Discovery/R&D

1. AI & The Human Genome 2/22/2021

   From his Fellowship at the NIH Human Genome Research Institute to his leadership as CEO at NeuBase Therapeutics, Dr. Dietrich Stephan is recognized as a pioneer in the field of genomic precision medicine. On this episode of The Business of Biotech, Dr. Stephan shares how artificial intelligence is shaping the acceleration of genomic medicine discovery at NeuBase and beyond, with plenty of practical insight on how to adopt and leverage the technology.

2. BoB@JPM: Academia To Industry With Oncolytics' Matt Coffey, Ph.D. 2/12/2023

   The JP Morgan Healthcare Conference is a target-rich environment for conversations with the leaders of up-and-coming biopharma companies, so we took the Business of Biotech on the road. On today's episode, we sat down with Matt Coffey, Ph.D., who earned his Ph.D. in 1998 and turned his doctoral thesis into a biopharma company called Oncolytics in 1999. Dr. Coffey shares on his abrupt transition from academia to industry, tells tales of the company's backstory, and updates us on its aggressive clinical activity spanning 7 wide-ranging oncology programs.

3. Engineering Proteins For Food Allergies With Ukko's Dr. Anat Binur 10/25/2022

   Anat Binur, Ph.D. is CEO and Co-Founder at Ukko, where she's leading an effort to create new allergy therapeutics by engineering the proteins that induce immune response in people who suffer from food allergies. The effort at Ukko is deeply rooted in computational biology. The company leverages artificial intelligence to analyze how the allergen proteins interact with patients' blood in an effort to determine the specific attributes of the proteins that trigger immune response. Then, it applies a unique combination of compute power and biology to identify and understand the changes it wants to engineer and predict the best possible designs. Learn how Ukko is fostering a culture of IT and biology collaboration and what lured this dynamic entrepreneur into biopharma on this episode of the Business of Biotech.

4. 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.

5. BoB@JPM: Support Of A Blossoming Pipeline With Sangamo's Sandy Macrae, Ph.D. 2/5/2023

   The Business of Biotech podcast took to the streets of San Francisco during the 41st Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. This week's episode features a conversation with Sangamo Therapeutics CEO Sandy Macrae, Ph.D., who rationalizes the company's aggressive pipeline development and its decision to invest in multinational AAV and cell therapy manufacturing facilities in France and California. Dr. Macrae zeroes in on the relationship between people and processes that's enabled the company to grow to more than 500 associates working on nearly 20 cell therapy, gene therapy, and genome engineering programs. 

6. RNA-Based Therapeutics With Nutcracker Therapeutics' Dr. Geoff Nosrati 11/21/2022

   Nutcracker Therapeutics is a preclinical biopharma company developing multimodal RNA-based therapeutics for HPV-driven tumors, T-cell lymphoma, and Genitourinary tumors. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Chief Business Officer Geoff Nosrati, Ph.D. offers a comprehensive view of the RNA-based therapeutics landscape and sheds light on what he perceives as an advantageous position at Nutcracker — the capacity to manufacture RNA in-house. If you're curious about the expanding science behind RNA-based therapeutics and their application in biotech, this conversation with a scientist-turned-chief business officer (Nosrati earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) is a can't-miss episode.

7. Precision Drug Delivery with Ampersand Biomedicines' Jason Gardner, Ph.D. 4/10/2024

   Ampersand Biomedicines CEO Jason Gardner, Ph.D. first took the leap from a global pharmaceutical giant to a startup at the forefront of transplant medicine innovation. Since that time, he's seen most of the ups and the downs that come with biotech leadership, and in his latest venture with the Flagship Pioneering-backed Ampersand, he's putting all those hard-fought lessons to good use.

8. Gene Tx For Renal Disease With Purespring CEO Richard Francis 5/2/2022

   Purespring Therapeutics launched in 2020 on the back of IP developed by renowned kidney researcher Prof. Moin Saleem, who spent decades working on podocytes when podocytes weren’t cool. Just two years later, the company boasts three gene therapy assets and a platform developed expressly to identify new therapeutic targets to address kidney disease. 

9. Leading A tRNA Startup With Alltrna's Michelle Werner 5/14/2025

   On this week's Business of Biotech, Michelle Werner, CEO at Alltrna, talks transfer RNA (tRNA) therapy with host Ben Comer and guest co-host Anna Rose Welch, editorial and community director at Advancing RNA. Werner explains why a single engineered tRNA therapy has the potential to treat "hundreds, if not thousands," of rare genetic diseases, and how her own child's rare disease diagnosis shaped her career and approach to drug development. Werner also discusses Alltrna's use of AI and machine learning for drug optimization, the company's planned use of basket trials, and more.

10. Med Device Meets Biopharma With OncoSec's Dan O'Connor, J.D. 5/17/2021

    OncoSec CEO & Director Dan O'Connor, J.D. joins the Business of Biotech to discuss his company's development of proprietary application and injection technologies for direct delivery of its pipeline of immunotherapeutic candidates and combination therapies into the tumor environment. O'Connor shares leadership lessons gleaned from his service as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps during Operation Desert Shield, and how he's applied those lessons as his company charts the manufacturing and regulatory challenges along its unique development timeline.