Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Cameron Durrant, Chairman and CEO, Humanigen explains the condition called cytokine storm and how their research into GMCSF, the master switch of the cytokine storm, has led to the development of the drug lenzilumab, LENZ, that neutralizes GMCSF. Adding LENZ to Remdesivir has shown promising results in early clinical trials and Humanigen recently announced they have signed an agreement with the National Institutes of Health to test LENZ in a larger trial in the search for a therapeutic for COVID-19. @humanigen #cytokinestorm #COVID19 #LENZ #Remdesivir #NIH Humanigen.com Download the transcript here

Dietrich Stephan PhD, CEO, NeuBase Therapeutics discusses the history of research into the genetic basis of all diseases, NeuBase's PATrOL™ platform allowing for intelligent design of drugs that engage with a malfunctioning gene, and the company's therapies in development for Huntington's disease and myotonic dystrophy, which Dr. Stephan describes as "heat seeking missiles" because they are so specific and targeted to the broken gene of interest. @NeuBaseinc #RareDisease #GeneSilencing #HuntingtonsDisease #DM1 $NBSE NeuBaseTherapeutics.com Download the transcript here.

John Dimos, CEO, Fountain Therapeutics describes their approach to the treatment of age-associated diseases and points out that there is a big difference between chronological and biological age. In the search for finding a way to intervene in the aging process, Fountain is taking a hypothesis-free approach and with the aid of artificial intelligence, they are looking at cells holistically to find potential therapeutics that make old cells look and act more like young cells. @FountainTX #aging #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #DrugDiscovery #AgingTherapeutics #DiseasesofAging FountainTX.com Download the transcript here  

Anne Whitaker, CEO, Aerami Therapeutics talks about imatinib their inhaled treatment for the rare disease pulmonary arterial hypertension which could potentially be the first therapy on the market to actually reverse the disease.  First approved as a cancer therapy, imatinib stops the progression of the stiffening and thickening of the blood vessels in the lungs and is delivered using a breath-activated, Bluetooth enabled, hand-held nebulizer device delivering the drug centrally in the lung and in the peripheral area. @aeramiTx #inhaledtherapies #RespiratoryDiseases #PulmonaryArterialHypertension #PAH #imatinib Aerami.com Download the transcript here

Apostolos Stathopoulos, CEO, ERC-Belgium talks about using immunotherapy to treat glioblastoma, the most malignant of all gliomas or brain cancers.  ERC's therapy, which stimulates the patient's immune system to mount an immune response against the tumor cells, has demonstrated a clinically meaningful survival benefit with minimal toxicity and unprecedented regressions of this deadly disease. #ERC #immunotherapy #glioblastoma #cancer ERC-Immunotherapy.com Download the transcript here  

Ayla Annac, CEO and Co-Founder, InvivoSciences shines light on the next generation of precision medicine and explains how IVS is personalizing the drug development process with patient-derived and gene-edited human samples.  The company's Novel Heart Tissue on a chip platform NuHeart™ enables rapid identification of the safety and efficacy profile of a given treatment for a specific patient group.  IVS is saving time and money in developing new therapies while increasing the success rate of approval for cardio safe therapies. #COVID19 #ChronicHeartFailure InvivoSciences.com Download the transcript here  

Mel Kaspin Blume is a copywriter and storyteller and the author of Screens, Beans and Quarantines, a free downloadable children's book addressing the questions kids have about the impact of COVID-19.  With a six year old daughter and three year old son, Mel decided to make up a story to help parents open up the conversation with their kids about the changes in their lives.  Mel also shares how her previous work as Head of Copy at Disney Consumer Products informs her ability to get the attention of both kids and parents with relevant short and snappy dialogue. #COVID19 OnceUponABlume.com Download the transcript here

Pascal Descargues PhD, Founder and CEO, Genoskin talks about bringing the only living injectable human platform to the market to enable clinical testing of drugs for efficacy and toxicity by biotech and pharmaceutical companies. Their standardized platform uses real human skin tissue to test the consequences of drugs administered topically or injected in the skin. Currently Genoskin is also looking at using their platform to test the immunological signature induced by a COVID-19 vaccine candidate to predict if a vaccine can be effective. @genoskin #genoskin #skin #drugtesting #vaccines #clinicaltesting Genoskin.com Download the transcript here.  

Jens Hennecke, Chief Business Officer, SOTIO explains how this biotech company is developing the next generation of immunotherapies with a focus on a new compound called SO-C101 based on the cytokine IL-15, the key cytokine that activates T-cells and NK cells. In clinical trials, this drug, a modified IL-15 does not cause unwanted side effects like similar products to treat solid tumors and is a superagonist with a much better potency to activate memory T-cells, cytotoxic T-cells and NK cells. #SOTIO #immunotherapies #IL15 SOTIO.com Download the transcript here  

Steven M. Fruchtman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Onconova Therapeutics discusses Rigosertib, a drug that has the potential to downregulate the RAS pathway, the most commonly mutated gene in cancer. Rigosertib is a proprietary phase 3 small molecule, currently being evaluated in second-line treatment of patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and refractory higher-risk MDS patients. Also known as pre-leukemia, MDS is a cancer of the bone marrow stem cell and the mission of Onconova is to prolong the lives of those suffering from this disease. @Onconova_ONTX #cancer #oncology #RAS #MDS #PreLeukemia #Leukemia $ONTX Onconova.com Download the transcript here