The Bio Report

The DDR pathway plays a critical role in repairing DNA damage in healthy cells that would otherwise cause mutations or cell death. When this pathway is altered and becomes unable to repair this damage, mutated cells can grow out of control and become cancerous. They can also be more resistant to standard chemotherapies and radiation. Aprea Therapeutics is developing therapies to target mutations in genes in this pathway to treat certain cancers.  We spoke to Oren Gilad, president and CEO of Aprea Therapeutics about the DDR pathway, the use of so-called synthetic lethality to treat these cancers, and why Aprea’s approach may result in safer and more targeted therapies. Editor's note: We are have deleted out the original post because there were problems with the file and have reposted the interview here.

Nearly 70 percent of patients with chronic conditions fail to take their medicines as prescribed. This can lead to poor outcomes and greater healthcare costs. Vivani Medical, which has developed implantable drug delivery technology, said it can provide steady drug release for up to six months with a single implant. This not only can address the problem of non-compliance, but can also reduce side effects associated with fluctuating drug release from conventional delivery methods. We spoke to Adam Mendelsohn, CEO of Vivani Medical, about its implantable drug delivery technology, how it works, and why its lead indication is a GLP-1 implant for weight loss and diabetes.

Lincoln Nadauld, president and CEO of Culmination Bio, leads a company aimed at harnessing the potential of extensive patient data. He discusses the challenges in accessing longitudinal biological and clinical data for drug development. The conversation highlights how partnerships are enhancing diagnostics and therapies with advanced genomic insights. Nadauld also shares insights on revolutionary blood-based cancer diagnostics and the power of real-world data to improve medication accuracy and reduce healthcare costs.

NAMPT is a critical enzyme that regulates how cells use energy. It can also play an important role in the ability of cancer cells to survive, grow, and spread. While it’s been recognized as a potential target to treat certain cancers, developing NAMPT inhibitors have been challenging because they can disrupt energy metabolism in healthy cells. Remedy Plan Therapeutics believes it’s overcome the challenges of NAMPT inhibition by a unique mechanism of action that can avoid the problem of toxicity. We spoke to Greg Crimmins, founder and CEO of Remedy Plan Therapeutics, about the role of NAMPT in cancer, the challenges of developing NAMPT inhibitors without toxicity, and why he believes the company has solved the problem.

The emergence of CRISPR, a powerful tool for gene editing, promises to correct devastating genetic diseases, but it also raises concerns about how it will be used and who will make those decisions. Neal Baer, in his new book “The Promise and Peril of CRISPR,” brings together a series of essays by bioethicists, geneticists, and others who explore ethical and policy considerations raised by the technology. We spoke to Baer, co-director of the master’s degree program in Media, Medicine, and Health at Harvard Medical School; about whether there are unique questions raised by CRISPR as a dual-use technology, the book’s recasting of the case of Chinese scientist He Jiankui, and why he thinks there needs to be public debate now over the use of the technology to make heritable changes to the genome.

In a captivating conversation, Elise de Reus, co-founder of Cradle Bio, delves into how generative AI is revolutionizing protein engineering. She explains how this innovative tech accelerates the development of biotherapeutics and sustainable industrial processes. Elise discusses the challenges of optimizing protein properties and the iterative design process with AI. With $33 million raised in funding, she shares ambitious plans for advancing AI in protein design, promising to reshape the future of biotechnology.

With the emergence of GLP-1 agonists to treat obesity, there has been growing interest in the use of peptide-based medicines. Protagonist Therapeutics has developed technology that can take these target specific and potent therapies and allow them to be delivered orally. The company has a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson for an oral peptide that blocks the IL-23 receptor that’s in development to treat psoriasis and ulcerative colitis. We spoke to Dinesh Patel, CEO of Protagonist, about the company’s platform technology, the benefits of orally delivered peptide therapies, and where he sees the biggest opportunities for this approach.

While there have been a parade of novel therapeutic modalities in recent years, many of them are constrained by delivery challenges. Vesigen Therapeutics is developing novel drug delivery technology known as ARMMs that can transport a wide range of therapeutic payloads directly into the cytoplasm of target cells. We spoke to Paulash Mohsen, CEO of Vesigen, about the company’s delivery technology, its advantages over viral vectors and liquid nanoparticles, and how it enables the targeting of previously undruggable targets.

The body has a natural mechanism for breaking down and clearing proteins. Arvinas is among a group of companies that’s seeking to harness this mechanism for therapeutic purposes. It has platform technology that enables the development of targeted protein degraders to breakdown disease-causing proteins. Among the benefits of this approach is that it offers a way to target so-called undruggable proteins that conventional drugs are not able to bind with in a strong enough way. We spoke to Randy Teel, chief business officer and interim chief financial officer of Arvinas, about protein degradation, its evolution as a therapeutic strategy, and the range of indications the company is pursuing.

The traditional approach to treating autoimmune disease has relied on ways to suppress the immune system. COUR Pharmaceuticals is developing first-in-class therapies that instead seek to reprogram the immune system to create antigen-specific tolerance. We spoke to COUR CEO John Puisis and COUR Vice President of Research Adam Elhofy, about how the company’s immune-modifying nanoparticles work, how the approach preserves the immune response, and its partnership with Takeda focused on celiac disease.