Transcribed

Welcome back to Transcribed, the podcast where we unpack the minds building the future of biotech. Today's guest, Professor Dr. Kerstin Goepfrich, is asking one of the most fundamental questions in all of science: what is life, and can we build it from scratch? As a full professor at Heidelberg University and group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, she is one of the world's...

After four decades at the intersection of science, industry, and strategy — from the DKFZ bench to 14 years in pharma R&D to two decades writing the EY Biotech Report — Dr. Siegfried Bialojan has watched German biotech ask the same question for 25 years: why doesn't the money show up? In this episode, he explains why Germany has never built a venture capital culture, the Strüngmann bet on...

From starting and selling companies across three continents to backing the next wave of European biotech, Dr. Andreas Schmidt now sits at the intersection of founder, operator, and investor. In this episode, he explains why "venture capital is the most expensive money" and when founders should reach for it last, what most investors miss when evaluating early-stage biotech, and the "...

As managing director of BioRN, Dr. Julia Schaft sits at the center of one of Europe's most powerful biotech ecosystems — connecting world-class research institutions, startups, and 9 of the top 20 global pharma companies within the Heidelberg region. In this episode, she unpacks why Europe keeps losing biotech companies to the US, how Germany's risk-averse culture holds back innovation, an...

From dreaming of becoming a pilot to engineering proteins with light, Prof. Dr. Dominik Niopek sits at the cutting edge of programmable biology — building tools that let scientists control gene editing with a laser beam. In this episode, he walks us through how CRISPR went from a test tube experiment to an FDA-approved therapy in just 12 years, why humanoid robots might soon asist PhD students at...

Abdelrahman Mahmoud explains how his company CellRewire is building AI architectures that can predict disease onset years before symptoms appear and computationally reprogram diseased cells back to healthy states. The conversation spans the fundamentals of single-cell genomics, why existing foundation models in biology have underdelivered, and how reinforcement learning agents can compress decades...

Dr. Volker Stadler, CEO of PEPperPRINT, explains how his Heidelberg-based company uses a modified laser printer to synthesize peptide microarrays — a technology that maps how the immune system responds to viruses, vaccines, and autoimmune conditions with amino-acid-level precision. The conversation covers PEPperPRINT's pivotal role during the early days of COVID-19, the realities of bootstrapp...

Dr. Axel Schumacher recounts how he pioneered the epigenetic microarray assay technology — a breakthrough that allows scientists to measure DNA methylation patterns across the entire genome, something a famous professor once told him would be impossible for 50 years. The conversation dives deep into epigenetic clocks, biological aging, and the tantalizing possibility of reversing aging altogether....

Professor Patrick Most traces the 25-year journey from discovering a molecule that enhances heart contractility during his doctoral thesis, through founding two biotech startups, to his current company Aavigen's mission to deliver the first cardiac gene therapy via a simple intravenous injection by end of 2027. A masterclass in how academic scientists can navigate the path from lab bench to cl...

Dr. Christian Tidona, founder and CEO of BioMed X, shares his journey from a PhD in virology to building one of Heidelberg's most innovative biotech research institutes — without taking a single euro of venture capital. He reveals the hard-won lessons from a failed first startup with striking parallels to the Theranos scandal, the critical role of trust and mentors, and why Heidelberg's wa...