Hard Drugs is a show by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen about medical innovation: how to speed it up, how to scale it up, and how to make sure lifesaving tools reach the people who need them the most. It is brought to you by Works in Progress.
Hosts Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen explore how siRNA technology offers a revolutionary approach to silencing disease-causing genes, potentially treating a wide range of illnesses.
24 Jul 2026
Are miracle drugs hiding in plain sight?
Hosts Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen explore drug repurposing, revealing how medicines like Ozempic offer multiple health benefits and uncovering why many potential uses remain untested.
27 May 2026
Inventing the second malaria vaccine with Katharine Collins
Host Saloni Dattani and Host Jacob Trefethen interview Katharine Collins, co-inventor of the R21 malaria vaccine, exploring the challenges and breakthroughs in its development.
27 Feb 2026
Should everyone be taking statins?
Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen explore the cholesterol revolution, discussing statins and new drugs that lower LDL cholesterol, in this interview episode.
22 Dec 2025
The first cancer vaccine
Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen explore the groundbreaking development of the first cancer vaccine, the Hepatitis B shot, and its impact on medical innovation.
26 Nov 2025
The history of vaccines
Hosts Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen explore the historical evolution of vaccines from risky experiments to scientific immunization.
29 Oct 2025
Will AI solve medicine?
Hosts Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen explore AI's potential and limitations in revolutionizing drug development and disease eradication.
15 Oct 2025
The art of protein design with AI
Hosts Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen interview industry experts on how AI designs novel proteins, transforming medicine and science.
1 Oct 2025
Hacking proteins with AI
Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen interview each other about how AI tools like AlphaFold are revolutionizing protein engineering for medical breakthroughs.
16 Sept 2025
100 years of insulin in 15 minutes
Saloni Dattani explores insulin's century-long transformation from animal extract to genetically engineered drug, launching the biotech revolution.
3 Sept 2025
Proteins: Weird blobs that do important things
This episode kicks off a mini-series on proteins, drug development and AI. Saloni and Jacob explore the world of proteins, including how proteins fold into complex shapes, why that complexity matters and how crowded and dynamic the inside of a cell really is; and they exchange surprising statistics about proteins.
Hard Drugs is a new podcast from Works in Progress and Open Philanthropy about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.
You can watch or listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.
Saloni’s substack newsletter: https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/
(https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/)
Jacob’s blog: https://blog.jacobtrefethen.com/ (https://blog.jacobtrefethen.com/)
Books:
Ron Milo and Rob Phillips. Biology by the numbers https://book.bionumbers.org/ (https://book.bionumbers.org/)
Carl Ivar Branden and John Tooze (1999) Introduction to protein structure https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781136969898/introduction-protein-structure-john-tooze-carl-ivar-branden (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781136969898/introduction-protein-structure-john-tooze-carl-ivar-branden)
Articles:
Niko McCarty (2023). Biology is a burrito. https://www.asimov.press/p/burrito-biology (https://www.asimov.press/p/burrito-biology)
Rhiannon Morris, Katrina Black, and Elliott Stollar (2022) Uncovering protein function: from classification to complexes. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9400073/ (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9400073/)
Victor Muñoz and Michele Cerminara (2016) When fast is better: protein folding fundamentals and mechanisms from ultrafast approaches https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article/473/17/2545/49248/When-fast-is-better-protein-folding-fundamentals (https://portlandpress.com/biochemj/article/473/17/2545/49248/When-fast-is-better-protein-folding-fundamentals)
Image credits:
Chang et al. (2012) Egg white in organic electronics. https://spie.org/news/4149-egg-white-in-organic-electronics (https://spie.org/news/4149-egg-white-in-organic-electronics) [diagram of egg white denaturing and cross-linking]
John Kendrew’s model of myoglobin’s structure; via Carl Ivar Branden and John Tooze (1999) Introduction to protein structure.
Carl Ivar Branden and John Tooze (1999) Introduction to protein structure. [diagram of amino acids and protein structure]
Ron Milo and Rob Phillips. Which is bigger, mRNA or the protein it codes for? https://book.bionumbers.org/which-is-bigger-mrna-or-the-protein-it-codes-for/ (https://book.bionumbers.org/which-is-bigger-mrna-or-the-protein-it-codes-for/) [diagram of myoglobin mRNA vs protein]
Scitable (2014). Microtubules and Filaments. https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/microtubules-and-filaments-14052932/ (https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/microtubules-and-filaments-14052932/) [diagram of microtubules]
11 Jun 2025
Lenacapavir: The miracle drug that could end AIDS
Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen discuss lenacapavir, a highly effective new HIV drug, its development, and its potential to revolutionize HIV treatment, offering insights into the history and future of combating AIDS.
9 Jun 2025
Coming soon: Hard Drugs
Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen explore accelerating and scaling medical innovation to ensure life-saving tools reach those who need them most.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
16 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
29 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 37 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
41
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
81
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