Discovery/R&D

1. Lipid Nanoparticle Gene Coding With SalioGen Therapeutics' Ray Tabibiazar, M.D. 3/14/2022

   This episode of the Business of Biotech is fire. In fact, it's an interview with SalioGen Therapeutics Chairman and CEO Ray Tabibiazar, M.D.,, whose last name \_literally translates\_ to "Dr. Fire." Learn how he got that name, what's shaped his technology-agnostic philosophy on therapeutic development, the advantages of a genome engineering technology that leverages proprietary mammal-derived enzymes, rather than viruses, and how SalioGen is possibly carrying forth a pipeline that's 15 candidates deep and addressing eye, liver, heart, lung, bone marrow, and kidney diseases.

2. 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.

3. First AI Antibody In Humans with Aulos' Aron Knickerbocker 7/14/2024

   Data drives decision-making at Aulos Bioscience. It's also driven the career trajectory of its CEO. On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech podcast, we get an introspective walk through Aron Knickerbocker's strategically-orchestrated career path, from his early days in the labs at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Genentech to his leadership of Aulos Bioscience, a company that boasts the first AI-generated antibody in human clinical trials.

4. What's A Biologic Revolution? With Vaxxinity's Mei Mei Hu, J.D. 8/8/2022

   Vaxxinity CEO Mei Mei Hu, J.D. leads a company with some lofty ambitions. The democratization of healthcare, interplanetary colonization, and development of accessible therapeutic vaccines to serve and enable both. Those big-picture visions have helped the company establish itself as a pioneer of the "third biologics revolution." On this week's Business of Biotech podcast, Mei Mei joins me to share Vaxxinity's strategy, what "democratization" and "revolution" really_mean, why traditional vaccines and biologic therapies are converging to form the "third biologic revolution," and a whole lot more.

5. Circular RNA with Orna Therapeutics' Tom Barnes, Ph.D. and Advancing RNA's Anna Rose Welch 4/28/2024

   As if Orna Therapeutics' CEO, Thomas Barnes, isn't enough to draw you in to the Business of Biotech, we teamed up with Advancing RNA Editorial & Community Director Anna Rose Welch to co-host this week's episode. Together, Anna Rose and I press Dr. Barnes on his transition from academia to biotech, the therapeutic proposition of circular, or "O", RNA and why it holds great potential to best linear RNA constructs, the novel, platform- and partnership-based approaches Orna is taking to address B-cell lymphomas and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, viral vector and lipid nanoparticle complexity, and a whole lot more.

6. 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.

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. The Discovery Of Microbes And Implications For Public Health Today, With Science Writer Thomas Levenson 6/4/2025

   On this week's Business of Biotech, Thomas Levenson, MIT professor and author of So Very Small: How Humans Discovered The Microcosmos, Defeated Germs — And May Still Lose The War Against Infectious Disease talks about what he learned in the writing of So Very Small, how cultural and political forces shape scientific progress, and what it means for drug developers, public health officials, and patients everywhere.

9. BoB@JPM: Gene Writing With Tessera's Michael Severino, M.D. 2/26/2023

   Flagship Pioneering plucked Michael Severino, M.D. away from AbbVie to run point at Tessera, a startup it's backed to pioneer a new category of genetic medicine it calls gene writing. The Business of Biotech caught up with Severino at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco last month. We learned what lured him away from leadership positions at Merck, Amgen, and AbbVie, how gene writing differs from gene therapy and gene editing, why the team at Tessera believes its technologies can write and rewrite DNA at the scales necessary to cure most genetic diseases, and where he plans to take the company from here. 

10. Live Biologics & The Microbiome With 4D pharma's Duncan Peyton 5/9/2022

    4D pharma's flagship early-stage clinical candidates are live biotherapeutics, a relatively new class of biologics that seek to impact disease state by modulating the microbiome. CEO Duncan Peyton is leading the effort to understand how the health of the microbiome relates to a wide range of diseases, including immuno-oncology, central nervous system disorders, respiratory disease, auto immune indications, and gastro intestinal disease. 4D pharma is even working on a live biotherapeutic vaccine platform. Join Duncan on this episode of the Business of Biotech as we discuss this new frontier of therapeutic exploration.