UNLOCK 2026

Overview

UNLOCK 2026 was the first annual UNLOCK conference, held on April 22, 2026, in San Francisco. The event was organized by Medra and its CEO Michelle Lee. It drew 500+ attendees representing 300+ unique companies, including 125+ founders and CEOs, 50+ investors and VCs, and 36+ pharma VPs. The central theme of the conference was distinguishing genuine progress from hype in the intersection of AI and life sciences — encapsulated in the question "what is hype versus what is actually real?"

The event originated at a JPM 2026 dinner where Michelle Lee and Aviv (EVP at Genentech) agreed that the AI x life sciences community needed its own dedicated conference. The event began as invite-only and expanded to an open event six weeks before the date. A notable last-minute change: David Baker, Nobel laureate in protein design, was originally scheduled as the opening keynote but fell ill the night before; Andrew White of Edison Scientific stepped in.