Summit | Oliver Vince (Basecamp Research) & Lorenzo Cerchi (Singular): Rewriting the map of life

AI has transformed what is possible in language, but biology remains a much harder frontier. Oliver Vince, Co-Founder at Basecamp Research, believes one of the biggest constraints is that we still understand only a fraction of life on Earth, leaving AI models with a fundamentally incomplete picture of biology. Speaking at EUVC Summit 2026, Oliver joins Lorenzo Cerchi, Venture Capital Investor at Singular, a backer of Basecamp Research, to discuss how new biological datasets and frontier AI models could change therapeutic design, and why Europe may have an edge where AI meets deep scientific expertise. Oliver explains how Basecamp Research approaches the data problem in biology, how scaling laws could translate into better models and how those models might eventually help move from disease biology towards new medicines. The conversation also looks at the gap between European and US attitudes to risk, what it takes to finance highly ambitious deep-tech companies and why scientific talent needs room to pursue outcomes that may be uncertain but potentially enormous. They close on the longer-term possibility that AI could help tackle diseases that remain difficult or impossible to treat today, and why Oliver believes that potential is too significant to remain confined to the lab. Highlights Why biology is still a major data problem How AI scaling laws could apply to therapeutic design Where Europe has an advantage in AI and deep tech Why ambitious deep tech needs a different attitude to risk Turning scientific talent into breakthrough companies The path from disease biology to new medicines Why “prompt to cure” could become possible Timestamps (00:00) Intro (01:10) Why biology has an AI data problem (03:20) Where Europe can win in AI (05:05) The challenge of scaling deep tech in Europe (07:10) Why ambitious venture needs a different risk mindset (09:15) Europe’s scientific talent advantage (11:05) From disease biology to generating medicines (12:35) Playing for diseases we cannot treat today (13:05) Why “prompt to cure” may be possible