Biotech Business with Fexingo: Life Sciences Startups, Drug Discovery, and FDA Approvals

Episode 54 of Biotech Business with Fexingo explores how generative AI is transforming antibody design. Lucas and Luna dive into the story of startup Absci, which used a generative model to create a novel antibody against a difficult target—HER2—in just 23 days. They discuss the difference between traditional phage display and AI-driven de novo design, the challenges of computational vs. experimen...

Episode 53 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into the world of Bayesian adaptive clinical trials — a statistical approach that lets biotechs learn from data mid-study and potentially cut trial costs by 30%. Lucas and Luna explore how startups like Berry Consultants and Cytel are helping drug developers reduce patient numbers while increasing the chance of hitting endpoints. They unpack a real...

Episode 52 of Biotech Business with Fexingo explores how life sciences startups are integrating wearable sensors — smartwatches, continuous glucose monitors, and patch-based ECG devices — into clinical trials to collect continuous, real-world data outside the clinic. Lucas and Luna break down the specific case of a fictional startup called VitalWave, which uses a wrist-worn sensor to capture heart...

In this episode of Biotech Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how biotech startups are engineering the human microbiome to treat chronic diseases. They focus on the case of Synlogic, a company that developed a genetically engineered probiotic to treat phenylketonuria (PKU), a rare genetic disorder. The discussion covers how Synlogic's approach works, the challenges of using living thera...

Episode 50 of Biotech Business with Fexingo explores how startups are engineering microbes to produce rare plant compounds — like the cancer drug paclitaxel (Taxol) and the malaria treatment artemisinin — without harvesting endangered plants. Lucas and Luna break down the synthetic biology toolbox: metabolic pathway engineering, enzyme optimization, and fermentation scale-up. They discuss the case...

Episode 49 of Biotech Business with Fexingo explores the emerging field of RNA editing — a therapeutic approach that corrects disease-causing mutations at the RNA level without altering the genome. Hosts Lucas and Luna focus on a specific startup, Ascidian Therapeutics, and their lead candidate for Stargardt disease, a form of juvenile macular degeneration. The episode explains how RNA exon editin...

In this episode of Biotech Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging field of PROTACs—proteolysis-targeting chimeras—that are revolutionizing drug discovery by degrading rather than inhibiting disease-causing proteins. They dive into how startups like Arvinas and Kymera Therapeutics are leading the charge, with a focus on Arvinas's lead candidate ARV-471 for breast cancer, now in...

Episode 47 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into targeted protein degradation — a drug discovery approach that destroys disease-causing proteins rather than inhibiting them. Lucas and Luna unpack how startups like Arvinas and Kymera are leveraging the cell's own garbage disposal, the proteasome, to tackle targets previously considered undruggable. They discuss the first FDA approval of a PRO...

Episode 46 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into how biotech startups are using DNA barcoding to track cell lineages in vivo. Lucas and Luna explore a startup called Cellarity that uses barcoded cells to understand which cell types respond to a drug candidate, reducing failure rates in Phase II. They discuss the technology's origins in cancer research, its application in metabolic disease, a...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore spatial transcriptomics, a technology that lets scientists see exactly where genes are active inside a tissue sample. They break down how this works using a concrete example: a startup mapping the tumor microenvironment to understand why some cancer cells resist treatment. The hosts discuss the key number — the ability to measure RNA expression across thousa...

Drug repurposing is one of the fastest, cheapest ways to bring new treatments to patients. But finding which existing drug might work for a different disease has historically been a shot in the dark. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how biotech startups are using machine learning to systematically match approved drugs to new indications. They dig into the story of Recursion Pharmaceuticals,...

In this episode of Biotech Business, Lucas and Luna explore fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD), a method that starts with tiny molecular fragments instead of huge compound libraries. They break down how the approach works, why it’s gaining traction, and the story of vemurafenib — the melanoma drug that proved FBDD could deliver blockbusters. They also discuss how startups like Relay Therapeutics...

Episode 42 of Biotech Business with Fexingo explores how biotech startups are using digital twins—virtual replicas of biological systems, organs, and entire clinical trials—to accelerate drug development and reduce costs. Lucas and Luna dive into the case of Insilico Medicine, which used a digital twin of a patient population to simulate a Phase 2 trial for a novel fibrosis drug, cutting pre-clini...

In episode 41, Lucas and Luna explore the emerging field of synthetic gene switches — biological circuits that allow biotech startups to precisely control when and where therapeutic proteins are made inside a patient's body. The conversation centers on a real startup called Senti Biosciences, which has engineered logic-gated gene circuits that can distinguish between healthy and diseased cells. Lu...

In this episode of Biotech Business with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna explore how biotech startups are leveraging induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to revolutionize drug discovery and personalized medicine. They dive into the story of one startup—Fate Therapeutics—which uses iPSCs to create off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapies, and discuss the technical breakthroughs and business challenges that c...

Episode 39 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into organ-on-a-chip technology—tiny devices lined with living human cells that mimic organs like lungs, livers, and hearts. Lucas and Luna explore how startups such as Emulate and TissUse are replacing animal models with these chips to accelerate drug development and cut costs. They break down the science behind the chips, highlight a case where a...

Episode 38 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into how biotech startups are using CRISPR screens to systematically identify drug targets. Lucas and Luna break down the technology behind pooled CRISPR knockout screens, explain how they differ from traditional target discovery, and walk through a real example: how a startup called Maze Therapeutics used CRISPR screens to uncover a novel target f...

Episode 37 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into cell painting — a high-content imaging technique that biotech startups are using to profile drug mechanisms, predict toxicity, and accelerate hit-to-lead decisions. Lucas explains how automated microscopy and machine learning turn thousands of cellular images into a 'morphological fingerprint' for each compound. Luna asks about scalability and...

Base editing is a newer gene-editing technology that can change a single DNA letter without cutting the double helix. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how biotech startups are applying base editing to treat genetic diseases like sickle cell disease and progeria. They discuss the story of Beam Therapeutics, the first company to take a base editor into clinical trials, and contrast base editi...

Episode 35 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into the world of liquid biopsies — blood tests that detect tumor DNA before symptoms appear. Lucas and Luna discuss how startups like Guardant Health and Grail are driving this technology, the science of circulating tumor DNA, and why regulatory shifts in 2026 are accelerating adoption. They also explore the economics: how liquid biopsies could cu...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the science and business behind antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), a targeted cancer therapy that combines monoclonal antibodies with potent chemotherapy. They unpack the case of Enhertu, an ADC developed by Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca, which has shown remarkable efficacy in HER2-positive cancers. The hosts discuss how ADCs work like 'guided missiles' for c...

Episode 33 of Biotech Business with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna dive into the emerging field of personalized cancer vaccines. They focus on a specific case: how the startup Neon Therapeutics (now part of BioNTech) developed a neoantigen vaccine pipeline using AI to predict which mutations on a patient's tumor are most likely to trigger an immune response. The hosts walk through the key number: a phase...

Episode 32 of Biotech Business with Fexingo dives into adaptive clinical trial designs — a statistical approach that lets biotech startups modify trial parameters mid-study based on interim data. Lucas and Luna explore how this flexibility saves time and money, using the example of a mid-stage oncology trial that cut enrollment by 40% without sacrificing statistical power. They discuss Bayesian vs...

In this episode of Biotech Business, Lucas and Luna explore how biotech startups are beginning to leverage quantum computing to accelerate drug discovery. They discuss the specific problem quantum computers are good at — simulating molecular interactions that classical computers struggle with — and highlight real companies like Menten AI and ProteinQure that are already running quantum chemistry c...

For decades, drug manufacturing has been done in batches — a slow, expensive process that adds billions to healthcare costs. But a growing number of biotech startups are switching to continuous manufacturing, where ingredients flow through a closed system 24/7, producing drugs faster, cheaper, and more consistently. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how continuous manufacturing works, why th...