Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textDr. Nigel McCracken, Ph.D. is Chief Operating Officer of Virax Biolabs ( https://www.viraxbiolabs.com/ ), an innovative diagnostics and detection biotech company developing a game-changing T-Cell immunology technology platform to provide early diagnosis for post viral syndromes, and indications associated with chronic inflammation and T cell exhaustion, to enable early treatment interventions. Dr. McCracken brings over 25 years of research & development experience in drug development, within a number of indications, including oncology and infectious disease. Prior to joining Virax, Dr. McCracken was the Chief Scientific Officer at BerGenBio AsA where he drove the plan for BerGenBio AsA’s companion diagnostics and assay development. Prior to that role, he served as COO at NuCana PLC, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on significantly improving treatment outcomes for patients with cancer, where he provided oversight and direction to the operations of the business, research and development and execution of corporate strategy. Dr. McCracken also spent time over his career at major biopharma companies including Debiopharma, Shire, Nycomed, and Abbott. Dr. McCracken obtained a Master’s degree in Clinical Pharmacology from Kings College London, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biochemical Toxicology from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Pharmacology from Strathclyde University. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Josh Denny, M.D., M.S., is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program ( https://allofus.nih.gov/about/who-we-are/joshua-denny ), an initiative that seeks to enroll at least one million diverse participants to build an indispensable resource that accelerates precision medicine for all populations. Dr. Denny has been involved since the program’s inception when he was a member of the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the Director ( https://allofus.nih.gov/about/who-we-are/pmi-working-group-advisory-committee-director ), which developed the program’s initial scientific blueprint and he then led the program’s initial prototyping project and the All of Us Data and Research Center. He was named CEO of All of Us in January 2020. Before joining NIH, Dr. Denny was a practicing physician and held several leadership positions at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, including professor of biomedical informatics and medicine, founding director of the Center for Precision Medicine, and vice president for personalized medicine. At Vanderbilt, he led discovery and implementation projects in precision medicine, including clinical pharmacogenomics and Vanderbilt’s DNA biobank. He was a pioneer in the use of electronic health records for genomics studies, including the initial descriptions of phenome‐wide association studies and phenotype risk scores. Dr. Denny is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the American College of Medical Informatics. Dr. Denny has a Medical Degree, and a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Informatics, from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Support the show

Send us a textJerry McLaughlin is Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Life Biosciences, Inc. ( https://www.lifebiosciences.com/ ), a private biotechnology company dedicated to developing novel therapies to extend healthy human lifespan, pursuing a platform approach to develop therapeutics that can prevent, treat, and/or reverse multiple aging-related conditions. Jerry has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has been involved in the discovery, clinical development, and global commercialization of more than a dozen FDA- approved drugs with multiple successful exits. Most recently, Jerry was President and CEO for Neos Therapeutics, Inc., a commercial stage pharmaceutical company. Before that, he served as president and CEO of AgeneBio, Inc., a clinical-stage private biopharma company developing therapies for neurological and psychiatric diseases. Earlier, he held the role of senior vice president & chief commercial officer at NuPathe Inc., acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals in 2014. Jerry began his career at Merck and was extensively involved in multiple blockbuster product launches. He holds a BA in economics from Dickinson College and an MBA from the Villanova School of Business. Support the show

Send us a textChristina Tobin is an activist and leader in the election reform and voters’ rights movements. She is the founder and chair of the Free & Equal Elections Foundation ( https://freeandequal.org/ ), and president and chief executive officer of Free & Equal, Inc. Tobin’s non-profit the Free & Equal Elections Foundation leads national, state and local efforts to open the electoral process in the United States by hosting open all-inclusive gubernatorial, Presidential and senatorial debates; organizing Electoral Reform Symposiums; producing United We Stand tours uniting the younger generations with musicians, artists, and thought leaders to promote political and cultural change; supporting individuals running for office; and creating a blockchain election assistant app to promote transparency and empower voters with information about all their candidate choices. Tobin started her career as a non-partisan ballot access coordinator under her ballot access and petitioning company Free & Equal, Inc. An expert in defending signatures and coordinating petition drives, Tobin helped gather and defend millions of signatures for the Green Party, Constitution Party, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Libertarian Party, Socialist Equality Party and independents. In 2008, Tobin served as Ralph Nader’s national ballot access coordinator. She helped coordinate more than 500,000 signatures to put Ralph Nader on the District of Columbia ballot and 45 state presidential ballots, more than any other third party or independent candidate. Throughout her life, Tobin has brought people of different backgrounds together, as her life’s mission is to spread unity, peace, and opportunity by reforming the electoral process. She earned her B.A. from Saint Mary’s University in Winona, Minnesota where she served as varsity tennis captain and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Elizabeth Garner, MD, MPH, ( https://ferringusa.com/?team=elizabeth-garner-md-mph ) is Chief Scientific Officer, U.S., Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group committed to helping people around the world build families and live better lives. Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and maternal health, as well as in specialty areas within gastroenterology and urology, including microbiome therapeutics and orthopedics, and has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 years. Dr. Garner has broad responsibilities for U.S. Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, Project Planning and Regulatory Affairs. Dr. Garner has nearly 30 years of experience in medicine and industry. Prior to joining Ferring in 2022, she held chief medical officer roles for ObsEva, a biotechnology company focused on women’s health, and Agile Therapeutics, a women’s healthcare company in the contraceptive space. Earlier, she held leadership roles in medical affairs at Myriad Genetics Laboratories and clinical development at Abbott Laboratories and Merck Research Laboratories. Dr. Garner holds a medical degree from Harvard Medical School and has practiced in obstetrics, gynecology, gynecologic oncology, and internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition, she holds a master’s degree in public health from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in music from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Dr. Garner is a member of the Boards of Directors (BOD) of Kezar Life Sciences (KZR), a publicly traded company developing novel therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, Sermonix Pharmaceuticals, which is developing targeted therapies for breast cancer, and is also on the board of Medicines360, a non-profit pharma company. She also serves on the BOD, and is President of, the American Medical Women’s Association ( https://www.amwa-doc.org/about-amwa/leadership/ ), whose mission is to advance women in medicine, advocate for equity, and ensure excellence in health care. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Wade Blair, Ph.D. is Head of Virology and Vaccine Discovery, Vaccines and Immune Therapies, at AstraZeneca ( https://www.astrazeneca.com/ ). Dr. Blair did his Ph.D. in Microbiology at University of California, Irvine - College of Medicine, did Postdoctoral Research at Duke University in HIV, and has held positions of increasing responsibility across both therapeutic and vaccine domains, including positions at both major pharma companies like BMS, Pfizer, Merck, Gilead and Genentech, as well as some smaller biotech companies. Over his impressive career, Dr. Blair contributed to the discovery and/or development of several approved drugs and molecules in late-stage clinical trials, including the HIV protease inhibitor atazanavir; the HIV non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor doravirine; the HIV attachment inhibitor fostemsavir; the HIV capsid inhibitor lenacapavir; and letermovir, a treatment for cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Rolland Carlson, PhD, is Chief Executive Officer of Immunexpress, Inc. ( https://immunexpress.com/company-overview/ ), a Seattle-based molecular diagnostic company committed to improving outcomes for patients suspected of having sepsis. Immunexpress' FDA cleared SeptiCyte™ technology rapidly quantifies, directly from whole blood, specific molecular markers from the patient's own immune system – the 'host response'. SeptiCyte™ LAB, is the first of its kind in using the host immune system to differentiate systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and sepsis. Detecting the host's response to infection has the potential to differentiate infection earlier, faster and more accurately than finding the invading pathogen because it is independent of whether or not the pathogen is present in the sample. Dr. Carlson brings over 25 years of global commercial, business development, new product development and general management experience in biotechnology. Dr. Carlson most recently served as President and CEO of WaferGen Biosystems, genomic analysis company; prior to that he was President and CEO of Asuragen, a privately-held molecular diagnostic company; and prior to joining Asuragen, Dr. Carlson held increasingly senior positions at Abbott Laboratories over a 20-year period, including Vice President and General Manager of the Vysis molecular diagnostic business following its acquisition. In this role, he was wholly responsible for P&L; he tripled sales with a five-fold increase in profit; created and drove the commercialization strategy for UroVysion, one of the most successful oncology product introductions in the U.S. IVD market over the past 10 years. In previous positions, he was responsible for business development, licensing and strategic planning to establish new pharmaceutical and diagnostic platforms for the pediatric and women's health channels of the Ross Division of Abbott, and ran Abbott's global custom biopharmaceutical and specialty generics pharmaceutical business. Dr. Carlson graduated with Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Physiology from Southern Illinois University and was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Research Institute, Ft. Pierce Florida. Support the show

Send us a textSaed Nuh Ahmed, MPH, B.Pharm. is Chairman of the Medicines Regulatory Authority, Ministry of Health Development (MoHD), of Somaliland ( https://mohd.govsomaliland.org/ ) and National COVID-19 Vaccination Coordinator. Saed has also served a a member of the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Commission of the International Pharmaceutical Federation ( https://www.fip.org/antimicrobial-resistance ). Saed has his M.Sc. in Public Health (MPH) - Epidemiology, from Amoud University, Hargeisa, Somaliland, his B.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, from International University of Africa, Khartoum, Sudan, and has spent over a decade working as a public health professional with a focus on epidemiology, vaccination programs, and regulatory affairs. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Sofiya Milman, MD, MS ( https://www.einsteinmed.edu/faculty/12865/sofiya-milman/ ) is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Geriatrics, and is the Director of Human Longevity Studies at the Institute for Aging Research, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Milman’s research focuses on a unique population of centenarians and their families ( https://www.superagersstudy.org/ ) who are generally free of age-related diseases, where extreme healthy longevity runs in most of these families, suggesting a heritable basis for this phenomenon. Dr. Milman's team conducts translational research focused on the discovery of genomic mechanisms that regulate endocrine and metabolic pathways that protect against common age-related diseases, like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's. Dr. Milman became fascinated by both physiology and genetics during her college years and at SUNY Stonybrook School of Medicine, from which she received her medical degree. Following internal medicine residency and fellowship in endocrinology, both at Montefiore, the opportunity arose to combine her passions for physiology and genetics through work with Dr. Nir Barzilai, MD, Director of Institute for Aging Research, the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Biology of Aging, and of the Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging at Einstein. During her two years of post-doctoral training in translational gerontology and genetics at Einstein’s Institute for Aging Research under Dr. Barzilai’s mentorship, she got hooked on the study of aging and found what has become her life’s work. Support the show

Send us a textPete O’Heeron, MSHA, is the CEO of FibroBiologics ( https://fibrobiologics.com/ ), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing fibroblast cell-based therapies for patients suffering from chronic diseases. Mr. O’Heeron has over 25 years of medical technology and biotech development experience and brings together the resources necessary to commercialize unique technologies with expertise from business start-ups and biologics, to medical devices and patient centered healthcare delivery. Prior to founding FibroBiologics, Mr. O’Heeron founded an operational investment group, Advanced Medical Technologies, LLC, that identified early-stage opportunities in the medical field with strong intellectual property potential. He also founded NeoSurg Technologies that developed the T2000 Minimally Invasive Access System. The sale of NeoSurg Technologies to Cooper Surgical occurred in 2006. Mr. O’Heeron brings decades of executive-level experience at Christus Health Care Corporation and strategic advisory to healthcare companies in the areas of biologics, advanced surgical instrumentation, and telemedicine to the company along with an academic foundation rooted in healthcare administration. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Healthcare Administration at Texas State University, his Masters in Healthcare Administration from the University of Houston Clear Lake, and his Executive Management Certification in Mergers and Acquisition from University of Chicago. Support the show