Discovery/R&D

  1. BoB@JPM: Self-Replicating RNA With Elixirgen's Akihiro Ko 3/5/2023

    Elixirgen Therapeutics CEO Akihiro Ko joins the Business of Biotech for the final episode in our special series recorded at JPM Week in San Francisco. Life Science Leader Chief Editor Ben Comer joined us for the conversation. We dive deep into Elixirgen's unique, temperature-controlled in-vivo gene expression technology designed to address common cell therapy administration challenges and unwanted, off-target immungenicity effects. Ko also shares progress on the company's ex-vivo candidate EXG-34217, an autologous cell therapy for telomere biology disorders, offers his take on the ever-crowded RNA therapeutics space and how the company is separating itself from the crowd, and much more!

  2. Celyad CEO Filippo Petti On In-House Allogeneic Cell Therapy Manufacturing 2/8/2021

    Join Matt Pillar and Erin Harris as we catch up with Celyad Oncology chief Filippo Petti on his company's differentiated approach to the discovery and development of allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy candidates for the treatment of cancer. Petti shares the technology and how the company intends to scale in-house manufacturing in its Belgium-based manufacturing facility.

  3. Gene Therapies For Ocular Disease With SparingVision's Stéphane Boissel 3/28/2022

    Since assuming the President and CEO role at SparingVision in August 2020, Stéphane Boissel has been making big moves in the arenas of talent acquisition and IP expansion. Those efforts are securing the company's development of a number of genomic medicines to address inherited retinal disease. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Boissel shares the company'S foundation story and the role venture philanthropy played in it, his strategy for attracting and retaining big-league talent, and the why behind his vigorous allegiance to internal development.

  4. AI & Computational Biology With Recursion's Chris Gibson, Ph.D. 12/26/2022

    Recursion's unique, technology-aided approach to drug discovery has yielded one of the deepest, fastest-growing pipelines in emerging biotech. It starts with a 20-petabyte-and-growing database designed to create comprehensive "maps of biology" that enable insight into the relationships between molecules and cell types. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, we take a deep dive into the approach—and what Recursion intends to do with all that data—with the company's co-founder and CEO, Chris Gibson, Ph.D. Don't miss this window into the world of a true pioneer in computational biology.

  5. Oncology Discovery Advances With AbbVie's Steve Davidsen, Ph.D. 10/25/2022

    AbbVie VP of Oncology Discovery Research Steve Davidsen, Ph.D. is a living, breathing timeline of the company's cancer research and development efforts. He got his start with the company— Abbott at the time— way back in 1986. As such, he's charted the adoption of multiple advanced technologies that have contributed to the realization of dozens of molecular weapons in the fight against cancer. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Dr. Davidsen shares the latest on AbbVie's adoption of computational biology and how it's contributing to discovery and development efficiencies, why he's an AbbVie "lifer," how he manages and motivates a large team of research scientists, and a whole lot more.

  6. Gene Therapy For Chronic Inflammation With Xalud's Howard Rutman, M.D. 12/12/2022

    While many gene therapy development efforts focus on rare disease, Xalud Therapeutics is taking a swing that, measured in addressable patient market terms, is considerably bigger. Osteoarthritis, or OA, is a chronic, progressive joint disease that affects over 30 million people in the United States. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, we catch up with Xalud Chief Medical Officer Howard Rutman, M.D., MBA for a discussion on the company's late-stage plasmid DNA gene therapy that's showing promise in OA and other chronic inflammatory conditions. 

  7. Arrowhead Pharma Pres. & CEO Dr. Christopher Anzalone On Taking RNA Interference Beyond The Liver 8/13/2020

    Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals leader Christopher Anzalone, Ph.D. gives us the inside story on the stake his company claimed on the now re-burgeoning RNAi space, the indications his company is targeting beyond liver disease, and how it's addressing the development and process challenges that must be overcome to further progress RNAi beyond the liver.

  8. COO Liftoff With Rocket Pharmaceuticals' Kinnari Patel, PharmD 7/12/2023

    Chief Operating Officer is arguably the toughest job in the emerging biopharma C-suite. HR, CMC, regulatory affairs, legal, PR, you name it, the COO touches it, and practically everything rolls up to her. This week's episode of the Business of Biotech brings us to a president and COO who's also a mom, a volunteer, and an advocate for diversity and equality in biopharma. That advocacy isn't just lip service, by the way. Here, Rocket Pharmaceuticals' Kinnari Patel, PharmD, shares on the real, practical, replicable steps Rocket takes to build a diverse and equitable work environment, how the fruits of that effort have proven important to the company's success, and where Rocket is taking its high-flying gene therapy act next.

    Subscribe to the NEW #BusinessofBiotech newsletter at bioprocessonline.com/bob for more real, honest, transparent interactions with the leaders of emerging biotech. It's a once-per-month dose of insight and intel that you'll actually look forward to receiving! Check it out at bioprocessonline.com/bob!

  9. 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.

  10. 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.