Jake Becraft (https://x.com/DrSynbio) is the CEO and Co-founder of Strand Therapeutics (https://www.strandtx.com/), a company building one of the most advanced programmable genetic medicine platforms in biotechnology. Under his leadership, Strand is redefining what RNA medicines can do by enabling cell-selective targeting and therapeutic payload delivery inside the body, unlocking a new class of precision genetic therapies. He has guided the company from its founding vision through platform development and into clinical translation, positioning Strand at the forefront of next generation RNA therapeutics.

Beyond his role at Strand, Dr. Becraft is an influential voice in the national biotechnology landscape. He engages and advises policymakers, defense leaders, and industry stakeholders on biosecurity, innovation strategy, and strengthening American competitiveness in advanced biotechnology. Trained as a synthetic biologist at MIT, he operates at the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, and policy, focused on building both the companies and the institutional frameworks required to secure the future of programmable medicine.

He received his Ph.D. in Biological Engineering and Synthetic Biology from MIT. He serves on the board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio).

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Tim’s Founder Kitchen — From Brainstorm to the President’s Office in Two Months (Featuring Jake Becraft, Strand Therapeutics)

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Transcripts

• This episode (coming soon)

• All episodes (https://tim.blog/2018/09/20/all-transcripts-from-the-tim-ferriss-show/)

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

• Connect with Jacob Becraft:

Twitter (https://twitter.com/drsynbio) | Strand Therapeutics (https://www.strandtx.com/)

Books, Movies, & Recommended Reading

• Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech (https://www.amazon.com/dp/022604551X/?tag=offsitoftimfe-20) by Sally Smith Hughes | Amazon

• All of Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Letters to Shareholders, 1997–2020 (https://quartr.com/insights/business-philosophy/collection-jeff-bezos-shareholder-letters) | Quartr

• STX-001 ASCO Poster (https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/695c147ac34bdf172346e992/69635956db8f13b5987fce02_696142a228b115050b3ba912_STX-001-ASCO-2025-poster-FINAL.pdf) | Journal of Clinical Oncology

• Sophie’s Choice (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GR7F8FFQ/?tag=offsitoftimfe-20) | Prime Video

• The Orphan Drug Act (ODA) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_Drug_Act_of_1983) | Wikipedia

• Apple, Its Control Over the iPhone, and The Internet (https://www.matthewball.co/all/applemetaverse) | Matthew Ball

• How Smartphones Changed Music and the Music Industry (https://www.hypebot.com/how-the-smartphones-changed-music-and-the-music-industry-kyle-bylin/) | Hypebot

• The US Can’t Afford to Offshore Clinical Trials to China (https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/03/05/offshore-china-clinical-trials-biotechnology/) | The Washington Post

• This May Be the Most Important Medical Story of the Decade (https://archive.is/20260409092311/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/opinion/genetic-editing-diseases-health-care.html) | The New York Times

Companies

• Strand Therapeutics

• Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/)

• Andreessen Horowitz (https://a16z.com/)

• Anthropic (https://www.anthropic.com/)

• Apple (https://www.apple.com/)

• AWS (Amazon Web Services) (https://aws.amazon.com/)

• BlackBerry (https://www.blackberry.com/)

• Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) (https://www.bms.com/)

• DeepMind (https://deepmind.google/)

• Domino’s (Domino’s Pizza) (https://www.dominos.com/)

• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/)

• Genentech (https://www.gene.com/)

• Genzyme (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genzyme)

• Google (https://www.google.com/)

• Holobiome (https://holobiome.org/)

• Merck (https://www.merck.com/)

• Meta (https://about.meta.com/)

• Microsoft (https://www.microsoft.com/)

• Moderna (https://www.modernatx.com/)

• Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/)

• The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/)

• OpenAI (https://openai.com/)

• PayPal (https://www.paypal.com/)

• PickFu (https://www.pickfu.com/)

• Playground Global (https://playground.global/)

• Polymarket (https://polymarket.com/)

• SpaceX (https://www.spacex.com/)

• Spotify (https://www.spotify.com/)

• Sweetgreen (https://www.sweetgreen.com/)

• Tesla (https://www.tesla.com/)

• Thrive Capital (https://thrivecap.com/)

• Uber (https://www.uber.com/)

• Uber Eats (https://www.ubereats.com/)

• The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/)

• Zenno (https://www.zenno.space/)

• Zip2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip2)

Institutions & Organizations

• American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) (https://www.asco.org/)

• Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) (https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/fda-organization/center-biologics-evaluation-and-research-cber)

• Congress (US) (https://www.congress.gov/)

• Clinical Trial Notification (CTN) (Australia) (https://www.tga.gov.au/products/unapproved-therapeutic-goods/access-pathways/clinical-trials/clinical-trial-notification-ctn-scheme)

• Department of Health (Abu Dhabi) (https://www.doh.gov.ae/en/)

• European Medicines Agency (EMA) (https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/homepage)

• Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (https://www.fda.gov/)

• Institutional Review Board (IRB) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_review_board)

• Medicaid (https://www.medicaid.gov/)

• Medicare (https://www.medicare.gov/)

• MIT (https://www.mit.edu/)

• MIT Media Lab (https://www.media.mit.edu/)

• MD Anderson Cancer Center (https://www.mdanderson.org/)

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (https://www.mskcc.org/)

• Nobel Prize (https://www.nobelprize.org/)

• The White House (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House)

Concepts

• Abscopal Effect in Oncology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscopal_effect)

• American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (https://www.asco.org/annual-meeting)

• Australia’s Clinical Trial Notification (CTN) Scheme (https://www.tga.gov.au/products/unapproved-therapeutic-goods/access-pathways/clinical-trials/clinical-trial-notification-ctn-scheme)

• CAR-T Cell Therapy: Cost and Manufacturing Challenges (https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/12/1091161/car-t-cancer-therapy-treatment-expense/)

• The Central Dogma of Molecular Biology (DNA → RNA → Protein) (https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Central-Dogma)

• Checkpoint Inhibitors and Cancer Immunotherapy (https://www.keytrudahcp.com/resources/mechanism-of-action/)

• Cutaneous vs. Visceral Metastases in Melanoma (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10572973/)

• FDA Investigational New Drug (IND) Application (https://www.fda.gov/drugs/types-applications/investigational-new-drug-ind-application)

• First Principles Thinking (Elon Musk / SpaceX) (https://jamesclear.com/first-principles)

• In Vivo CAR-T Cell Therapy (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41573-025-01291-5)

• Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Clinical Trial Oversight (https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/cder-offices-and-divisions/institutional-review-boards-irbs-and-protection-human-subjects-clinical-trials)

• Kaplan-Meier Survival Curves (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3059453/)

• Keytruda (Pembrolizumab) by Merck (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembrolizumab)

• mRNA-Based Therapeutics (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-01007-w)

• Strand’s STX-001: Phase 1 Trial in Solid Tumors (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240530103588/en/Strand-Therapeutics-Announces-First-Patient-Dosed-with-Programmable-mRNA-Therapy-STX-001-in-Phase-1-Trial-for-Solid-Tumors)

People

• Jeff Bezos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos)

• Jennifer Doudna (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/doudna/biographical/)

• Jony Ive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jony_Ive)

• Steve Jobs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs)

• Steve Jurvetson (https://tim.blog/2023/12/13/steve-jurvetson/)

• Baby KJ (https://nucdf.org/news.html/article/2025/12/18/baby-kj-s-crispr-treatment-family-offers-update-researchers-share-next-steps)

• Josh Kushner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Kushner)

• Art Levinson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_D._Levinson)

• Martin Makary (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marty_Makary)

• Jamie Metzl (https://jamiemetzl.com/)

• Elon Musk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk)

• Sundar Pichai (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundar_Pichai)

• Vinay Prasad (https://vinayakkprasad.com/)

• Phil Strandwitz (https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipstrandwitz/)

• Henri Termeer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Termeer)

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The post Tim’s Founder Kitchen — From Brainstorm to the President’s Office in Two Months (Featuring Jake Becraft, Strand Therapeutics) (#868) (https://tim.blog/2026/06/02/jake-becraft-strand-therapeutics/) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss (https://tim.blog).