What Farmers Know About Cancer with Chris Gregg

🧠 Episode Summary

What if we’ve been thinking about cancer all wrong?

In this deeply personal and paradigm-shifting episode of RealPharma, hosts Dr. Na-Ri Oh and Ian Wendt sit down with Dr. Christopher Gregg—neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and stage 4 cancer patient—to explore a bold new vision for cancer care.

Dr. Gregg shares how his own diagnosis sparked a radical rethink of oncology: moving away from the “war on cancer” mindset toward managing it as a chronic, controllable condition. Drawing inspiration from agriculture, AI, and evolutionary biology, he introduces the concept of “algorithms as drugs”—dynamic, data-driven treatment strategies designed to outmaneuver resistance.

This conversation blends cutting-edge science with raw human experience, offering a hopeful and pragmatic roadmap for the future of precision medicine.

• Why curing cancer may not always be the best goal—and what to aim for instead

• The concept of adaptive therapy and managing cancer like a chronic disease

• What elephants, farmers, and pests can teach us about treatment resistance

• The limitations of today’s drug development and clinical trial systems

• “Algorithms as drugs” and the future of programmable medicine

• How AI, smartphones, and behavioral data can unlock scalable precision care

• The role of value-based care models in accelerating innovation

• Dr. Gregg’s personal journey living 7+ years with stage 4 cancer

• Building Storyline Health, Primordial AI, and Uncharted Health

• The importance of patient agency—and the risks of unguided experimentation

Cancer care is at an inflection point. While billions are spent developing new drugs, Dr. Gregg argues that the real breakthrough may come from how we use the drugs we already have.

By combining AI, real-time patient data, and systems thinking, this approach could dramatically extend lives, reduce costs, and make care more human-centered.

• Explore Dr. Gregg’s free masterclass: Uncharted Health

• Follow developments from Storyline Health and Primordial AI

• Stay tuned for upcoming clinical applications of algorithm-driven care

Dr. Christopher Gregg is a Professor of Neurobiology and Human Genetics at the University of Utah, a leading researcher in genomics and brain science, and a biotech entrepreneur. His work spans neuroscience, AI, and precision medicine—and is deeply informed by his personal experience living with metastatic cancer.