Two Rosetta community talks now live on TED
Two talks from our community — one by César Ramírez‑Sarmiento and one by Chris Bahl — are now live on the TED platform.
1. César Ramírez‑Sarmiento — “The new era of AI-powered protein design”
In his talk, César Ramírez-Sarmiento, a 2025 TED Fellow and protein engineer, explores how artificial intelligence is rewriting the rules of protein design. Rather than merely observing nature’s molecules, his work uses AI to design new proteins that can respond to big global challenges—think plastic pollution, disease detection, environmental clean-up.
He emphasizes that this isn’t just a technological leap, but a cultural one: opening access, especially in Latin America, so that fresh voices and biodiversity-rich ecosystems can contribute.
Yet he doesn’t glaze over the risks. He reflects on what it means to create novel biological tools and asks: Who benefits? What happens if we get it wrong?
Key takeaway: AI shifts us from explorers of molecules to architects of them—and with that power comes responsibility.
2. Chris Bahl — “The secret language of cells — and how to speak it”
Chris Bahl, also a 2019 TED Fellow and molecular designer, aims his lens at a different but related frontier: mini-proteins that can “talk” to our cells. In his talk he asks: what if medicines could do more than just block or stimulate—they could engage in a language with cells, guiding them, convincing them, healing them.
His team at AI Proteins combines AI, synthetic biology, and robotics to design these miniproteins—small, potent molecules tailored to specific targets (especially in oncology).
Key takeaway: The future of medicine may not just be drugs—but readable, programmable messages to our own biology.