Dr. Jen Nwankwo: The AI Scientist Using Robots to Discover Medicines Faster
Let me tell you about Dr. Jen Nwankwo.
There’s a woman who is using artificial intelligence and lab robots to speed up the discovery of new medicines — and some of the biggest names in tech, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Microsoft’s venture fund, bet on her. Her name is Dr. Jen Nwankwo, and she’s changing how fast we get cures.
The Work
Jen is the Founder and CEO of 1910 Genetics, a Boston company building a multimodal AI platform and lab automation to discover drugs faster — both small molecules and protein therapeutics, a rare dual capability. Her company has raised about $29.8 million across five rounds, including a seed led by Sam Altman and a $22 million Series A co-led by Microsoft’s venture fund and Playground Global.
She’s the founding launch customer collaborating with Microsoft’s Azure Quantum Elements — the sole biotech or pharma partner in that program — to build an AI-driven infrastructure layer for drug R&D. Her pipeline targets neurological, autoimmune, and cancer diseases. She’s working on the problem that dominates modern medicine: drugs take too long and cost too much to discover.
The Roots
This is an HBCU-to-PhD story that gives me life. Jen was raised in Lagos, Nigeria, before coming to the United States. She earned her B.S. from Claflin University — an HBCU in Orangeburg, South Carolina — and her PhD in pharmacology from Tufts University School of Medicine. Before starting 1910 Genetics, she was a scientist at Novartis and Eli Lilly, and an HHMI Predoctoral Fellow.
She’s a Y Combinator alum. A Nigerian-born daughter who came up through an HBCU now leads one of the most interesting AI-drug-discovery companies in the country.
Why It Matters
Here’s what I want you to hold: the future of medicine is being built by people who understand both biology and computers. Jen Nwankwo is the rare leader who does both — and she did it starting from an HBCU and from Nigeria, not from the usual Silicon Valley or Ivy path.
Every disease she helps treat faster, every patient who gets a cure sooner because of AI — that’s the promise of what she’s building. And a Black woman is running it.
Quick facts:
- Founder & CEO, 1910 Genetics (AI drug discovery, Boston)
- ~$29.8M raised · seed from Sam Altman · $22M Series A (Microsoft + Playground)
- Founding launch customer, Microsoft Azure Quantum Elements
- B.S. Claflin University (HBCU) · PhD Pharmacology, Tufts
- Pipeline: neurological, autoimmune & cancer therapeutics
