The Bio Report

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.

About 500,000 people suffer from a spinal cord injury each year. Treatments can involve surgical procedures to stabilize the spine and physical rehabilitation, which can have limited benefits. There are currently no FDA-approved therapies that can promote repair and improve function following a spinal cord injury. NervGen Pharma is seeking to change that by developing therapies that allow the nervous system to repair itself. We spoke to Mike Kelly, CEO of NervGen, about the potential for using therapies designed to allow the nervous system to repair itself, how the company’s lead experimental candidate for spinal cord injury works, and why the same approach holds promise in treating a range of neurodegenerative diseases.

One of the challenges of treating neurodegenerative diseases is delivering therapies across the blood-brain barrier. Aliada Therapeutics is developing therapies that use its platform technology that enables the delivery of large molecules, like antibodies, across that barrier. Its lead program is in development to treat Alzheimer’s disease. We spoke to John Dunlop, chief scientific officer of Aliada, about its platform technology, its origins at Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen, and the company’s partnering strategy for leveraging the technology.

SalubrisBio, rather than shy away from complexity, embraces it. The company’s lead experimental therapy is an antibody fusion protein in development for both heart failure and the rare, neurodevelopmental condition amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. We spoke to Sam Murphy, CEO of SalubrisBio, about the challenges of pursuing complex diseases with complex therapies, its pipeline, and how its China-based parent has provided it financial freedom from the vagaries of the capital markets.

One of the challenges facing genetic medicines is delivering payloads across the human cell membrane and inside cells both effectively and with high tolerability. Aegis Life is capitalizing on its parent Entos Pharmaceuticals’ nucleic acid delivery platform technology to address infectious diseases. It recently secured investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help in the fight against malaria, HIV, and other conditions. We spoke to John Lewis, founder and CEO of Aegis Life, about the need it is addressing, the company’s platform technology, and how it is leveraging that to address the barriers to the delivery of vaccines and antibody therapies in developing economies.

The idea of developing cancer vaccines that harness dendritic cells is not new, but Diakonos Oncology thinks it’s been able to solve the lack of efficacy that has plagued this approach. The company combines its vaccines with RNA and proteins from a patient’s tumor to trigger a robust response by tricking the immune system to recognize cancer cells as being virally infected. We spoke to Jay Hartenbach, chief operating officer of Diakonos, about its dendritic cell cancer vaccine technology, how it works, and why its lead indication is an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Kinase inhibitors have given rise to an era of precision medicine for the treatment of cancer, but the ability of cancer cells to mutate enables tumors to develop resistance to existing therapies. Nuvalent is developing therapies that both target the original tumor as well tumors with emergent resistance. We spoke to James Porter, CEO of Nuvalent, about how it designs drugs that address the challenges of both kinase resistance and selectivity, its pipeline in development, and why it’s critical that its experimental therapy for non-small cell lung cancer can penetrate the brain.

Each year, an estimated 400,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with Lyme disease, a billion-dollar healthcare problem caused by a bacterial infection that is transmitted through the bite of a tick. The condition can cause joint pain and fatigue, but is treatable with antibiotics. Left untreated, though, it can progress and cause more serious symptoms including facial palsy, an irregular heartbeat, and nerve pain. Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is developing a human formulation of the antiparasitic lotilaner, to prevent Lyme disease. We spoke to Bobby Azamian, CEO of Tarsus, about Lyme disease, the case for the company’s experimental prophylactic drug TP-05, and why you may already have been using a form of the drug to protect a four-legged member of your household.

In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte, or TIL therapy, for solid tumors. The approval was hailed as a milestone that points the path forward for a new class of cell therapies for solid tumors. We spoke to Jason Bock, CEO of CMTC, the joint venture between Resilience and MD Anderson Cancer Center, about the emerging area of TIL therapies, the significance of the first approved therapy in the class, and how they may address existing limitations of CAR-T therapies.

Lipids have long been used as drug delivery vehicles, but HighField Biopharmaceutics is repurposing lipids as drugs to fight cancer. The company’s technology platform is seeking to change the immunotherapy landscape with new treatments that are better targeted, more potent, and less toxic. We spoke to Don Wyatt, chief business officer for HighField Biopharmaceuticals, about the tumor microenvironment, HighField’s platform technology, and how it is developing lipid-based medicines to overcome challenges of existing immunotherapies.

Jeremiah Robison’s daughter Sofia was born with cerebral palsy, a congenital movement disorder. Watching her physicians use body monitors to measure her gait, and later apply functional electrical stimulation as physical therapy, gave him an idea to combine the two to create a sleeve that could be worn on her leg to improve her ability to walk. Now Cionic, the company he co-founded, is producing its Neural Sleeves to help people with a variety of mobility impairments better navigate the world. We spoke to Robison, CEO of Cionic, about the Neural Sleeve, how functional electronical stimulation helps people with movement disorders walk, and how the use of adaptive algorithms continuously optimizes the stimulation it delivers.

Physicians treating people with burns typically incorrectly assess the depth of burn wounds in about 25 to 30 percent of cases. That, in part, is due to a lack of diagnostic tools to assess the severity of a burn and to determine the best approach to treatment. Spectral AI has developed the DeepView System, a predictive device that offers clinicians an objective and immediate assessment of a wound’s healing potential prior to treatment or other medical interventions. We spoke to Pete Carlson, CEO of Spectral AI, about the company’s AI-driven DeepView System, how it works, and how it changes outcomes for patients.

New York City is not the first place that comes to mind when thinking of biotech clusters, but the Big Apple has been a growing center of biomedical innovation with its mix of academic research hospitals, finance, and growing number of biopharmaceutical companies. One place that’s seeking to serve as both a home to innovative companies and facilitate collaborations is Cure, which describes itself as a healthcare innovation campus. We spoke to Seema Kumar, CEO of Cure, about how it operates, its various initiatives, and what can be done to accelerate the movement of innovative technologies from the lab to the marketplace.

Funding levels, drug launches, and R&D success rates all grew in 2023, according to a new report from the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science. Global funding of biopharmaceutical research and development increased to $72 billion, up from $61 billion in 2022. M&A activity jumped to $140 billion from $78 billion during the same period. We spoke to Murray Aitken, executive director of the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, about its Global Trends in R&D 2024 report, what he’s watching, and why the new patent cliff for the industry will be less threatening than the last one.

In January 2023, AstraZeneca agreed to acquire CinCor Pharma, the CinRx cardio-renal disease therapy subsidiary, for $1.3 billion. The deal included a potential additional $500 million milestone payment. The price represented a 121 percent premium to CinCor’s market value at the time and could grow to more than a 200 percent premium if the milestone is met. The sale represented validation of CinRX’s portfolio approach to build multiple biotech companies supported with a dedicated funding mechanism. We spoke to Jon Isaacsohn, founder and CEO of CinRx, about the company’s portfolio approach, how its business model allows it to accelerate the development of needed medicines, and its efforts to develop new obesity therapies.

Antibody-drug conjugates can deliver chemotherapy directly to tumors but more than 95 percent of the dose often ends up in healthy tissues, decreasing efficacy and increasing toxicity. Mythic Therapeutics FateControl technology improves the uptake of ADCs in cancerous cells while avoiding the release of their toxic payloads in healthy ones. This promises to increase efficacy of these therapies in a wide range of cancers without causing unacceptable side-effects. We spoke to Brian Fiske, co-founder, chief scientific officer of Mythic, about the challenges that have held back the benefits of ADCs, how the company’s FateControl technology addresses those, and how it is thinking of building a pipeline of ADCs across indications.

The HGF/MET neurotrophic system plays a critical role in the maintenance and repair of connections in the brain. Enhanced signaling along this pathway has the potential to reduce inflammation, slow neurodegeneration, and provide neuroprotection. Athira Pharma is pursuing small molecule drugs that target this pathway to address a range of neurodegenerative conditions. The company is currently conducting a phase 2/3 study of its lead therapeutic candidate, fosgonimeton, in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. But the study comes after the experimental therapy failed to meet its primary endpoint in a phase 2 study in Alzheimer’s disease and a phase 2 study in Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. We spoke to Rachel Lenington, chief operating officer of Athira Pharma, about the case for targeting the HGF/MET neurotrophic system in neurodegenerative diseases, how its experimental therapy fosgonimeton works, and why its continuing to pursue the therapy despite earlier failures.

The advent of induced pluripotent stem cells, cells that can be coaxed into becoming virtually any type of cell within the body, promised to usher in a new era of regenerative medicine and improved drug discovery. In practice, though, the ability to use these cells to develop desired cell types has proved challenging to do in a predictable way and at scale. Bit.bio, has developed a synthetic biology platform that it says allows it to industrialize this process and produce desired cells in a consistent manner. We spoke to Mark Kotter, founder and CEO of Bit.Bio, about the company’s platform technology, its effort to develop cell therapies, and its growing offering of precision reprogramed human cells for drug development.

Some 100 trillion gigabytes of data are created and consumed each year, an amount that is expected to double by 2025. The demand for data storage carries the need for significant physical space and power requirements in the form of digital data centers. DNA, though, may represent a solution to what some see as unsustainable growth with environmental consequences. DNA, it turns out, is a dense and durable way to store information. At the end of last year, Paris-based Biomemory launched its DNA Cards, the first DNA data storage ever offered to the general public. The DNA memory cards, about the size of a credit card-sized today may seem more like a curiosity than a viable solution. At $1,000 each, they can store a kilobyte of data, enough to store a single, brief email. We spoke to Erfane Awani, founder and CEO of Biomemory, about the use of DNA for data storage, how it works, and how quickly the technology can scale to where it competes with today’s data storage infrastructure.

People tend to think of each person having their own unique genome. Quotient Therapeutics is taking an approach to drug discovery based on the reality that from cell to cell within a given individual, there can be trillions of divergent genomes. Changes in cells throughout the body can alter how a cell responds to disease and point to new ways to cure, treat, or prevent conditions. We spoke to Jacob Rubens, president of Quotient, about the company’s platform technology, how it uncovers genetic mutations at a cellular level, and its efforts to build a pipeline of therapies around the insights it gains.

Regardless of the cause of a disease, most diseases involve gene dysregulation. Omega Therapeutics is developing a new class of programmable, epigenomic, mRNA medicines designed to make specific epigenetic changes and correct abnormal gene expression to treat or cure diseases. We spoke to Mahesh Karande, president and CEO of Omega Therapeutics, about its pipeline of mRNA therapies, how they work, and its recently announced collaboration with Novo Nordisk to develop an epigenomic controller to treat obesity.

The effects of spinal cord injury extend beyond the loss of mobility. They can include a toll on mental health, a feeling of exclusion, and a general decline in the quality of life as a result of being able to stand and interact eye-to-eye with others. ReWalk Robotics’ Personal Exoskeleton is configured to an individual’s body and enables someone who has suffered a spinal cord injury to stand, walk, and even climb up and down stairs. We spoke to Larry Jasinski, CEO of ReWalk Robotics, about the company’s Personal Exoskeleton, how it works, and the impact it can have on the quality of life for someone with a spinal cord injury.

Mitochondria are often referred to as the “powerhouses” of the cell, but as scientists gain a greater understanding of these essential organelles, they are coming to discover they play a more expansive role in health and disease. The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health named Navdeep Chandel a co-recipient of the 2023 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences for his research that revealed how mitochondria function as signaling organelles that control the body’s normal functions and impact diseases, including cancer and inflammation. We spoke to Chandel, professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care and of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the Feinberg School of Medicine, about the state of our understanding of mitochondria, why drug developers are pursuing therapies to target mitochondria across a broad range of diseases, and the need for a concerted effort to conduct fundamental research to better understand the biology of this organelle.

Sandbox AQ, the Alphabet spin-out backed with $500 million in investment, in June 2023 unveiled it AQBioSim division. The division is working to bring SandoxAQ’s AI and quantum-inspired computing to develop new treatments for intractable medical conditions including neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The company is working with leading drug developers and university medical centers to accelerate drug development, reduce costs, and improve the rate of clinical success. We spoke to Nadia Harhen, general manager of simulation and optimization for SandboxAQ, about the challenges of drug development it is seeking to address, how Sandbox AQ is leveraging quantum technologies, and why it is seeking to tackle an intractable set of diseases. One note: As we were preparing to publish this episode, Sandbox AQ announced it acquired Good Chemistry, a computational chemistry company that leverages AI, quantum, and other advanced technologies to accelerate drug discovery. The deal is expected to enhance SandboxAQ’s existing computational chemistry and simulation capabilities, adding talent, technologies, and industry insights.

It’s long been understood that chromosomal instability (CIN) is a characteristic of cancer cells, but it also represents a key difference between cancer cells and healthy cells that can be exploited. Volastra is developing medicines for a wide range of difficult-to-treat cancers that target the vulnerabilities of these cells. We spoke to Charles Hugh-Jones, CEO of Volastra, about chromosomal instability in cancer cells, how the company is developing a pipeline of therapies to exploit this, and its expanding relationships with Big Pharma.

Though the year began with a banking crisis and has been marked with layoffs and restructurings, we have managed to avoid a feared recession. It’s been a big year for new drug approvals, M&A activity has been brisk, and biotech stocks have rallied in recent weeks pushing the widely watched S&P biotech index into positive territory. We continue our annual tradition to look back across the year in biotech and ahead to JPMorgan and beyond with Adam Feuerstein, Polk award-winning journalist and senior biotech writer for STAT. We spoke to Feuerstein about the biotech news that shaped 2023, the year’s best and worst CEOs, and what’s ahead in 2024.

Vik Bajaj has long lived at the intersection of physical sciences, engineering, data science, and the life sciences—first as an academic working to improve diagnostic imaging at Stanford University and later as a chief scientific officer at GRAIL and Verily. Now, as a founder and CEO of Foresite Labs, the technologist turned venture capitalist is using his experience to create new companies that are leveraging AI and other technologies to transform healthcare. We spoke to Bajaj about the changing data landscape around healthcare, the potential for technology to improve health outcomes, and what it takes for an entrepreneur to get his attention today.

Interleukin-2 therapies have been seen as promising ways to treat solid tumors, but they have proven challenging because of the ability of IL-2 to both activate and suppress the immune system. Their effectiveness has been limited because of potentially toxic side effects, which have included vascular leak syndrome and pulmonary edema. Aulos Biosciences believes the AI-based approach to computational drug design used for its lead experimental therapy allows it to unlock the power of IL-2 without triggering the concerning side effects of existing therapies. We spoke to Aron Knickerbocker, president and CEO of Aulos Bioscience, about the potential for IL-2 therapies to treat solid tumors, the limits of today's IL-2 therapies, and the AI-based design behind its experimental IL-2 therapy in development.

Real-world data promises to provide insights that lead to better therapies, change how we treat diseases, and improve outcomes for patients. One of the limits of realizing benefits from all of the health information we are swimming in is the lack of access to high-quality data in a usable format. Verana Health has built partnerships with medical societies to provide access to exclusive, real-world data from a network of more than 20,000 clinicians. We spoke to Sujay Jadhav, CEO of Verana Health, about the potential for real-world data to improve our understanding of health, how Verana is addressing challenges these data can present, and the areas of medicine on which it is focused.

Artificial intelligence promises to reshape the healthcare landscape and deliver new insights into the molecular drivers of health and wellness, provide rapid diagnoses of patients, and discover and design therapies that extend beyond human imagination. Swaroop ‘Kittu’ Kolluri, founder and managing director of Neotribe Ventures, is using his experience as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to invest in the emerging TechBio space. We spoke to Kolluri about the state of AI, the potential of technology to transform healthcare, and Neotribe’s approach to investing.

Though many drug developers are harnessing AI to create novel chemical compounds, Iambic Therapeutic’s generative AI is leveraging quantum mechanics to get to better drugs. It says its physics-informed machine learning approach has yielded promising lead candidates with superior profiles in record time. In October, Iambic completed a $100 million series B financing round to support development of its platform and to advance multiple candidates into clinical development. We spoke to Tom Miller, co-founder and CEO of Iambic, about its AI platform,, the insights Iambic gains from using a quantum mechanics-based approach to drug discovery, and its growing pipeline of cancer therapies.

One of the challenges with treating Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosing patients early enough in the course of its progression to have a meaningful impact with treatments. Sunbird Bio said it can accurately detect and differentiate specific proteins that aggregate and signal the presence of Alzheimer's disease, with a simple blood draw. It said its test in development could address the growing need for more sensitive, reliable, non-invasive diagnostic tests to accelerate drug development and enhance patient care. We spoke to John McDonough, executive chair and CEO of Sunbird Bio, about its diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s disease, how it has the potential to impact treatments and outcomes for millions of patients with the condition, and how its merger with Glympse Bio is expected to push it into new markets.

About 40 percent of all drugs in the Western world are derived from plants. But challenges with producing a reliable supply inherent with materials derived from agricultural processes can lead to drug shortages as climate events, pests, and plant diseases can affect yields. Antheia is harnessing synthetic biology to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients as an alternative to reliance on crop production. We spoke to Christina Smolke, co-founder and CEO of Antheia, about the supply-chain challenges underlying drug shortages, how the company is using synthetic biology to create a reliable supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, and its growing pipeline of products in development.

The COVID 19 pandemic provided a painful reminder of the global need to protect people against the threat of existing and emerging infectious diseases. Emergex Vaccines is developing fully synthetic vaccines that provide advantages over live attenuated and RNA-based vaccines. The company says its vaccines can provide long-lasting T cell immunity, are cost effective, and stable at room temperature. We spoke to Thomas Rademacher, co-founder and CEO of Emergex Vaccines, about the company’s platform technologies, the manufacturing advantages they offer, and the company’s pursuit of universal coronavirus and influenza vaccines that work across variants.

The advent of targeted therapies has contributed to notable progress in the fight against cancer, but the ability of cancers to develop resistance to these precision medicines continues to leave patients in need of new approaches. Concarlo Therapeutics is developing therapies that target a critical driver of cell proliferation that is reactivated once a cancer grows resistant to certain targeted therapies. We spoke to Stacy Blain, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Concarlo, about the development of drug resistance in cancer, the company’s initial focus on breast cancer, and her own journey from academia to biopharma.

There have been significant advances to immunotherapies since their first introduction, but challenges remain to realizing their full potential in solid tumors. That’s because of the ability of tumors to use multiple mechanisms to evade the immune system. Akamis Bio is developing tumor gene therapies that are capable of targeting tumors and driving expression of multiple immunologically active biomolecules and therapeutic proteins to create a robust, antitumor immune responses. We spoke to Howard Davis, CEO of Akamis Bio, about the challenges immunotherapies have faced in addressing solid tumors, the company’s tumor gene therapy platform, and how it turns tumors against themselves to stimulate an immune response.

Mini-proteins have the power and performance of an antibody with the ability to bind tightly to a target. But because of their small size, it can penetrate into places where small molecules can go. Ordaōs Bio is leveraging its generative AI platform to develop a pipeline of mini-protein therapeutics. We spoke to David Longo, co-founder and CEO of Ordaōs, about the company’s focus on mini-proteins, its generative AI platform, and why its building its own pipeline around rare disease indications and partnering with other drug developers on other indications.