Fidji Simo, the former CEO of AGI Deployment at OpenAI and former CEO of Instacart, has detailed her startup ChronicleBio’s mission to tackle Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) and other chronic illnesses. Simo, who has battled POTS for seven years, left her leadership role at OpenAI in 2025 to focus on using AI to solve diseases that currently have no cure.
The 'Internet of Biology'
ChronicleBio has already amassed 3,500 vials of blood from 709 patients, extracting 153 terabytes of data. This dataset is three times larger than the 45 terabytes used to train OpenAI’s GPT-3.5. Simo argues that current medical research relies too heavily on noisy electronic health records (EHR) rather than raw biological data.
“We are missing the internet of biology,” Simo stated. The company utilizes models from both OpenAI and Anthropic to analyze complex interactions between the nervous system, the immune system, and genetics. Tasks that once took years to analyze now take minutes due to advancements in AI and reduced costs of genetic sequencing.
Identifying Sub-Diseases
A key breakthrough for ChronicleBio is the identification of five distinct "sub-diseases" within the POTS diagnosis. Although patients share symptoms like tachycardia, brain fog, and fatigue, the biological drivers vary—some are immune-driven, while others are linked to mitochondrial dysfunction. This lack of differentiation is a primary reason why pharmaceutical clinical trials often fail.
- The company has raised $15 million to date.
- A home blood draw initiative via mobile phlebotomy trucks launches on August 11.
- The first 250 participants receive their reports for free; thereafter, the test costs $400 (at cost).
Despite her departure from OpenAI, Simo continues to advise the company and remains in close contact with CEO Sam Altman and President Greg Brockman, whose wife also suffers from POTS. Simo emphasized that the ultimate promise of AI is its ability to save lives within a timeframe that matters to current patients.
