
Conversation with Stef van Grieken, Cradle
From Inside AI by EPFL AI Center
June 12, 2025 · 1h 15m · Season 1 · Episode 9
About this episode
Stef van Grieken discusses his journey in generative AI and its impact on synthetic biology and drug design.
In this episode of Inside AI, Marcel sits down with Stef van Grieken, co-founder and CEO of Cradle, the company rewriting the rules of biology through generative AI. From a small Dutch village to building Google’s TPU and now the frontier of synthetic biology, Stef shares the journey that led him to ask a transformative question: What if we could design proteins the way we generate images or text? Cradle’s software is already helping design next-generation drugs, materials, and sustainable alternatives to oil- and animal-based products — even enabling interns with no biology background to outperform billion-dollar pharma solutions.
People in this episode
Host: Marcel
Guest: Stef van Grieken
Topics covered
- generative AI
- synthetic biology
- drug design
- sustainable materials
- technology innovation
Keywords
- generative AI
- synthetic biology
- drug design
- Cradle
- Stef van Grieken
- technology
- innovation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Cradle, Google, pharma
More episodes of Inside AI
- Conversation with Patrick Jermann and Francesco Mondada, EPFL · March 18, 2026 · 1h 7m
- Conversation with Robert West, EPFL · February 5, 2026 · 1h 26m
- Conversation with Eamonn Maguire, Proton · December 4, 2025 · 1h 21m
- Conversation with Aldo Podestà, Giotto.ai · October 13, 2025 · 1h 0m
- Conversation with Annie Hartley, EPFL · September 24, 2025 · 60 min
- Conversation about Apertus with Antoine Bosselut, Martin Jaggi and Imanol Schalg (EPFL and ETH Zurich) · September 9, 2025 · 1h 35m
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Inside AI podcast page.