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By Aimee Raleigh, Principal at Atlas Venture, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC
“Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” — Gustave Flaubert
Life sciences in April 2026 has, against all odds, been buoyant. The XBI is trading near its 52-week high, we just saw the largest biotech IPO on record, and private financings are continuing apace (albeit with a tilt toward clinical-stage and “de-risked” programs). But even in its periods of resilient growth, the life sciences VC sector is dwarfed by broader tech trends, which are increasingly dominated by AI themes.
We forget…