Discovery/R&D
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Innate Immunity & Mouse Models With LIfT Biosciences' Alex Blyth
7/11/2022
Serial inventor and entrepreneur Alex Blyth had long held interests in health and science, but losing his mom to pancreatic cancer was the inflection point that launched LIfT Biosciences in 2016. Now, the preclinical company is on a mission to develop the world's first 'off-the-shelf' cell therapy to destroy all solid tumors, irrespective of strain or mutation, beginning with pancreatic cancer. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Blyth shares the company's scientific approach and progress, and we explore the shortcomings of legacy clinical protocols including the inherent problems and limitations of mouse models.
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The AAV Vector Challenge With Selecta's Dr. Carsten Brunn
1/12/2021
The Business of Biotech kicks off our Cell & Gene Miniseries with Dr. Carsten Brunn, President & CEO at Selecta Biosciences. Guest host Erin Harris, chief editor at cellandgene.com, joins us for a discussion on Selecta's ImmTOR platform and how the company is addressing the immunogenicity of adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors challenge faced by gene therapy companies.
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A Biopharma Pivot Story With Compugen's Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag
3/15/2021
Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag transformed her company from a computational biology service provider to a clinical-stage biopharma with multiple cancer immunotherapy candidates, and she did it in a remarkably short period of time. Listen in as she discusses the human resources, financial, and capital strategies she deployed to build a biotech on the back of computational science, and shares her vision for the future of drug discovery.
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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.
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Computational Drug Discovery With Gain Therapeutics' Matthias Alder
1/11/2023
Gain Therapeutics' newly-appointed CEO Matthias Alder offers up a deep, yet abundantly clear explanation of how his company is applying compute power to speed up drug discovery. At Gain, computational models help researchers winnow down not just which molecules might have therapeutic effect, but also how adept those molecules will be at binding—and staying bound—to their target. It's not just theory, either. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Alder shares on how the virtual successes seen on Gain's servers have translated in the wet lab, and how they've contributed to the company's fast-growing preclinical pipeline.
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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.
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Genetic Testing & Neurodegenerative Disorders With AviadoBio's Lisa Deschamps
8/29/2022
Lisa Deschamps' story is one of determination and fortitude. She got her start in the life sciences where it begins and ends for many — "carrying the bag" in big pharma sales — then proceeded to crush the odds on her way to the C-suite at Novartis. Today, she's CEO at AviadoBio, a disruptive gene therapy startup prepping an intra-thalamic Frontotemporal Dementia candidate for the clinic with a heavy Series A in its hip pocket. On this episode of the Business of Biotech we get to know Lisa, her company and its therapeutic approach, her advocacy for genetic testing, and how she's applying her determination and fortitude to enabling more women to become life science leaders.
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Intranasal Prophylactics For Flu & Coronavirus With Leyden Labs' Koenraad Wiedhaup
8/2/2021
As Leyden Labs Founder & CEO Koenraad Wiedhaup puts it, we breathe in galaxies of viruses on a daily basis. As those viruses multiply and mutate, our approach to mitigating their risks is largely reactive. That's why his new company is busy developing a prophylactic approach to protecting populations from a host of influenza and coronaviruses via a self-administered intranasal spray. Learn how the company came to be, how its development efforts were buoyed by a recent $40 million series A investment, and why Wiedhaup believes intranasal prophylactics are ready to play a role in prevention of the next pandemic on this episode of the Business of Biotech podcast.
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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.
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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.