Founded in 1976, Genentech helped build modern biotechnology, with breakthroughs that include synthetic insulin and the first personalized medicine for cancer. Nearly 50 years later, it is still producing consequential new treatments. In March 2025, the FDA approved TNKase for acute ischemic stroke, the first new stroke medicine cleared in nearly 30 years. Unlike the older standard of care, which requires a 60-minute infusion, TNKase can be administered in a single five-second bolus. Genentech is also using AI to hunt for new medicines: in October, it published work on a deep-learning model called GNEprop, developed with collaborators including Nvidia and Mila, to identify potential new antibiotics. Genentech CEO Ashley Magargee credits cross-functional teams with accelerating research and early development. “We’ve really seen a lot of benefits to bringing computational skill sets closer together with biologists, with chemists, and with engineers,” she says. —Gabriela Riccardi