The Bio Report

31:48

Why DNA May Be the Data Storage Medium of the Future

The Bio Report ·

2024/02/14

Some 100 trillion gigabytes of data are created and consumed each year, an amount that is expected to double by 2025. The demand for data storage carries the need for significant physical space and power requirements in the form of digital data centers. DNA, though, may represent a solution to what some see as unsustainable growth with environmental consequences. DNA, it turns out, is a dense and durable way to store information. At the end of last year, Paris-based Biomemory launched its DNA Cards,

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25:31

Scouring Genetic Variation within Our Cells for Drug...

The Bio Report ·

2024/02/07

People tend to think of each person having their own unique genome. Quotient Therapeutics is taking an approach to drug discovery based on the reality that from cell to cell within a given individual, there can be trillions of divergent genomes. Changes in cells throughout the body can alter how a cell responds to disease and point to new ways to cure, treat, or prevent conditions. We spoke to Jacob Rubens, president of Quotient, about the company’s platform technology, how it uncovers genetic

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45:28

Correcting Gene Dysregulation to Treat Diseases

The Bio Report ·

2024/01/31

Regardless of the cause of a disease, most diseases involve gene dysregulation. Omega Therapeutics is developing a new class of programmable, epigenomic, mRNA medicines designed to make specific epigenetic changes and correct abnormal gene expression to treat or cure diseases. We spoke to Mahesh Karande, president and CEO of Omega Therapeutics, about its pipeline of mRNA therapies, how they work, and its recently announced collaboration with Novo Nordisk to develop an epigenomic controller to treat

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25:27

Using Technology to Regain Abilities after Spinal...

The Bio Report ·

2024/01/24

The effects of spinal cord injury extend beyond the loss of mobility. They can include a toll on mental health, a feeling of exclusion, and a general decline in the quality of life as a result of being able to stand and interact eye-to-eye with others. ReWalk Robotics’ Personal Exoskeleton is configured to an individual’s body and enables someone who has suffered a spinal cord injury to stand, walk, and even climb up and down stairs. We spoke to Larry Jasinski, CEO of ReWalk Robotics, about the

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39:20

Why Drug Developers Have a Growing Interest in...

The Bio Report ·

2024/01/17

Mitochondria are often referred to as the “powerhouses” of the cell, but as scientists gain a greater understanding of these essential organelles, they are coming to discover they play a more expansive role in health and disease. The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health named Navdeep Chandel a co-recipient of the 2023 Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences for his research that revealed how mitochondria function as signaling organelles that control the body’s normal functions and impact

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31:45

Beefing Up Computational Muscle to Understand...

The Bio Report ·

2024/01/10

Sandbox AQ, the Alphabet spin-out backed with $500 million in investment, in June 2023 unveiled it AQBioSim division. The division is working to bring SandoxAQ’s AI and quantum-inspired computing to develop new treatments for intractable medical conditions including neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The company is working with leading drug developers and university medical centers to accelerate drug development, reduce costs, and improve the rate of clinical success. We spoke to Nadia Harhen,

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20:50

Targeting a Multitude of CIN in Cancer Cells

The Bio Report ·

2024/01/03

It’s long been understood that chromosomal instability (CIN) is a characteristic of cancer cells, but it also represents a key difference between cancer cells and healthy cells that can be exploited. Volastra is developing medicines for a wide range of difficult-to-treat cancers that target the vulnerabilities of these cells. We spoke to Charles Hugh-Jones, CEO of Volastra, about chromosomal instability in cancer cells, how the company is developing a pipeline of therapies to exploit this, and its

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32:44

The Year in Biotech and What’s Ahead in 2024

The Bio Report ·

2023/12/27

Though the year began with a banking crisis and has been marked with layoffs and restructurings, we have managed to avoid a feared recession. It’s been a big year for new drug approvals, M&A activity has been brisk, and biotech stocks have rallied in recent weeks pushing the widely watched S&P biotech index into positive territory. We continue our annual tradition to look back across the year in biotech and ahead to JPMorgan and beyond with Adam Feuerstein, Polk award-winning journalist and

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50:44

Transforming Healthcare with Data

The Bio Report ·

2023/12/20

Vik Bajaj has long lived at the intersection of physical sciences, engineering, data science, and the life sciences—first as an academic working to improve diagnostic imaging at Stanford University and later as a chief scientific officer at GRAIL and Verily. Now, as a founder and CEO of Foresite Labs, the technologist turned venture capitalist is using his experience to create new companies that are leveraging AI and other technologies to transform healthcare. We spoke to Bajaj about the changing

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22:42

Realizing the Promise of IL-2 Therapies with AI

The Bio Report ·

2023/12/13

Interleukin-2 therapies have been seen as promising ways to treat solid tumors, but they have proven challenging because of the ability of IL-2 to both activate and suppress the immune system. Their effectiveness has been limited because of potentially toxic side effects, which have included vascular leak syndrome and pulmonary edema. Aulos Biosciences believes the AI-based approach to computational drug design used for its lead experimental therapy allows it to unlock the power of IL-2 without

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40:02

Unlocking Real-World Data to Improve Outcomes

The Bio Report ·

2023/12/06

Real-world data promises to provide insights that lead to better therapies, change how we treat diseases, and improve outcomes for patients. One of the limits of realizing benefits from all of the health information we are swimming in is the lack of access to high-quality data in a usable format. Verana Health has built partnerships with medical societies to provide access to exclusive, real-world data from a network of more than 20,000 clinicians. We spoke to Sujay Jadhav, CEO of Verana Health,

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25:02

A Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Investing at the...

The Bio Report ·

2023/11/29

Artificial intelligence promises to reshape the healthcare landscape and deliver new insights into the molecular drivers of health and wellness, provide rapid diagnoses of patients, and discover and design therapies that extend beyond human imagination. Swaroop ‘Kittu’ Kolluri, founder and managing director of Neotribe Ventures, is using his experience as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur to invest in the emerging TechBio space. We spoke to Kolluri about the state of AI, the potential of technology to

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24:12

A Company Betting Its Physics-Based AI Will Fuel a...

The Bio Report ·

2023/11/22

Though many drug developers are harnessing AI to create novel chemical compounds, Iambic Therapeutic’s generative AI is leveraging quantum mechanics to get to better drugs. It says its physics-informed machine learning approach has yielded promising lead candidates with superior profiles in record time. In October, Iambic completed a $100 million series B financing round to support development of its platform and to advance multiple candidates into clinical development. We spoke to Tom Miller,

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25:20

Detecting Alzheimer’s Disease Early through a Blood Test

The Bio Report ·

2023/11/15

One of the challenges with treating Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosing patients early enough in the course of its progression to have a meaningful impact with treatments. Sunbird Bio said it can accurately detect and differentiate specific proteins that aggregate and signal the presence of Alzheimer's disease, with a simple blood draw. It said its test in development could address the growing need for more sensitive, reliable, non-invasive diagnostic tests to accelerate drug development and enhance

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27:40

Addressing Supply-Chain Challenges Underlying Drug...

The Bio Report ·

2023/11/08

About 40 percent of all drugs in the Western world are derived from plants. But challenges with producing a reliable supply inherent with materials derived from agricultural processes can lead to drug shortages as climate events, pests, and plant diseases can affect yields. Antheia is harnessing synthetic biology to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients as an alternative to reliance on crop production. We spoke to Christina Smolke, co-founder and CEO of Antheia, about the supply-chain challenges

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42:09

Building Better and More Affordable Vaccines

The Bio Report ·

2023/11/01

The COVID 19 pandemic provided a painful reminder of the global need to protect people against the threat of existing and emerging infectious diseases. Emergex Vaccines is developing fully synthetic vaccines that provide advantages over live attenuated and RNA-based vaccines. The company says its vaccines can provide long-lasting T cell immunity, are cost effective, and stable at room temperature. We spoke to Thomas Rademacher, co-founder and CEO of Emergex Vaccines, about the company’s platform

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29:57

Overcoming Resistance to Targeted Therapies

The Bio Report ·

2023/10/25

The advent of targeted therapies has contributed to notable progress in the fight against cancer, but the ability of cancers to develop resistance to these precision medicines continues to leave patients in need of new approaches. Concarlo Therapeutics is developing therapies that target a critical driver of cell proliferation that is reactivated once a cancer grows resistant to certain targeted therapies. We spoke to Stacy Blain, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Concarlo, about the

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30:01

Using Tumor Gene Therapy to Overcome Barriers to...

The Bio Report ·

2023/10/18

There have been significant advances to immunotherapies since their first introduction, but challenges remain to realizing their full potential in solid tumors. That’s because of the ability of tumors to use multiple mechanisms to evade the immune system. Akamis Bio is developing tumor gene therapies that are capable of targeting tumors and driving expression of multiple immunologically active biomolecules and therapeutic proteins to create a robust, antitumor immune responses. We spoke to Howard

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27:43

Using AI to Generate Mini-Protein Therapeutics

The Bio Report ·

2023/10/11

Mini-proteins have the power and performance of an antibody with the ability to bind tightly to a target. But because of their small size, it can penetrate into places where small molecules can go. Ordaōs Bio is leveraging its generative AI platform to develop a pipeline of mini-protein therapeutics. We spoke to David Longo, co-founder and CEO of Ordaōs, about the company’s focus on mini-proteins, its generative AI platform, and why its building its own pipeline around rare disease indications and

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27:23

Inhibiting Cell Death to Preserve Vision in Retinal...

The Bio Report ·

2023/10/04

The Fas signaling pathway plays a central role in activating cell death. As such, it is implicated in a range of conditions and has been associated with ophthalmic diseases. ONL Therapeutics is developing therapies that target Fas signaling to address a range of retinal conditions. We spoke to Connie Chang, chief operating officer for ONL Therapeutics, about the role Fas-signaling plays in cell death, how this underlies a number of retinal diseases, and the company’s experimental therapy to inhibit

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