Hervé Affagard, CEO and co-founder of MaaT Pharma, traded industrial engineering for medicine after cancer struck his family. Now, he’s pioneering microbiome-based therapies to restore balance in the gut, boost immunity, and tackle diseases from graft-versus-host to cancer itself. On Behind the Breakthroughs, Hervé shares how reimagining our inner ecosystem could transform treatment.

Want me to make this one lean even harder into the industrial-to-biotech transformation angle for extra contrast?

Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD

Audio mixed and mastered by David Mosely

Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Michelle Werner, PhD, learned her son Caffrey had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, she left big pharma to lead Alltrna—a Flagship Pioneering company engineering tRNAs to tackle rare diseases with no treatments. On Behind the Breakthroughs, Werner shares her journey as both mother and CEO, and how Alltrna’s approach could unlock therapies for thousands of conditions caused by nonsense mutations.

Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD

Audio mixed and mastered by David Mosely

Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Public health is greatly benefiting from population genomics screening, as it provides patients with risk education and treatment for symptoms of life-threatening diseases that they would not have been aware of through routine checkups. So, why hasn't population genomic screening realized its full potential? As an internist geneticist and Medical Affairs Director at Helix, this issue became all the more real for Cassie Hajek, MD, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer that evaded existing genetic testing procedures. In this earnest episode, Hajek shares how her experiences as both a cancer patient and a practitioner have helped her identify and build towards overcoming some of the barriers to maximizing population genomic screening for preventive medicine.

Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD

Audio mixed and mastered by David Mosely

Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three biotech trailblazers—Patrick Hsu (co-founder of the Arc Institute), Serge Saxonov (co-founder and CEO of 10x Genomics), and Gilad Almogy (co-founder and CEO of Ultima Genomics)—join forces to discuss their groundbreaking collaboration on the virtual cell. This ambitious project leverages advanced AI and cutting-edge genomic technologies to model and predict cellular behavior, a leap forward in understanding complex biological systems. The trio dives deep into their shared vision, explaining how their partnership is redefining scientific research and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in drug discovery and precision medicine.

Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD

Audio mixed and mastered by David Mosely

Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For years, Tempus operated in mystery—its website sparse on details while headlines announced massive funding and high-profile partnerships. The claim? AI-enabled solutions for personalized healthcare. Intrigued, I sought answers. In this episode, Kate Sasser, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Tempus, shared insights into how the company uses AI to analyze unstructured clinical data to develop patient-derived organoid models for therapeutic refinement. Most exciting is their vision of an interconnected “lab-in-a-loop” system—a cycle of real-world data, biological modeling, and AI analysis.

Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD

Audio mixed and mastered by David Mosely

Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At just 25, UPenn dropout Kian Sadeghi is betting big on personalized genomics. As founder of Nucleus Genomics, he’s offering affordable whole-genome sequencing direct to consumers and rethinking how patients, clinicians, and insurers engage with genetic data. On Behind the Breakthroughs, Sadeghi unpacks the fall of 23andMe, the rise of patient agency, and why he thinks genomics needs its own Bill Gates.

Stay up to date with the latest episodes of Behind the Breakthroughs by subscribing to the IPM eNewsletter here.

Produced by Bill Levine

Hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein

Audio mixed and mastered by Jason Mack

Music provided by Artem Hramushkin

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagine a future where your ancestry not only tells a story about your past but also holds the key to your health. That's the vision drives Carlos D. Bustamante, PhD, population geneticist and founder of Galatea Bio, as he embarks on an ambitious mission: building a biobank of 10 million genomes to transform drug development and healthcare across Latin America. With thousands of founder populations scattered across the region—from the valleys of Medellín to the islands of the Caribbean—Latin America is a goldmine of genetic diversity. Yet, until now, it has been largely overlooked in genomic research. In this Behind the Breakthroughs episode, Bustamante explains why mapping this diversity can uncover genetic insights that will lead to better treatments for diseases that disproportionately affect these communities.

Stay up to date with the latest episodes of Behind the Breakthroughs by subscribing to the IPM eNewsletter here.

Produced by Bill Levine

Hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein

Music provided by Artem Hramushkin

Audio mixed and mastered by Jason Mack

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Denny, MD, turned a family tragedy with cystic fibrosis into a lifelong mission to transform medicine. Now CEO of the NIH’s All of Us Research Program, he’s leading one of the largest precision medicine efforts in history—850,000 participants strong with 400,000 genomic profiles and counting. On Behind the Breakthroughs, Denny shares how this unprecedented dataset could rewrite the future of healthcare, from rare disease to everyday care.

Stay up to date with the latest episodes of Behind the Breakthroughs by subscribing to the IPM eNewsletter here.

Produced by Bill Levine

Hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein

Music provided by Artem Hramushkin

Audio mixed and mastered by Jason Mack

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The sage-like Uli Stilz, PhD, Vice President of Novo Nordisk, provides insight into the inner workings of Novo Nordisk’s Bio Innovation Hub, which he founded in Boston, to tackle complex, multifactorial diseases that impact billions of people, such as diabetes and cardiometabolic diseases.

Stay up to date with the latest episodes of Behind the Breakthroughs by subscribing to the IPM eNewsletter here.

Produced by Bill Levine

Hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein

Music provided by Artem Hramushkin

Audio mixed and mastered by Jason Mack

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Despite advances in screening, only one in six U.S. cancers is detected early. Tomasz (Tom) Beer, MD, left most of his clinical practice to join Exact Sciences and push the frontier with blood-based multicancer early detection (MCED) tests. On Behind the Breakthroughs, Beer explains how these tests could transform cancer screening and catch disease before it’s too late.

Stay up to date with the latest episodes of Behind the Breakthroughs by subscribing to the IPM eNewsletter here.

Produced by Bill Levine

Hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein

Music provided by Artem Hramushkin

Audio mixed and mastered by Jason Mack

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.