# Alex Rives

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/builders/alex-rives/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Real Alpha has cut 8 moments of Alex Rives (Head of Science, Biohub) talking, from an interview on The Cognitive Revolution published Oct 20, 2026.

- Role: Head of Science, Biohub
- About: Created the ESM protein language models at Meta and co-founded EvolutionaryScale, now leads Biohub's AI-for-biology science.
- Company: [Biohub](https://realalpha.app/companies/#biohub)
- On X: https://x.com/alexrives

## What Alex Rives said

- [Cell models need information-rich data and useful inductive bias](https://realalpha.app/s/cell-models-need-information-rich-data-and-useful-inductive/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 5 min
  > “So what I think is possible now is an information theoretic model of the cell.” — Alex Rives · [16:38](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=998)
- [A laser phase plate reveals molecules inside living cells](https://realalpha.app/s/a-laser-phase-plate-reveals-molecules-inside-living-cells/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 3 min
  > “what this really gets you is the ability to look. And so the big application is cryo-electron tomography, which is basically sectioning the cell” — Alex Rives · [26:52](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=1612)
- [Health records alone may reveal correlations, not causes](https://realalpha.app/s/health-records-alone-may-reveal-correlations-not-causes/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 3 min
  > “because if you don't have the right basis, basically what you're going to learn is a bunch of correlations.” — Alex Rives · [50:07](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=3007)
- [Biohub's initiative targets hundreds of billions of cells](https://realalpha.app/s/biohubs-initiative-targets-hundreds-of-billions-of-cells/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 3 min
  > “be able to do that at the scale of hundreds of billions or more cells.” — Alex Rives · [25:06](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=1506)
- [Biohub is building imaging tools across biological scales](https://realalpha.app/s/biohub-is-building-imaging-tools-across-biological-scales/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 6 min
  > “track a developing zebrafish embryo over time and actually see and track every single cell” — Alex Rives · [34:48](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=2088)
- [Protein models benefit from training across evolution](https://realalpha.app/s/protein-models-benefit-from-training-across-evolution/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 4 min
  > “And so there's, I think, something really powerful in this idea of generalization and transfer.” — Alex Rives · [41:02](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=2462)
- [A coordinated effort could map cellular health and disease in five years](https://realalpha.app/s/a-coordinated-effort-could-map-cellular-health-and-disease/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 3 min
  > “within five years with a really focused coordinated effort, we can have, you know, a pretty comprehensive map there.” — Alex Rives · [47:51](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=2871)
- [Biology models need lab-based verification loops](https://realalpha.app/s/biology-models-need-lab-based-verification-loops/)
  The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026 · 4 min
  > “ask the question perform the experiment learn from the experiment improve its understanding propose a better experiment” — Alex Rives · [45:04](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/?t=2704)

## The episode

- [A World Model of Life: Biohub's Alex Rives on Virtual Cells, Measurement, & the $1.8B Data Push](https://realalpha.app/v/l6DPAwgUr-8/) · The Cognitive Revolution · Oct 20, 2026