibility with sustainability. He also shares lessons learned from past ventures, his philosophy on patient, principled company-building, and what’s next as Deep Origin scales partnerships, productizes cutting-edge research, and expands its impact in computational drug discovery.