First episode of the muniverse, a podcast by
@muni_bio focusing on frontier science.
Synthesis might be the most underrated bottleneck in drug discovery. While everyone is racing to build better AI models for molecule design,
@onepot_ai is building a world where molecules can be designed, made, tested, and shipped on demand.
I sat down with onepot co-founders
@daniil_boiko and
@andrei_tyrin, alongside my co-founder
@derekalia.
00:00 - What onepot actually does
00:16 - Why synthesis became the bottleneck
02:52 - The Moscow lab origin story
04:41 - Why CRO timelines take months
07:00 - How automated is the chemistry stack?
08:58 - Where humans still beat robots
11:14 - The hidden labor behind “automated” labs
13:58 - Drug discovery vs materials
15:53 - Small molecules beyond pharma
17:09 - Why small molecules are harder than biologics
18:26 - The 10-year chemistry bet
20:47 - Personalized medicine needs faster synthesis
21:56 - Predicting toxicity before human trials
23:20 - Oil, ore, polymers, and drugs
26:28 - Why complex chemistry is still underbuilt
30:47 - Zero-person biotechs
33:32 - 3D molecules, cages, and exotic reagents
36:30 - The US-China chemistry advantage
38:20 - onepot in plain English
40:45 - Why biotechs outsource chemistry