Former ARPA-H director Renee Wegrzyn wants to solve science’s ‘magic hands’ problem

Renee Wegrzyn spent her career building the future of American science—including the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, the White House agency created to accelerate health breakthroughs. Then the Trump administration showed her the door. Wegrzyn cofounded Transfyr to tackle what she calls one of the most overlooked issues in science: the magic hands problem. She explains why fixing this unglamorous bottleneck is the prerequisite for everything AI promises to deliver in medicine, and why she can feel the next Sputnik moment coming—even if she can’t quite name it yet. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by Robert Safian, former editor-in-chief of Fast Company. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today’s top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. You were at ARPA-H, the inaugural director of a White House effort to accelerate health research. You were amped up about the possibilities, but with the Trump administration, you had to pivot. Was it hard not to…

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