The Big4Bio Podcast

Cellarity is transforming drug discovery by seeking to understand health and disease at a cellular level rather than looking for molecular targets for medicines. The company is harnessing a confluence of technologies to understand cellular changes that underlie disease and develop medicines that can restore them to healthy function. It now has programs in metabolic disease, hematology, immune-onco...

The Biotech Showcase has grown into a central part of the start to the new year in biotech as investors and industry executives gather in San Francisco to meet each January. This year’s event, which will be a hybrid live and virtual conference, offers a rich agenda and once again includes the China Showcase, the Seed Showcase, and the Digital Medicine & Medtech Showcase. We spoke to Sara Demy, fou...

Many life sciences companies lack the internal expertise to ensure employees are safe, labs are compliant, and operations run smoothly. Safety Partners leverages the science backgrounds of its team to deliver environmental health and safety programs customized to meet the needs of its life sciences partners across Massachusetts and New York. We spoke to Jennifer Reilly, president and COO of Safety...

As the ability to harness DNA extends well beyond medicine to agriculture and industry, the demand for synthetic DNA to drive the new bioeconomy is growing rapidly. The problem is that the traditional method of chemical synthesis of DNA hasn’t changed much since it was first developed about 30 years ago and presents limits on the length of oligonucleotides that can be created. Molecular Assemblies...

Respiratory syncytial virus is the leading cause of infant hospitalization in the United States and a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults. The virus causes more than 118,000 deaths per year and more than 3 million hospitalizations in children under the age of five. While many pharmaceutical companies have sought to develop a vaccine against RSV, it’s been an elusive target...

Efforts to respond to the growing need for innovative medicines to combat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections have often centered on the search for novel antibiotics. Venatorx Pharmaceuticals, though, has taken a different tack. The company is developing combination therapies that marry a long-approved, broad-spectrum antibiotic with a second compound designed to inhibit the mechanism resist...

When the biotech industry gathers in San Francisco for the annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference week in January, people will be closely watching dealmaking activity, who potential acquirers may be, and what targets they may hope to pick off in the year ahead. We spoke to Krist Werling, partner with the law firm McDermott Will & Emery, about the environment for life sciences dealmaking, who has th...