Discovery/R&D

1. Digital Transformation In Cell Therapy with Organicell Drs. Mari Mitrani & Michael Bellio 5/3/2021

   Drs. Mari Mitrani, CSO and Michael Bellio, Laboratory Director are young pioneers in the study of the therapeutic potential of exosomes. Their research leans heavily into the digital realm, leveraging computational biology, bioinformatics, large-scale sequencing, proteomics, and mass spectrometry to analyze perinatal tissue-secreted exosomes and their impact on a host of indications the company is exploring. On this episode of The Business Of Biotech, Drs. Mitrani and Bellio offer insight into the digital discovery and manufacturing automation technologies in use at Organicell.

2. Turning The Liver Into A mAb Factory With Homology's Arthur Tzianabos, Ph.D. 11/15/2021

   Homology Medicines' approaches to gene therapy and gene editing have the potential to seriously disrupt both the cell/gene therapy space \_and\_ the mAb manufacturing and administration paradigms as we know them. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Homology President & CEO Arthur Tzianabos, Ph.D. shares the company's approach and supports its rationale for investing in its own development and manufacturing capacity.

3. Running Interference: RNAi With Silence Therapeutics' Craig Tooman 5/18/2022

   Fresh on the heels of his appointment as President & CEO at Silence Therapeutics, Craig Tooman joins the Business of Biotech to share how he applies his finance-minded leadership to steward the advance of the company's deepening pipeline of RNAi gene silencing candidates. Tooman also shares insight into the IP and the people responsible for managing that deep pipeline, which spans indications from hematology to cardiovascular disease to rare diseases.

4. TCRs In Personalized Oncology With BlueSphere Bio's Keir LoIacono 3/12/2023

   Among a growing cluster of Pittsburgh biotechs, you'll find BlueSphere Bio, an early-stage company discovering T-cell receptors to leverage against tumor-specific antigens in individual cancer patients. Its leader, CEO Keir LoIacono, Esq., works with a sense of urgency inspired by his own cancer journey. Business of Biotech host Matt Pillar and guest co-host Jon O'Connell, executive editor at Bioprocess Online, toured Bluesphere's state-of-the-art facility perched on the bank of the Monongahela River. Then, we sat down with Loiacono to learn his story and discuss the company's vision for the future of personalized, adoptive cell therapy.

5. Bio Career Moves With Codagenix's Johanna Kaufmann, Ph.D. 10/11/2023

   On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Dr. Johanna Kaufmann gives us an intimate retrospective on her career to date, sharing stories about her rapid ascension from Scientist 1 to executive leadership. We dig into her wild ride through M&A, her time at GSK, and the professional and personal development regimens she subscribes to.

6. Therapeutic Molecules From Moss with eleva's Andreas Schaaf And Björn Cochlovius, Ph.D. 4/20/2023

   We kick this conversation off with the writer Elizabeth Gilbert's take on moss, which she so eloquently dubs a "resurrection engine." Gilbert almost certainly didn't realize the potential of moss to play a resurrectional role in human health, but Eleva Biotech's Andreas Schaaf and Björn Cochlovius do. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, we learn about a company that's developing proteins to fuel its own pipeline — and its partners' — from a most ubiquitous plant that grows virtually everywhere. It grows particularly well in bioreactors outfitted with custom grow lights and presents some significant advantages over CHO cell line development.

7. Gene Tx For Hearing Loss With Sensorion's Nawal Ouzren 4/12/2023

   We often talk about biotechs taking "big swings." This week's guest is swinging for the fences with a lineup of gene therapies designed to address multiple forms of hearing loss, which affect multiple millions (if not, billions) of people worldwide. Adding to the challenge she's accepted, Sensorion CEO Nawal Ouzren is architecting an approach that seeks to restore hearing that's been lost due to genetic factors, treat sudden hearing disorders, and proactively prevent hearing loss due to common causes such as cisplatin induced ototoxicity or cochlear implantation. Listen in as Ouzren shares her holistic and aggressive plans with the Business of Biotech.

8. Tick-Derived Therapeutic Molecules With Akari Therapeutics' Rachelle Jacques 11/14/2022

   Ticks are a scourge. They're vectors of multiple serious and debilitating diseases, and evolution has made them perfectly adept at attaching to their hosts—and potentially spreading those diseases virtually undetected— that ability owing to anti-inflammatory and anesthetic proteins in their saliva. But the emerging biotech Akari Therapeutics thinks there's a broad range of medicinal value in those proteins. They've painstakingly developed a recombinant version of one such tick saliva-derived protein, called nomacopan, and put it to work in phase 3 trials to treat rare but deadly severe hematopoietic stem cell transplant-related thrombotic microangiopathy (HSCT-TMA). On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Akari President & CEO Rachelle Jacques tells us about the redeeming qualities of tick saliva and how her company is putting it to work.

9. A Vaccine For Type 1 Diabetes With Diamyd Medical's Dr. Ulf Hannelius 7/19/2021

   As leaders at Diamyd Medical made plans to manufacture clinical supply of therapies aimed at preserving and restoring insulin production in Type 1 diabetes patients, outsourced production was on the table. Then, the company doubled down on its intentions and built out its own manufacturing facility. On this week's episode of The Business of Biotech, Diamyd Medical President & CEO Dr. Ulf Hannelius tells us all about the therapies his company is developing, plus the why and the how behind the company's choice to manufacture them in-house.

10. Precision Approach To Infectious Disease With Locus Biosciences' Paul Garofolo 1/13/2022

    Locus Biosciences CEO Paul Garofolo built his biotech leadership career on the back of an MIS degree, having learned the business from the inside out via the tentacles of the IT networks at companies including Genentech, The Broadlane Group, Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Patheon. On today's episode of the Business of Biotech, Garofolo shares how a technologist's approach has helped shape the effort to develop precision therapeutics for infectious diseases at Locus, the company's decision to build its own cGMP manufacturing facility in Research Triangle, and the massive business opportunity the field addresses in the effort to overcome antibiotic resistance.