Post by Joseph Carpenter

After 7.5 years, last week marked my final day at Recursion. I’m incredibly grateful that I took the chance to join Recursion, and even more grateful to the people who took a chance on me in the early days of Recursion- Michael Genin, Chris Gibson, Yolanda Chong, Tina Marriott, Matthew Kinn, Berton Earnshaw, Kristen Rushton, Mason Victors and so many others. It has been an intensely challenging and deeply rewarding journey that gave me the opportunity to help build a chemistry team from the ground up, grow and shape the organization, contribute to the platform and Recursion OS, and work alongside exceptional scientists, engineers, and leaders across the TechBio ecosystem. I’m particularly proud of the role I played in helping bridge medicinal chemistry, machine learning, and drug discovery, and in demonstrating what becomes possible when those disciplines are deeply integrated. The experience reinforced my belief that the future of drug discovery will be shaped not by any single technology, but by the thoughtful integration of science, computation, and human creativity. I’m especially grateful for the opportunity to join forces with so many talented colleagues from Valence, Cyclica, and Exscientia as our teams came together around a shared vision for transforming drug discovery. Across those chapters, I had the privilege of working with people who challenged me, supported me, expanded my thinking, and helped me see what’s possible when science, technology, and ambitious goals come together. What I will miss most are the people. Recursion is full of brilliant, creative, driven, and deeply caring individuals, and I feel fortunate to have been part of the journey. I continue to believe strongly in Recursion’s mission and will be cheering for the team as they work to bring differentiated medicines to patients faster and more efficiently. For now, I’m looking forward to taking a little time to reflect, reconnect with family and friends, and recharge before the next chapter. The future of AI-native drug discovery has never been more exciting, and I’m excited to explore new opportunities where I can help build the next generation of AI-native drug discovery and contribute to bringing better medicines to patients. If you'd like to stay in touch, you can reach me here on LinkedIn or at [email protected].