BioVenture VoiCes with Chris Garabedian

Christoph Westphal, a biotech pioneer and founder of Longwood Fund, shares his inspiring journey from an immigrant background to leading venture capital in the biotech arena. He discusses the challenges and rewards of founding companies like Momenta and Alnylam. Westphal emphasizes the vital role of collaboration in the Boston biotech ecosystem and the importance of resilience in tough economic times. He also highlights the critical components for biotech success and reflects on the balance between professional ambition and community engagement.

Jory Bell shares the details of his expansive educational background and early career, which included being a product designer at Apple during the return of Steve Jobs. He describes Playground's engineering and tech angle to investing in life sciences, and weighs in on sizable seed and pre-seed investments the industry has seen lately that get startups to a proof of concept.

Tiba Aynechi, a General Partner at Norwest Venture Partners with over 20 years in biotech, shares her fascinating career journey entirely centered in the Bay Area. She reflects on her early days in business development, the thrill of the genomics revolution, and her transition from academia to venture capital without formal training. Topics include innovative biotech investments like iRhythm's ECG technology, the impact of extended remote health monitoring on patient care, and the vital relationship between data quality and funding success in the industry.

Josh Resnick describes his career path, which includes working on the venture side of both private funds and pharma (Merck). He explains the different investment strategies of RA Capital, and talks about how the firm's Raven company building incubator fits in. Plus, his thoughts on venture investing in the current environment.

Steve Tregay describes his career path, including how early roles at Array BioPharma and Novartis led him to found Forma Therapeutics. He describes the founding and growth of LabCentral, for which he is still the chairman today, and how getting a look at entrepreneurs at such an early stage naturally led to the investment work that he and his partners do at Mission BioCapital.

Joe Jimenez describes the career path in consumer products that led him to pharma, his time running Novartis, and the idea to co-found Aditum Bio with his partner Mark Fishman. He explains Aditum's investment philosophy, and why they like focusing on translational medicine opportunities that are just heading into the clinic. Plus, his thoughts on making R&D more efficient.

Shahram describes his upbringing as a refugee from Iran, his early career in law and banking, and how his initial experience in the tech industry has benefitted his eye towards life sciences. He recalls founding Civilization Ventures with an initial $1M fund, and talks about what it has quickly grown into today, Plus, his take on AI and the current state of tech bio.

A General Partner at Flagship Pioneering, Avak describes his upbringing and studies in the Middle East and Montreal, Canada, working in industry at Helicos, and co-founding companies at Flagship since 2011. He discusses Flagship's unique platform of company building and innovation.

A Partner at Pillar VC, Tony describes his start at MIT, founding the MIT BioMakerspace, his work at Petri, being an early supporter of Nucleate, and his philosophy of not being overly influenced by what is in vogue today.

The Co-Founder and Operating Chairman of Curie.Bio, and serial entrepreneur, shares experiences from his early life, CombinatoRx, Foundation Medicine, Third Rock, EQRx and more.