Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech

A US company, with its origins in South Korea, is using natural killer (NK) cells to treat Alzheimer’s disease, with remarkable results. This week, we have a conversation with Dr Paul Song, CEO of NKGen Biotech, a company with its sights set on changing the Alzheimer’s treatment landscape. 00:58-02:55: About NKGen Biotech  02:56-05:39: Why is Alzheimer’s so challenging to treat?  05:39-07:28: Are...

Eligo Bioscience is a gene-editing company focused on addressing diseases driven by the expression of bacterial genes from the microbiome.   Its first target is moderate to severe acne vulgaris, an inflammatory disease that affects about 3% of the global population. This week, we talk to Xavier Duportet, CEO of Eligo Bioscience, as the company looks to head to the clinic with its acne vulgaris tre...

Vaxxinity, Inc. is a U.S.-based biotechnology company looking to develop vaccines for several hard-to-treat diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.  The company is pioneering a new class of medicines through its proprietary technology platform, which has enabled the innovation of novel synthetic peptide immunotherapy candidates to bring the efficiency of vaccines to the treatment of chronic...

Is there a connection between worms being eradicated from the gut in the early 20th Century and an increase in allergies and autoimmune disease?   This week, we have a conversation with Holoclara CEO Andrea Choe, who not only believes there is a connection, but also sees secretions from worms as a way to tackle such diseases.  01:31-06:05 : About Holoclara 06:06-08:26: From discovery to setting up...

Jennifer Schranz is senior vice president and global head of rare diseases in the R&D division at Ipsen. On the podcast this week, she discusses a breakthrough treatment for primary biliary cholerangitis and cholestatic liver disease. 00:56-00:49 : Background information 01:44-03:21: What are primary biliary cholerangitis (PBC) and cholestatic liver disease? 03:21-03:50: How rare is PBC? 03:50...

On this week’s podcast we have a conversation with Jordi Mata-Fink, co-founder and chief executive officer of the newly-launched U.S. company Gate Bioscience. 00:45-01:06: About Gate Bioscience 01:06-02:09: What are disease-causing extracellular proteins? 02:09-04:44: How have diseases caused by extracellular proteins been treated in the past?  04:44-05:47: Have there been diseases that haven’t be...

Among other things, UK-headquartered company Phenotypeca has been working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce albumin for low and middle-income countries to reduce the costs of vaccines. The company’s CEO, Johnny Cordiner, and research and development director, Professor Ed Louis, tell us about the work, as well as the company and its other projects. 01:01-11:57 : About Phenoty...

French company CellProthera has seen some remarkable results treating people who have had a heart attack.  On this week’s podcast, the company’s CEO Matthieu de Kalbermatten tells us how it works. 01:00-03:29 : About CellProthera 03:30-06:30: What are ProtheraCytes? 06:30-09:02: Is this a cure? 09:02-10:24 : Is prevention the best option? 10:25-11:49: Is this therapy useful to treat other conditio...

On today’s podcast, Jean-Philip Piquemal, the chief scientific officer and co-founder of Qubit Pharmaceuticals, explains how the company’s Atlas platform is leading the way to more effective and safer drugs. 00:54-01:52 : The history of Qubit Pharmaceuticals 01:52-04:04: What is the Atlas software? 04:04-05:18: Failing quickly is the key 05:19-06:53 : What are digital twins? 06:54-09:00: Improving...

This week, our guest on the podcast is Jason C. Foster, CEO of Ori Biotech. Ori is a London, U.K. and New Jersey, U.S. based manufacturing technology company pioneering flexible process discovery with translation and scalable commercialization of cell and gene therapies (CGT).  Ori has developed a proprietary, full stack manufacturing platform that closes, automates and standardizes CGT manufactur...

This week, our guest on the podcast is Mark Kotter, founder of newly-created company clock.bio. clock.bio, a sister company to bit.bio, which Kotter also founded and is the CEO of, aims to extend and improve quality of life by reversing the harmful effects of time in our cells, harnessing the regenerative capabilities of human pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). These hiPSCs have the ability not only...

This week, we speak to Artiva Biotherapeutics’ CEO, Fred Aslan, M.D. The company has demonstrated the potential for efficacy and safety with natural killer (NK) cells in two cancer clinical trials. In August, the company announced FDA clearance for an IND for lupus – marking a first for an allogeneic, off-the-shelf NK or CAR-T cell therapy in autoimmune disease. AlloNK (also known as AB-101) is a...

Compared to the smallest mRNA molecule, which is 300 nucleotides long, the largest transfer RNAs (tRNA) is less than a third of the size at 76 nucleotides.  Scientists at Alltrna are harnessing the unique biology of tRNAs to engineer a single tRNA medicine that could treat thousands of rare diseases that share the same genetic mutation. This year, Alltrna presented at ASGCT the first demonstration...

Disease X, a concept shrouded in mystery, represents the unknown pathogens that could unleash future epidemics or pandemics.  In the wake of recent global health crises, our understanding of the profound impact of those pandemics has deepened.  On this week’s podcast, we have a conversation with Hamilton Bennett , who led Moderna ’s mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine development program team to the author...

Despite the huge commercial success of PD-1 inhibitors and widespread use of checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 or anti-CTLA4, 70 to 80% of patients still experience limited or no response to existing therapies.   In response to this critical challenge, Portage Biotech is on a mission to expand the number of patients who derive long-term benefits from immunotherapies.   Portage Biotech is adv...

This week’s podcast is sponsored by Vetter. On this week’s episode, we have a conversation with Steve Worland, CEO of eFFECTOR Therapeutics. eFFECTOR is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering the development of a new class of oncology drugs referred to as STRIs (selective translation regulation inhibitors).  eFFECTOR’s STRI product candidates target the eIF4F complex and its activat...

As September 8 is Stand Up To Cancer Day, one area of promising research lies in cytokine-based drugs, which have the potential to activate T cells against tumors. Historically, toxicity from systemic cytokine treatment has remained a challenge, prompting several companies to explore ways to “engineer” drugs with modified cytokine molecules like interleukin 2 (IL-2) for targeted and safer delivery...

On this week’s podcast, to recognize Blood Cancer Awareness Month, we have a conversation with Affimed's CMO, Andreas Harstrick, to talk about blood cancers, and what Affimed is doing to tackle blood cancers. One of the main challenges in treating blood cancers is the limited options for therapeutic intervention. Treatment relies primarily on chemotherapy, which is often associated with high...

On this week’s podcast, we have a conversation with Dr Jack Scannell , CEO of Etheros Pharmaceuticals Corp . Scannell recently co-authored a paper on the expenses related to clinical research and the factors that underly the translational failure of inhibitors of the insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) in oncology. Costs and Causes of Oncology Drug Attrition With the Example of Insulin-...

Since its inception in 2012, World Lung Cancer Day has been observed every year on August 1 in order to raise awareness of lung cancer issues and magnify the need for more lung cancer research funding. Around a quarter of a million people in the US alone will be diagnosed with some form of lung cancer in 2023. And more than 125,000 people in the US will die from the disease. And another pretty awf...

To learn about pepteins , we had a conversation with Christian Schwarz, CEO and co-founder of Numaferm .   Numaferm is a German biotech company, specializing in the production of pepteins, which are an underdeveloped class of molecules located between peptides and proteins (with a length of 30-300 amino acids). Pepteins are non-structured and complex posing a challenge for manufacturing, yet exert...

2:02 Labiotech.eu news 2:51 MinervaX  To recognize International Group B Strep Awareness Month in July, we had a conversation with MinervaX CEO, Per Fischer.  MinervaX is a privately-held Danish biotechnology company developing a novel prophylactic vaccine against Group B streptococcus (GBS), with two phase II clinical trials ongoing in pregnant women and a phase I clinical trial ongoing in older...

2;00  Labiotech news 3:36  BaseLaunch In today's episode, we have a conversation with Stephan Emmerth, director business development and operations at biotech startup incubator BaseLaunch , and Sai Reddy, an entrepreneur well versed in the highs and lows of the biotech startup journey.  The discussion includes BaseLaunch’s approach to empowering early-stage biotech entrepreneurs with not just...

1:54  Labiotech news 3:48  NodThera This week, we’re talking about inflammasome inhibitors with Alan Watt, CEO of NodThera. The company recently announced it is the first to show a reduction in neuroinflammation with an inflammasome inhibitor. ​​NodThera announced positive initial data from four subjects in the elderly volunteer stage of its phase Ib/IIa study evaluating the effects of its lead ca...

1:24  Labiotech news 3:45  TolerogenixX TolerogenixX GmbH, a biopharmaceutical company developing personalized cellular therapies aimed at achieving sustained immune tolerance to combat organ rejection and autoimmune diseases, has announced that its phase IIb study in renal transplant patients has received the green light to initiate the B arm of the study .  MIC treatment is a personalized cell t...