When Najat Khan steps into her new role as CEO and President of Recursion, she inherits more than a celebrated TechBio platform. She takes charge of a company standing on the verge of a phase shift—from building one of the industry’s most ambitious data and AI engines to proving its worth where it matters most: in the clinic.
In this candid conversation with BioSpectrum Asia, Najat reflects on Recursion’s evolution, the cultural bedrock she intends to protect, and the decisive moves underway to turn biological insight into differentiated medicines at speed. She also shares how the Exscientia integration strengthens the company’s end-to-end capabilities, why partnerships remain central to its strategy, and how board leadership will support disciplined execution in the years ahead.
For more than a decade, Recursion has been focused on building the core infrastructure needed to fundamentally shift how medicine is made. That phase—generating the data, building the compute, training the models—was critical.
My vision for this next chapter is translating the potential of our platform into meaningful clinical impact in the form of differentiated medicines to patients. That's my core focus. We are moving from a platform-building company to a clinical execution company. That means bold but pragmatic steps to focus our Recursion OS platform on driving the most promising programs—where we have a clear, differentiated edge—to patients.
Recursion’s succession plan emphasises continuity of culture and strategy. What core values and leadership principles will you carry forward, and where do you see scope for renewed focus or change?
Culture is the “secret sauce” that makes Recursion so effective and well positioned to win. I give enormous credit to Chris for championing a culture where scientists, technologists, and drug developers aren't just coexisting, but are collaborating meaningfully as equal partners—that’s the 'bilingual' culture that is absolutely critical to win in TechBio. It doesn’t happen by accident. It takes cultural openness, disciplined learning, and deliberate cross-training so teams can adapt to and maximize new ways of working.
The renewed focus is on turning complexity into clarity. As our programs progress and our portfolio expands, the complexity increases. We need to be the best and most effective at leveraging our data and AI insights to make informed, evidence-based decisions, ultimately improving our probability of success for patients.
The Exscientia integration has been cited as a key milestone in expanding Recursion’s AI-driven discovery capabilities. How has this collaboration enhanced your approach to data, modelling, and translational research?
The combination between Recursion and Exscientia was a pivotal strategic unlock, essential for achieving the end-to-end, fully AI-enabled integration required to fundamentally change how we discover and develop medicine. This wasn't merely about adding capacity; it was about ensuring that our systems-level understanding of disease biology, generated by the Recursion OS, is directly and seamlessly connected to high-precision molecule design and AI-informed clinical execution.
This move allowed us to bridge the gap from biological insight to chemical design and patient impact, creating a platform that significantly enhances speed and efficiency. This enables us to rapidly transition from a novel, AI-discovered target to an optimized small molecule designed in silico, and then utilize that same AI-enabled platform to inform clinical decisions—like patient selection and trial design—as we’ve demonstrated with programs like REC-1245 and REC-617. This tight integration is how we tackle the root causes of drug failure and dramatically improve our probability of success for patients.
With partnerships now exceeding $500 million in payments and a strong cash position through 2027, how are you prioritising investment between internal programmes and strategic alliances?
Our investment strategy is centered on a single core principle: clear differentiation, and this standard applies equally to our internal pipeline and to the programs emerging from our deep, broad partnerships. For our internal programs, we've sharpened our portfolio to focus on areas where we have a unique path to win—either uncovering novel biology for first-in-class potential, or leveraging our platform to design programs for best-in-class potential. We are driving these programs forward with rigorous, disciplined execution, and we’re already seeing exciting near-term milestones, such as a data readout on FAP coming up this December.
On the partnership front, we’re seeing incredibly strong momentum that validates our strategy of building broad and deep collaborations in complex areas of biology. This approach allows us to scale our platform's reach while securing compelling economics. Recent successes include achieving the $30M milestone with Roche and Genentech for our Microglia Map, which is our second neuroscience map and sixth overall, and hitting four distinct program milestones with Sanofi. These milestones are not just validation; they are proof that our integrated approach is generating high-value insights. Our focus now is on turning these insights and milestones into programs, each of which contributes to our shared mission of delivering better medicines to patients faster.
From a board perspective, how will Chris Gibson and Rob Hershberg’s new roles support governance, innovation, and long-term value creation as Recursion evolves?
This transition was designed to ensure continuity of vision and strategic execution. Chris has always been a visionary at Recursion, and he will continue to provide that vision as Board Chair, and serve as a key advisor to me as we enter this new chapter. Rob, too, brings broad and deep experience developing differentiated therapeutics and will continue to provide critical guidance as the Lead Independent Director and Vice Chair of the Board. Both Chris and Rob have a deep understanding and appreciation for Recursion’s strategy and core differentiators, and together they ensure we have the necessary blend of visionary thinking and disciplined execution to drive the company into its next chapter.
Finally, as Recursion enters this next chapter, what message would you like to share with employees, partners, and the broader scientific community about the company’s future direction?
Recursion has built a robust foundation with strong portfolio and partnership momentum. The next phase is all about translating our platform into patient impact—advancing differentiated medicines to patients rapidly. I’m incredibly confident in this next phase in our journey – and we are uniquely positioned to succeed.
