Hopkins Biotech Podcast

Elias Davis is Principal at Kli Capital , a generalist venture capital firm based out of New York City with a focus on investing in early-stage companies. Prior to joining Kli Capital, Elias interned at Pfizer in a computational chemistry group, worked as a Summer Analyst at Credit Suisse , founded a medical-oriented social network, served as a Product Manager at Google , and coordinated strategic...

Max Tejada, PhD is Senior Director at Kite Pharma , an American biotech company and subsidiary of Gilead Sciences that develops cancer immunotherapies with a primary focus on genetically engineered adoptive T-cell therapies called CAR-T therapies. Dr. Tejada broke into the private sector by landing an industry postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech i n the lab of Dr. Napoleone Ferrara , who is widel...

Ernesto Chanona, PhD  is Senior Manager in the Office of BioHealth and Life Sciences at the Maryland Department of Commerce , which fosters growth of life sciences business in the state of Maryland through a host of initiatives. Ernesto helps connect various institutions (NIH, biotech/pharma companies, etc.), individuals (inventors, entrepreneurs, etc.), and investors to facilitate economic develo...

Dr. Janice Logan, PhD, JD is an alumna of the Johns Hopkins PhD program in Biomedical Engineering and Partner at Morgan Lewis , a prominent law firm that serves a wide range of clients including more than three-quarters of Fortune 100 companies. In this episode, we talk about various requirements and challenges related to successfully patenting insights in biomedical research and drug development...

Evan Guggenheim, PhD is Executive Director & Head of Research Operations at Sana Biotechnology , a startup dedicated to developing stem cell therapies and methods for in vivo delivery of gene therapy components to treat a variety of diseases. Prior to joining Sana, Evan worked as a Scientist at a sequencing company called Intelligent Bio-Systems ( acquired by Qiagen in 2012 ) as well as at the...

Roshni Rao, PhD is Director of the PHutures Office at Johns Hopkins University , where she works with PhDs and postdocs to supplement academic training with coaching in translational and relational skills that are essential for preparedness in various industries. Roshni is a fantastic resource to turn to and we strongly encourage students at Johns Hopkins to contact her at the PHutures Office for...

Lauren Lee, Ph. D is an Associate at Solasta Ventures , the U.S. subsidiary of South Korean venture capital firm Aju IB that focuses on investments in therapeutics and life science companies. We chat about how she merged her dual interests in science and finance, advanced projects at Onyx Pharmaceuticals ( acquired by Amgen in 2013 ), and helps biotech/pharmaceutical startups grow at Solasta Ventu...

Bernat Navarro-Serer is the Eastern Hub Co-Chair of the National Science Policy Network (NSPN), a non-profit organization that equips scientists with the skills and collaborations that they need to effectively influence public policy. He also serves as Social Media Chair for the Johns Hopkins Science Policy Group, a chapter of NSPN that unites graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, healthcar...

Sam Hong, Ph. D is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Rapafusyn Pharmaceuticals, a pre-clinical stage startup developing macrocycle-based therapeutics for treatment of various disease indications. The company is also a commercial spinout of research conducted in the lab of Dr. Jun Liu at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where Sam conducted his doctoral thesis. We chat about his journey from...

We discuss that familiar career question, "academia or industry?" as well as introduce the goals of the podcast and backgrounds of the hosts. Join us in subsequent episodes for interviews with guests from a diverse array of private sector life science industries (pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, consulting, venture capital, science policy, etc.) that model viable career paths for students...