The Bio Report

Cancer is a global disease, and BeOne Medicines believes it should develop its cancer therapies for global markets. To do so, it’s taking innovative approaches to clinical trials, pricing, and manufacturing to enable it to support patients not only in high-income countries but also in low- and middle-income countries. We spoke to Matt Shaulis, general manager of North America for BeOne Medicines, about the significant global disparities in cancer care, the mission of BeOne Medicines to improve access and affordability to therapies, and the opportunities and challenges of taking a global approach to marketing innovative medicines.

The advent of immunotherapies is transforming cancer care. While early efforts have focused on enabling T cells to attack cancers, Myeloid Therapeutics is developing next-generation immunotherapies that use mRNA to train myeloid cells to attack cancer. We spoke to Daniel Getts, founder and CEO of Myeloid Therapeutics, about the limitations of existing immunotherapies, the role myeloid cells play in the immune system, and the benefits of the company’s therapeutic approach.

Despite having taken steps to prepare for a possible pandemic, the United States fared poorly during the COVID outbreak relative to other developed nations. It also sharpened political divides as conspiracy theories and misinformation spread on social media. In “COVID Wars: America’s Struggle Over Public Health and Personal Freedom,” tech entrepreneur-turned-historian Ronald Gruner takes a deep dive into the public data surrounding the pandemic. We spoke to Gruner about putting the pandemic in historical perspective, what the data showed, and the lessons to be learned.

GLP-1 agonists have been a breakthrough for the treatment of obesity, a global problem with serious health risks. While the benefits of these therapies are seen as outweighing the risks, there have been some concerns about the loss of muscle mass, particularly in older people using these drugs. iBio is developing next-generation obesity therapies that may be able to be used in combination with GLP-1 agonists or by themselves. Its lead experimental therapy is a myostatin inhibitor, part of a class of therapies that have been of interest to treat muscle wasting. We spoke to Martin Brenner, CEO and chief scientific officer of iBIO, about obesity, the limits of GLP-1 agonists, and the potential for myostatin inhibitors alone or in combination with GLP-1 agonists.

At the end of 2024, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health awarded a team led by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and including the Foundation Fighting Blindness and six other research groups, up to $46 million to advance research to enable human eye transplants to restore vision in people who are blind. The goal of the project is to make whole eye transplantation a reality by 2030. We spoke to Kia Washington, the project’s principal investigator and professor of surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine; and Chad Jackson, senior director of preclinical translational research at the Foundation Fighting Blindness about why no one has been able to restore vision through whole eye transplantation yet, the technological advancements that now put the goal in reach, and why maintaining and restoring the optic nerve remains a central challenge.

Synthetic biology companies have faced a difficult few years as share prices have been battered and investment in the sector has waned. As investors and companies are readying to gather for the annual SynBioBeta conference in San Jose May 5 through 8, a new report from the bipartisan National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology warns that the United States is at risk of losing its leadership to China and is calling for a $15 billion investment into biotech over the next five years to support startups that strengthen national security. We spoke to John Cumbers, founder and CEO of SynBioBeta, about the state of synthetic biology, the policy landscape, and the upcoming SynBioBeta 2025 conference. (Listeners of The Bio Report wishing to attend SynBioBeta can use the discount code “thebioreport” to save on their registration at synbiobeta.com.)

Until recently, treatments for both chronic and acute pain had been an area that went for decades without the development of innovative new treatments. South Rampart Pharma is seeking to develop safer and more effective pain management therapies that avoid the liver toxicity of acetaminophen, the kidney toxicity of NSAIDs, and the abuse potential of opioids. We spoke to Hernan Bazan, co-founder and CEO of South Rampart Pharma, about the need for new pain medicines, the company’s first-in-class experimental analgesic, and how it avoids the problems common with other pain medications.

The Zimin Institute for AI Solutions in Healthcare, a joint initiative between the Zimin Foundation and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, is seeking to accelerate the integration of AI into the life sciences. Although it is pursuing a wide range of opportunities from precision medicine to therapeutic discovery, its primary focus is on addressing real-world problems and conducting translational research. We spoke to Shai Shen-Orr, director of the Zimin Institute for AI Solutions, about the challenges the institute seeks to address, how it operates, and how it aims to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial applications in healthcare AI.

The search for non-opioid pain relievers opioids has focused on pharmaceutical alternatives including non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, antidepressants, and anticonvulsants. Brixton Biosciences is developing Neural Ice, an injectable frozen slurry that can degenerate nerves in targeted areas and provide pain relief for extended periods. The discovery capitalizes on unexpected findings about the effects of a fat-reducing cosmetic procedure. We spoke to Sameer Sabir, co-founder and CEO of Brixton Biosciences, about the unmet need for pain management, how Neural Ice works, and the company’s initial focus on osteoarthritis and post-operative knee pain.

Antibodies have been powerful tools for inhibiting a targeted protein. Abalone Bio is pursuing a new class of antibody therapies called activating antibodies that can regulate cellular processes and restore their balance. One aspect that makes these rare antibodies attractive is that they can target previously undruggable G protein-coupled receptors, allowing them to treat diseases that have been hard to address. We spoke to Richard Yu, co-founder and CEO of Abalone Bio, about activating antibodies, how the company generates massive data sets for its AI-driven platform technology, and how it looks beyond binding to explore the function of these antibodies.

Jorge Goldstein trained for a career in molecular biology and biochemistry before becoming a patent attorney, a background that positioned him to help shape patent law for the biotech industry throughout his 40-year career. In his new book Patenting Life: Tales from the Front Lines of Intellectual Property and the New Biology, Goldstein offers a history of the biotech industry through the lens of the critical patent battles that shaped the landscape. We spoke to Goldstein, founder of the law firm Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox, about the industry’s critical patent battles, his new book, and how he is working today to use patents as instruments for social and economic justice.

Eosinophilic esophagitis is a progressive allergic disease characterized by difficulty swallowing and gastric reflux. It results from an elevated number of inflammatory immune cells in the walls of the esophagus. If left untreated, it can cause long-term complications, including scarring and difficulty swallowing. Revolo Biotherapeutics is developing a synthetic peptide therapy that can potentially restore immune system homeostasis in EOE and other allergic diseases. We spoke to Woody Bryan, president and CEO of Revolo, about eosinophilic esophagitis, how the company’s experimental therapy restores homeostasis to the immune system, and how people exposed to tuberculosis pointed the way toward the experimental therapy.

NK cells, part of the innate immune system, serve as the body’s first line of defense. These cells can recognize and kill abnormal or infected cells. As therapies, they have the advantage over CAR-T and other cell therapies because they can be used off-the-shelf without undergoing gene editing or other genetic modifications. They also don’t trigger cytokine storms, a common reaction to CAR-T therapies that can cause a systemic inflammatory response that can range from flu-like symptoms to life-threatening complications. The greater safety and lower costs of these NK cell therapies open the door to broader uses beyond cancer to include autoimmune diseases. We spoke to Fred Aslan, president and CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics, about the company’s off-the-shelf NK cell therapies, the case for pairing them with monoclonal antibodies, and how they can broaden the uses for cell therapies.

More than a decade after the approval of a curative therapy for hepatitis C, hepatitis B has proven more challenging to tackle. Vir Biotechnology, in collaboration with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, is developing a promising combination approach that marries Vir’s monoclonal antibody tobivibart with Alnylam’s siRNA elebsiran. We spoke to Mark Eisner, chief medical officer of Vir, about hepatitis B, the company’s combination therapy in development with Alnylam, and its platform technologies for developing treatments for infectious disease and oncology.

While GLP-1 agonists have been all the rage in treating obesity, Coya Therapeutics sees potential for these therapies to address inflammatory diseases. In fact, Coya is developing its low-dose interleukin 2 in combination with several different agents. The belief is that its approach will address inflammation by targeting dysfunctional regulatory T cells. The company is pursuing multiple neurodegenerative conditions, as well as autoimmune and metabolic diseases. We spoke to Arun Swaminathan, CEO of Coya Therapeutics, about its pipeline-in-a-product strategy to treat neurodegenerative and other inflammatory diseases, its pursuit of a GLP-1 combination therapy for these conditions, and the challenges of being a newly minted public company in the current financial environment.

Though cancer vaccines have been an area of great promise, in practice they have faced several challenges because of the heterogeneity of tumors, the ability of the tumor microenvironment to suppress the immune system, and the challenges of producing a strong and sustained T-cell response. OSE Immunotherapeutics’ off-the-shelf cancer vaccine Tedopi has shown promising results in a phase 3 study in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and the company is now conducting a confirmatory phase 3 study. We spoke to Nicolas Poirier, CEO of OSE Immunotherapeutics, about the company’s off-the-shelf cancer vaccine, non-small cell lung cancer, and how it is leveraging its immune system expertise through partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies.

One of the challenges in treating brain cancer and other diseases of the central nervous system is delivering therapeutics beyond the blood-brain barrier. NeOnc Technologies using a natural compound derived from essential oils in plants that not only can kill cancer cells, but can cross the blood-brain barrier. What’s more, it can transport other therapies as well. We spoke to Thomas Chen, founder and CEO of NeOnc, about brain cancer, how the blood-brain barrier complicates the delivery of therapies to treat the condition, and how its experimental candidate that is delivered intranasally works.

Some 70 percent of potential therapeutic targets are believed to be beyond the reach of conventional small molecule therapies or biologics. Macrocyclic peptides offer a way to get at elusive targets while providing desirable characteristics of both small molecule drugs and biologics. They offer oral bioavailability, can permeate cells, and engage complex targets with specificity. Unnatural Products is harnessing AI to create synthetic macrocyclic peptides to pursue previously undruggable targets. We spoke to Cameron Pye, CEO and co-founder of Unnatural Products, about how these peptides can target proteins that traditional therapies cannot reach, the engineering process for the company’s synthetic macrocyclic peptides, and their potential to lead to new innovative therapies for a range of conditions from cancer to obesity.

Through the creation of a chemical programming language, Chemify said it has been able to expand the chemical space it can explore. Chemify is combining this unique programming language with robotics and AI to digitize chemistry. The company, though, has much grander ambitions than being a drug developer. It wants to be the infrastructure for the industry. We spoke to Lee Cronin, founder and CEO of Chemify, about the company’s platform technology for digitizing chemistry, how its chemical programming language expands the chemical space it can explore, and how the integration of robotics into its platform accelerates drug discovery.

Prescription digital therapies, the use of software to treat disease, are growing in number. Already there have been 140 prescription digital therapies that have been granted market access through national regulatory and reimbursement pathways. That represents a five-fold increase in the since 2021, according to the IQVIA Digital Health Trends 2024 report. We spoke to Murray Aitken, executive director of the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, about the report, why digital health companies faced challenging times in recent years, and why your next prescription may be in the form of an app.

There has been growing interest in the potential of psychedelics to treat a variety of mental health conditions. While some focus has been put on synthesizing compounds that can target the receptors psychedelics bind to without inducing their hallucinatory effects, Filament Health is taking a notably different approach. The company, co-founded by Ben Lightburn who previously ran a firm specializing in natural extraction technologies, is focusing on developing pharmaceutical grade botanical drugs that may benefit from multiple active compounds rather than an isolated active ingredient. We spoke to Ben Lightburn, founder and CEO of Filament Health, about the company’s approach to psychedelic medicine, the case for natural botanical extracts rather than synthetic compounds, and its lead experimental therapy that targets methamphetamine use disorder.

Gain Therapeutics' platform technology Magellan leverages AI, structural biology, and physics-based models to identify novel binding sites on otherwise undruggable proteins implicated in diseases. The company’s experimental Parkinson’s disease therapy has the potential to slow or stop progression of the neurodegenerative condition by stabilizing a lysosomal enzyme implicated in the disease. We spoke to Gene Mack, interim CEO of Gain, about the company’s platform technology, how its experimental therapy for Parkinson’s disease works, and what other conditions might be good candidates for its platform technology to target.

We continue our holiday tradition by welcoming STAT News Senior Biotech Writer Adam Feuerstein for our annual look back at the year that was in biotech and what’s ahead for the industry with the JPMorgan Healthcare conference and beyond in 2025. Feuerstein offers his view on finance and dealmaking in 2024, new drug approvals, and his annual take on the best and worst CEOs of the year. We also discuss what Trump 2.0 may look like for the industry, changes coming to the FDA and other agencies, and what hot technologies to watch in the year ahead.

Prolific Machines uses light to precisely control virtually any function in any cell to transform what is possible with biomanufacturing. In combination with optogenetics and AI, the technology has the potential to impact a wide range of industries, from food production to pharmaceuticals, by enabling new capabilities, reducing costs, and improving sustainability. We spoke to Deniz Kent, co-founder and CEO of Prolific Machines, about the company’s photomolecular platform technology, the benefits it provides over traditional biomanufacturing methods, and how it could be used to not just cultivate meat but make a steak.

ImpriMed is working to deliver on the promise of precision medicine by using a patient’s live cancer cells to see how they respond to different treatment options and artificial intelligence to predict which medicines will work best. The company has had impressive results with its customers to date, but the catch is that it has initially targeted its service to the veterinary market, and its dogs and cats have benefited from it. The company is now working to bring its offering to two-legged patients. We spoke to Sungwon Lim, CEO of ImpriMed, about its functional precision medicine and AI platform to match cancer patients to the best available therapy for them, its decision to roll out the service first to the veterinary market, and what it is doing to bring its service to humans.

One of the limitations of small molecule drugs and monoclonal antibodies is the difficulty they face in binding to a large number of proteins that could prove to be critical targets in combating various diseases. Aikium is harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology to create a new class of protein biologics called SeqRs that are designed to bind to disordered regions of proteins that have long been beyond the reach of traditional therapeutics. We spoke to Eswar Iyer, co-founder and CEO of Aikium, about the novel class of SeqR proteins the company is developing, how they can bind to targets that traditional medicines can’t, and the potential to transform drug development by expanding the world of druggable targets.

Esophageal cancer is a growing healthcare concern with a steady increase in the number of cases in the last four decades, a development that runs counter to what’s been seen in other major types of cancer. Some 22,000 people are diagnosed each year in the United States with the disease and it is responsible for 16,000 deaths annually. Now, though, Lishan Aklog, chairman and CEO of Lucid Diagnostics, says today esophageal cancer is preventable through early detection in the pre-cancer stage. We spoke to Aklog about Lucid’s test to detect esophageal cancer, how it works, and its potential to change outcomes for people with the condition by catching it before it turns into a deadly cancer.

While existing immunotherapies have changed cancer care, there are several types of cancer where they have limited or no efficacy. Pheast Therapeutics is addressing that by looking to macrophages, part of the innate immune system. These white blood cells gobble up pathogens, cancer cells, and other foreign substances. Certain tumors, though, can evade their attack by expressing checkpoints that serve as “don’t eat me” signals. Pheast is developing macrophage checkpoint inhibitors to block these signals and enlist macrophages in the fight against cancers. We spoke to Roy Maute, cofounder and CEO of Pheast Therapeutics, about how tumors evade the innate immune system, the company’s experimental macrophage checkpoint inhibitor, and its initial focus on ovarian and triple negative breast cancer.

About 98 percent of the the human genome consists of non-protein coding regions known as the “dark genome.” Once derided as “junk DNA,” these regions are increasingly understood to play a critical role in the regulation of the genome and offer a novel means of targeting diseases. Haya Therapeutics is exploring long non-coding RNAs as potential therapies to treat a range of diseases. We spoke to Samir Ounzain, co-founder and CEO of Haya, about the dark genome, the potential to use lncRNAs to treat diseases, and its recently announced collaboration with Eli Lily to use Haya’s platform technology to discover therapies for obesity and related metabolic conditions

One of the promises of AI is to redefine what’s possible by enabling the discovery of compounds that exist in a much larger chemical space than scientists have previously been able to explore. Deepcure is using AI and physics to discover small molecule therapies that can bind to difficult to target proteins. We spoke to Kfir Schreiber, co-founder and CEO of Deepcure, about the company’s AI technology platform, its focus on autoimmune diseases, and why he believes its technology will allow it to develop small molecule drugs that can provide alternatives to biologics to treat these conditions.

The BET family of proteins regulates gene expression. Their overexpression has been implicated in both cancer and inflammatory diseases. Vyne Therapeutics is developing oral and topical BET inhibitors that treat inflammatory conditions ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to the skin condition vitiligo. We spoke to Vyne CEO David Domzalski and Vyne Chief Scientific Officer Iain Stuart, about the role BET plays in autoimmune diseases, its platform technology, and its efforts to develop BET inhibitors that are both potent and specific.

In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Adaptimmune’s Tecelra, the first engineered cell therapy to treat a solid tumor. The T cell receptor gene therapy is approved to treat synovial sarcoma, a rare soft tissue cancer that most often affects young adults. We spoke to Adrian Rawcliffe, CEO of Adaptimmune, about the approval, how TCR therapies differ from CAR T therapies, and what other cancers might benefit from such an approach.

Hibernation is not just a matter of deep sleep. Animals that hibernate are able to do so without suffering damage to tissue and muscle. Understanding the biology of hibernation can unlock potential insights into obesity, heart attack and stroke, muscle atrophy, neuroprotection, and longevity. Fauna Bio is studying genomic data from so-called "extreme mammals" and applying its proprietary AI platform to perform comparative genetic analysis to find gene-disease links and leverage millions of years of evolutionary adaptations to identify new therapeutic opportunities for human health. We spoke to Ashley Zehnder, founder and CEO of Fauna Bio, about the types of insights that can be gleaned from the genetics of hibernating animals, the wide range of human health conditions that might be addressed with such an approach, and the company’s deal with Eli Lilly to apply its AI platform to discover new obesity drugs.

Senescent cells, ones that no longer divide but are metabolically active, are associated with aging. They are also implicated in a broad range of aging-related diseases including cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative conditions. In the case of cancer, these cells can help protect tumors from a person’s immune system. Immorta Bio is seeking to address aging-related diseases by targeting senescent cells and killing them. We spoke to Thomas Ichim, president and chief scientific officer of Immorta Bio, about aging-related diseases, the role senescent cells play in these conditions, and why the company’s therapeutic approach may also have promise of addressing aging itself and extending healthy years of life.

From cell to cell within a given tissue, variability exists. Single-cell sequencing technologies from 10X Genomics is helping researchers and drug developers understand cellular diversity in tissue once thought to be made up of homogenous populations. This has the potential to lead to new understandings of diseases, open up new targets for drug developers, and provide for more tailored approaches to the treatment of diseases. We spoke to Michael Schnall-Levin, chief technology officer and founding scientist of 10X Genomics, about the company’s platform technologies, the diversity of the cellular populations within the body, and how this is changing our understanding of health and disease.

The DDR pathway plays a critical role in repairing DNA damage in healthy cells that would otherwise cause mutations or cell death. When this pathway is altered and becomes unable to repair this damage, mutated cells can grow out of control and become cancerous. They can also be more resistant to standard chemotherapies and radiation. Aprea Therapeutics is developing therapies to target mutations in genes in this pathway to treat certain cancers. We spoke to Oren Gilad, president and CEO of Aprea Therapeutics about the DDR pathway, the use of so-called synthetic lethality to treat these cancers, and why Aprea’s approach may result in safer and more targeted therapies. Editor's note: We are have deleted out the original post because there were problems with the file and have reposted the interview here.

Nearly 70 percent of patients with chronic conditions fail to take their medicines as prescribed. This can lead to poor outcomes and greater healthcare costs. Vivani Medical, which has developed implantable drug delivery technology, said it can provide steady drug release for up to six months with a single implant. This not only can address the problem of non-compliance, but can also reduce side effects associated with fluctuating drug release from conventional delivery methods. We spoke to Adam Mendelsohn, CEO of Vivani Medical, about its implantable drug delivery technology, how it works, and why its lead indication is a GLP-1 implant for weight loss and diabetes.

One of the key obstacles to developing new drugs and diagnostics is the lack of access to longitudinal biological and clinical patient data. Culmination Bio, a spin-out of Intermountain Health, is building the largest patient data platform with more than 40 years of de-identified patient electronic health records and biospecimen data. We spoke to Lincoln Nadauld, president and CEO of Culmination Bio, about the data driving the company’s platform, how partners are using its data today, and how it has the potential to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and therapies.

NAMPT is a critical enzyme that regulates how cells use energy. It can also play an important role in the ability of cancer cells to survive, grow, and spread. While it’s been recognized as a potential target to treat certain cancers, developing NAMPT inhibitors have been challenging because they can disrupt energy metabolism in healthy cells. Remedy Plan Therapeutics believes it’s overcome the challenges of NAMPT inhibition by a unique mechanism of action that can avoid the problem of toxicity. We spoke to Greg Crimmins, founder and CEO of Remedy Plan Therapeutics, about the role of NAMPT in cancer, the challenges of developing NAMPT inhibitors without toxicity, and why he believes the company has solved the problem.

The emergence of CRISPR, a powerful tool for gene editing, promises to correct devastating genetic diseases, but it also raises concerns about how it will be used and who will make those decisions. Neal Baer, in his new book “The Promise and Peril of CRISPR,” brings together a series of essays by bioethicists, geneticists, and others who explore ethical and policy considerations raised by the technology. We spoke to Baer, co-director of the master’s degree program in Media, Medicine, and Health at Harvard Medical School; about whether there are unique questions raised by CRISPR as a dual-use technology, the book’s recasting of the case of Chinese scientist He Jiankui, and why he thinks there needs to be public debate now over the use of the technology to make heritable changes to the genome.

Speeding Protein Engineering with Whether it’s the development of new biotherapeutics, or replacing hydrocarbons from their role in industrial manufacturing, engineering proteins suited for a task is a time consuming and expensive process. Cradle Bio has developed generative AI technology to accelerate protein engineering by reducing the number of experiments needed to arrive at a product candidate and enable the optimization of multiple properties at once. We spoke to Elise de Reus, co-founder of Cradle, about the company's generative AI technology, how it works, and how it’s changing the process of protein engineering.

With the emergence of GLP-1 agonists to treat obesity, there has been growing interest in the use of peptide-based medicines. Protagonist Therapeutics has developed technology that can take these target specific and potent therapies and allow them to be delivered orally. The company has a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson for an oral peptide that blocks the IL-23 receptor that’s in development to treat psoriasis and ulcerative colitis. We spoke to Dinesh Patel, CEO of Protagonist, about the company’s platform technology, the benefits of orally delivered peptide therapies, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for this approach.

While there have been a parade of novel therapeutic modalities in recent years, many of them are constrained by delivery challenges. Vesigen Therapeutics is developing novel drug delivery technology known as ARMMs that can transport a wide range of therapeutic payloads directly into the cytoplasm of target cells. We spoke to Paulash Mohsen, CEO of Vesigen, about the company’s delivery technology, its advantages over viral vectors and liquid nanoparticles, and how it enables the targeting of previously undruggable targets.

The body has a natural mechanism for breaking down and clearing proteins. Arvinas is among a group of companies that’s seeking to harness this mechanism for therapeutic purposes. It has platform technology that enables the development of targeted protein degraders to breakdown disease-causing proteins. Among the benefits of this approach is that it offers a way to target so-called undruggable proteins that conventional drugs are not able to bind with in a strong enough way. We spoke to Randy Teel, chief business officer and interim chief financial officer of Arvinas, about protein degradation, its evolution as a therapeutic strategy, and the range of indications the company is pursuing.

The traditional approach to treating autoimmune disease has relied on ways to suppress the immune system. COUR Pharmaceuticals is developing first-in-class therapies that instead seek to reprogram the immune system to create antigen-specific tolerance. We spoke to COUR CEO John Puisis and COUR Vice President of Research Adam Elhofy, about how the company’s immune-modifying nanoparticles work, how the approach preserves the immune response, and its partnership with Takeda focused on celiac disease.

The next blockbuster drug may already be in production by bacteria within your body. Bacteria produce unique chemical compounds that are bioactive and may have great therapeutic potential, but this chemical space has largely not been mined. Empress Therapeutics, a Flagship Pioneering company, is searching for such molecules by exploring the genes of bacteria that live in the human body to search for the molecules they produce and identify compelling drug candidates. Since its founding in 2020, the company has already identified 15 novel candidates. We spoke to Sabrina Yang, chief innovation officer for Empress and a principal at Flagship Pioneering, about how exploring the bacterial metagenome in the human body can point the way to the next blockbuster drug, the role AI plays in its platform, and how this approach can accelerate the time and reduce the cost of drug development.

In most cases, the immune system detects and destroys cells that could become cancerous every day. For cancer to ravage the body, it needs to evade the immune system by shutting off its response. SIRPant Immunotherapeutics is seeking to address cancer by activating and modifying a patient’s own macrophages to awaken the immune system to cancer. The activated macrophages are able to recognize and directly attack cancer cells throughout the body and stimulate other parts of the immune system to sustain a prolonged attack. We spoke to Robert Towarnicki, CEO of SIRPant, about the company’s immunotherapies, the advantages they offer over other approaches, and why its platform can be applied to other diseases involving immune dysfunction beyond cancer.

As the founder of SynBioBeta, John Cumbers has long evangelized to investors, entrepreneurs, and forward-thinking industrialists about the emergence of the bioeconomy. Cumbers, however, wants to share his sense of wonder about molecular biology with a broader audience through his new venture, Biological Enlightenment Studios. His ambition is for the studio to become a Pixar for curious-minded youngsters. The studio’s first effort will be Lee's Lab, an animated series that follows the 12-year-old title protagonist through the jungles of Borneo as she seeks to understand the secrets of molecular biology and the splendors of biodiversity. We spoke to Cumbers about Biological Enlightenment Studios, his desire to spark the imagination of a new generation about the marvels of biology, and why bioliteracy matters for the growth and health of the bioeconomy.

Electronic health records are a rich source of real-world data that can provide insights into health and wellness. Neal Meropol, head of research oncology at Flatiron Health, said they not only have value as a research tool for retrospective studies, but can be a treasure trove of information for prospective studies as well. We spoke to Meropol about how real-world evidence can inform better clinical trial designs and accelerate drug development, how Flatiron works with its clients, and a recent study he was involved in that suggest drug developers who want to increase the diversity of clinical trials participants should consider broadening their inclusion criteria.

Earlier this year, Profluent announced it had edited the human genome with OpenCRISPR-1, the world’s first AI-created and open-source gene editor. Though the open-source aspect helped garner attention for Profluent, it also served as a demonstration of the company’s generative AI platform to create novel CRISPR gene editors. We spoke to Hilary Eaton, chief business officer for Profluent, about how the company’s generative AI engine works, its business model, and why its platform has the potential to create other protein therapeutics of varying modalities.