Beyond Biotech - the podcast from Labiotech

Is there a connection between worms being eradicated from the gut in the early 20th Century and an increase in allergies and autoimmune disease?  This week, we have a conversation with Holoclara CEO Andrea Choe, who not only believes there is a connection, but also sees secretions from worms as a way to tackle such diseases. 01:31-06:05: About Holoclara 06:06-08:26: From discovery to setting up a company 08:26-10:40: Was this a symbiotic relationship? 10:40-12:30: As we are losing species for a variety of reasons, are there other species that may also be beneficial? 12:30-14:03: What are roundworms secreting? 14:03-15:28: How do you take these secretions and advance that to creating a drug?15:28-15:44: Do you need the worms to make your product? 15:44-16:02: What conditions are you looking to address?16:02-16:43: Are you looking to cures or disease maintenance?16:43-16:58: How far down the path are you with this? 16:58-17:26: How important are partnerships and investment? 17:26-18:12: What is reaction like to the concept of using worms to tackle diseases? 18:12-19:25: What are the next steps? 19:25-20:44: Are there other cures to be discovered from other species?Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

Jennifer Schranz is senior vice president and global head of rare diseases in the R&D division at Ipsen. On the podcast this week, she discusses a breakthrough treatment for primary biliary cholerangitis and cholestatic liver disease.00:56-00:49: Background information 01:44-03:21: What are primary biliary cholerangitis (PBC) and cholestatic liver disease? 03:21-03:50: How rare is PBC? 03:50-04:45: How easy is PBC diagnosis? 04:45-05:45: What are the current treatments for the condition? 05:45-07:22: What are the challenges to innovation? 07:22-08:27: What is elafibranor? 08:27-08:37: How is it administered? 08:37-09:18: Is elafibranor taken for life? 09:18-11:08: What is the ELATIVE trial, and what were the results you presented at the AASLD Liver Meeting? 11:08-13:09: What was the reaction at the meeting? 13:09-13:55: A patient-centric approach 13:55-14:44: Is a cure for PBC a possibility? 14:44-17:20: How important are acquisitions to Ipsen’s pipeline? 17:20-18:33: Working on multiple diseases 18:33-19:58: How much impact can you have on liver diseases? 19:58-21:04: What are the next steps for elafibranor? Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

On this week’s podcast we have a conversation with Jordi Mata-Fink, co-founder and chief executive officer of the newly-launched U.S. company Gate Bioscience.00:45-01:06: About Gate Bioscience 01:06-02:09: What are disease-causing extracellular proteins?02:09-04:44: How have diseases caused by extracellular proteins been treated in the past? 04:44-05:47: Have there been diseases that haven’t been addressed? 05:47-07:05: Tackling the different issues created by extracellular proteins 07:05-09:41: What are molecular gates? 09:41-12:56: How does your technique distinguish between good and bad extracellular proteins?12:56-16:24: How did the idea become a company?16:24-17:24: Which diseases will you focus on?17:24-18;47: How do you address costs? 18:47-19:11: How will this be given to patients?19:11-20:01: Disease cure or disease management? 20:01-21:35: How was the company created? 21:35-24:18: The rise of small molecules24:18-25:58: What are the next steps?Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

Among other things, UK-headquartered company Phenotypeca has been working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to produce albumin for low and middle-income countries to reduce the costs of vaccines.The company’s CEO, Johnny Cordiner, and research and development director, Professor Ed Louis, tell us about the work, as well as the company and its other projects.01:01-11:57: About Phenotypeca 11:57-14:04: What is recombinant protein technology? 14:04-16:39: What are the issues around the cost of albumin? 16:39-20:48: How can you help improve affordability? 20:48-26:55: What is QTL technology? 26:55-30:18: What are the benefits of this technology? 30:19-34:22: Partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation 34:22-36:37: What’s the timeline? 36:37-39:45: What else are you working on?Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

French company CellProthera has seen some remarkable results treating people who have had a heart attack.  On this week’s podcast, the company’s CEO Matthieu de Kalbermatten tells us how it works.01:00-03:29: About CellProthera03:30-06:30: What are ProtheraCytes?06:30-09:02: Is this a cure?09:02-10:24: Is prevention the best option?10:25-11:49: Is this therapy useful to treat other conditions?11:50-13:55: How quickly do you need to treat a patient?13:56-16:39: The field of regenerative therapy16:39-17:52: Is regenerative therapy a growing sector?17:53-18:26: Clinical trials18:26-19:22: Upcoming phase 3 trials19:22-20:36: The regulatory pathway20:37-23:25: Cost and scale23:25-24:20: The need for partnerships24:21-24:57: Next steps24:57-28:30: Is there excitement in the medical field for this treatment?Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

On today’s podcast, Jean-Philip Piquemal, the chief scientific officer and co-founder of Qubit Pharmaceuticals, explains how the company’s Atlas platform is leading the way to more effective and safer drugs.00:54-01:52: The history of Qubit Pharmaceuticals01:52-04:04: What is the Atlas software?04:04-05:18: Failing quickly is the key05:19-06:53: What are digital twins?06:54-09:00: Improving safety, reducing costs, and boosting drug discovery09:00-10:44: Areas of interest10:44-13:21: Recent successes13:23-14:57: Preparing for future pandemics14:58-17:03: Staying ahead of other companies17:04-18:29: Enough diseases to go around18:30-20:11: Upgrading Atlas software20:13-21:59: How Qubit works with pharma companies21:59-24:41: The Quantum for Bio program24:42-27:58: Looking to the future, and helping patients Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

This week, our guest on the podcast is Jason C. Foster, CEO of Ori Biotech.Ori is a London, U.K. and New Jersey, U.S. based manufacturing technology company pioneering flexible process discovery with translation and scalable commercialization of cell and gene therapies (CGT). Ori has developed a proprietary, full stack manufacturing platform that closes, automates and standardizes CGT manufacturing allowing therapeutics developers to develop and bring their products to market at commercial scale. The promise of the Ori platform is to fully automate CGT manufacturing to increase throughput, improve quality and decrease costs by combining proprietary hardware, software, data and analytics.Ori was founded in 2015 by Dr Farlan Veraitch from University College London.The company also produces a monthly report on its website, which covers the latest in CGT approvals, regulations, trials and industry news.

Mark Kotter, founder of clock.bio and CEO of bit.bio, discusses the potential of using human pluripotent stem cells to reverse the harmful effects of time in our cells. The podcast covers the development of aging models, unbiased CRISPR screens, and the identification of gene candidates for cell rejuvenation. The goal is to extend health span by 20 years and create novel treatment approaches based on biomarkers of aging.

This week's podcast features Fred Aslan, CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics, discussing the potential of natural killer (NK) cells in cancer treatment. They explore the challenges in developing NK cell therapy, the collaboration with AffiMed to enhance NK cell activity, upcoming milestones for the company in 2024, and the difficulties in finding participants for clinical trials in the biotech field.

Compared to the smallest mRNA molecule, which is 300 nucleotides long, the largest transfer RNAs (tRNA) is less than a third of the size at 76 nucleotides. Scientists at Alltrna are harnessing the unique biology of tRNAs to engineer a single tRNA medicine that could treat thousands of rare diseases that share the same genetic mutation. This year, Alltrna presented at ASGCT the first demonstration that an engineered, modified tRNA could recognize and correct, in vivo, a flawed mRNA instruction no matter where it occurred in the genome.Alltrna, which was founded in 2018 by Flagship Pioneering, recently announced it had raised $109 million in a Series B financing to advance the company’s platform and first drug candidates towards the clinic for a first indication in Stop Codon Disease.  Stop Codon Disease encompasses ​​thousands of rare and common diseases that arise from premature termination codons (PTC), also known as nonsense mutations, where the code for an amino acid has been mutated into a premature “stop” codon. This results in a truncated or shortened protein product with no or altered biological activity that causes disease. Approximately 10% of all people with a genetic disease have Stop Codon Disease, representing approximately 30 million people worldwide. Alltrna’s tRNA medicines can read these PTC mutations and deliver the desired amino acid, thereby restoring the production of the full-length protein.The company’s platform incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to ‘learn’ the tRNA language and deliver diverse, programmable molecules with broad therapeutic potential. This week, our conversation is with Alltrna CEO, Michelle Werner.To learn more about the topic, we invite you to read the following article:  Will tRNA therapy be the next big thing in genetic disease treatment?