Biotech is starting to take on problems we have long treated as fixed parts of being human.

You might have heard about Intercept, a new $500 million initiative that wants to make respiratory infections such as the common cold and flu a thing of the past. Earlier this year, startup Capable emerged with the ambition of developing medicines that could eventually let people sleep one or two hours less without losing cognitive performance.

And in this issue we bring you the news that Insilico Medicine is taking on pain. The company has nominated a non-opioid drug candidate against a new target its AI helped uncover.

BAIO’s summer mode continues with a shorter issue: two news stories, plus BrainPilot in The Edge. Alongside Insilico’s pain candidate, we have PeptiVerse, an open AI platform that predicts whether a peptide has the properties needed to become a useful drug before researchers spend time and money making it.

Let’s dive in.