reSee.it Podcast Summary
A man faces a terminal illness with a radical idea: medicines we already have can cure what we lack. David Fajgenbaum’s journey begins with his mother’s brain cancer, a losing battle that fuels his vow to change medicine. As a medical student, he nearly dies from idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease, enduring dialysis, brief blindness, and last rites. He survives after intensive chemotherapy and vows to find treatments for others, while starting a grief support group named AMF, later Actively Moving Forward.
Before long, chemotherapy isn’t enough. He discovers the drugs saving his life were not designed for Castleman’s, and asks: could there be an eighth drug repurposed from another disease? He researches globally, stores blood and tissue, and asks doctors to try drugs used elsewhere. In this crucible, he identifies a key insight: a drug to prevent organ rejection can suppress a harmful immune signal driving Castleman’s. He begins sirolimus and, after relapses, reaches durable remission, marrying Caitlyn in 2014 as his hair regrows.
AI becomes his partner. He and Grant Mitchell co-found Every Cure to scan all 4,000 FDA-approved drugs against 18,000 diseases using a biomedical knowledge graph. The goal is to reveal which medicines might treat which conditions. In the first phase, 75 million matches are scored; the team of about 50 has reviewed the top 6,000, deep-dived into roughly 60–70, and advanced about 15 toward plans. Nine programs are active, including lidocaine for recurrence and a Jack inhibitor for Castleman’s. Nonprofit funding plus ARPA-H supports scale.
The human side continues. They share successes: Michael with metastatic angiosarcoma responded to pembrolizumab; Kyla, a Castleman’s patient, improved after a JAK inhibitor; Joey, a child at CHOP, showed rapid lab improvements. Caitlyn’s unwavering support culminates in their wedding day. They discuss dissemination: UpToDate is imperfect, and knowledge must reach doctors worldwide, not just scholars. They envision a future where AI-guided matches are tested in labs and moved into trials, expanding access and reducing suffering for thousands. The mission: unlock hidden cures in existing drugs and spread them widely.