Conversation with Stef van Grieken, Cradle

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

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