Dr. GPCR Podcast

What if the key to safer, more effective drugs lies in asking the right questions — and daring to challenge what’s “not possible”?

In this episode, Dr. Ajay Yekkirala shares the pivotal moments that transformed him from a curious PhD student into a GPCR drug developer and entrepreneur.

Dr. Ajay Yekkirala is a GPCR pharmacologist, biotech entrepreneur, and co-founder of Superluminal Medicines, a company using machine learning to unlock new GPCR-targeted therapies. In this wide-ranging conversation, he reflects on the mentors, failures, and bold questions that shaped his journey from academia to AI-powered drug discovery.

Why This Matters

• Translating basic GPCR science into actual medicines is broken. Ajay unpacks why—and what it takes to fix it.

• AI is reshaping how we understand protein dynamics, but only when driven by deep biological questions.

• Young scientists are hungry for alternate career paths. This episode is a playbook for thinking bigger.

• Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. Ajay reveals how humility, curiosity, and collaboration fuel the future of drug discovery.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• How Ajay’s failed MD/PhD application rerouted his path toward a breakthrough GPCR research career

• The inside story behind founding Blue Therapeutics and targeting supraspinal pain pathway

• What it means to “teach AI protein dynamics,” and how Superluminal is using it to predict signaling bias

• The entrepreneurial lessons no one tells postdocs: how to pitch, fail, and build a team

• Why asking “what if it can be done?” is the heart of scientific innovation

Who Should Listen

• PhD students and postdocs exploring biotech careers

• GPCR scientists interested in translational innovation

• Biotech investors and strategic leaders seeking new drug development models

• Anyone curious about where AI meets molecular pharmacology

About Ajay Yekkirala

Dr. Ajay Yekkirala is a molecular pharmacologist, biotech founder, and scientist

whose career has been defined by bold questions and even bolder moves. Originally on track to pursue an MD/PhD, a rejection letter pivoted him into a PhD program at the University of Iowa, where he studied opioid pharmacology under the legendary Dr. Philip Portoghese.

That “failure” became a launchpad: Ajay later joined the lab of Dr. Clifford Woolf at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he deepened his understanding of pain biology and began dreaming bigger.

Driven by the opioid crisis and the lack of non-addictive pain treatments, Ajay co-founded Blue Therapeutics, a biotech startup focused on targeting supraspinal GPCRs for chronic pain. But he didn’t stop there. Seeing the limits of traditional drug discovery, he later co-founded Superluminal Medicines, a company using machine learning to explore GPCR structure-function relationships and predict biased signaling with precision.

Ajay’s work sits at the intersection of GPCR biology, AI, and translational medicine. He’s a strong advocate for cross-disciplinary thinking, mentoring young scientists, and building companies that solve real, unmet needs in human health. His story is one of relentless curiosity, humility in the face of complexity, and an unshakable belief in science’s power to do better.

Ajay Yekkirala on the web

• Superluminal Medicines

• LinkedIn

Tune in now to hear how asking “what if?” led Ajay Yekkirala to reshape the future of GPCR-targeted medicine.