BioInnovator Spotlight

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are revolutionizing almost every field. Drug discovery - the process of identifying druggable targets and potential therapeutic compounds - is a long, costly, and often laborious process wherein researchers may sift through thousands of therapeutic candidates for a target looking for a hit.

After many decades of experimentation, millions of data points on targets and therapeutic compounds exist for all kinds of disease indications. This is far too much information for even a top team of humans to interpret, but can artificial intelligence algorithms make sense of it all to improve the drug discovery process?

In this episode of BioInnovator Spotlight, we speak with Ségolène Martin, CEO and co-founder of Kantify, a company using AI technology to improve drug discovery in a variety of fields such as oncology and neuromuscular disorders.

Mammalian cell culture is difficult to scale up. Many cell types do not grow well in suspension and preferably attach to surfaces like the bottom of their flasks. Currently, researchers examine this growth manually and culture cells by hand in specialized cell culture flasks.

Cell culture is critical in many fields of research, from healthcare to future food technology, and scaling this technique using automated processes is the holy grail of manufacturing cell-based products that are both affordable and high-quality.

Unicorn Biotechnologies was founded by Adam Glen and Jack Reid to take on this challenge. In this episode of BioInnovator Spotlight, Adam and Jack tell us what motivated them to enter the world of automation, how they met at Entrepreneur First, and what they hope to achieve with Unicorn in the coming year.

Alternative meat products are a simple answer to the challenge of sustainably feeding a growing population worldwide. These foods, often made from plants and fungi, mimic existing familiar meat products like steak and fish fillets, but often lack the same taste, mouthfeel, and even some health benefits of the real deal.

Upstream Foods is addressing this issue head-on by creating cultivated fat cells from fish. These cells can be used as an ingredient in alternative fish products, providing healthy omega-3 fatty acids as well as the taste and feel of real fish.

We speak with Upstream's co-founder and CEO, Kianti Figler, about her journey from biology to food technology, why she founded the company, and the challenges she faces as a founder today.

Chronic wounds affect over 156 million people worldwide. These are skin wounds that fail to heal or heal slowly but recur. Common causes may include burns, trauma, infection, and cancer, and they can be exacerbated by underlying medical conditions like diabetes.

While several technologies are available to treat the myriad types of chronic wounds, the field remains poorly understood. Healiva is working on a personalised approach to chronic wound treatment with a pipeline involving several of these technologies.

In this episode, I speak to Priyanka Dutta-Passecker, CEO and founder of the Switzerland-based biotech. We chat about her journey from India to Europe and why she founded Healiva to help patients.

Age-related illnesses have a dramatic impact on quality of life as global populations continue to grow older. Among these conditions, bone health has a significant impact as deterioration can lead to disability and lengthy rehabilitation in the elderly, particularly those who suffer from osteoporosis.

Currently, osteoporosis and similar conditions can only be diagnosed using the DEXA bone mineral density scan, which uses radiation. Now, ultrasound technology may open up a new method that improves upon the gold-standard diagnosis.

In this episode of BioInnovator Spotlight, we talk to Julia Eschenbrenner, CEO of PoroUS, which is using ultrasound technology to observe the microstructure of a patient's bone surface to determine its health. She also shares her journey into life science and why she decided to take on the CEO role.

Cancer therapies such as chemo and radiotherapy can be extremely aggressive but, for many patients and their clinicians, preserving quality of life is a major factor in choosing their treatment.

Today, there are few in-depth diagnostic methods that can distinguish aggressive tumours - which require intense treatment - from mild tumours.

DoMore Diagnostics is developing technology that analyses tumour tissue to help determine which patients will benefit from additional therapy.

In this episode, we speak to CEO and co-Founder about his journey from consulting firm McKinsey to DoMore Diagnostics.

Thousands of patients require heart valve surgery each year as a result of calcification. Currently, only surgical heart valve replacements are available as treatments - the two major options each having their own drawbacks - and surgical intervention in an often elderly patient group carries further risk. Additionally, the cost of these surgeries on healthcare systems is extremely high and is expected to increase as the global population ages.

But what if there was a non-surgical option, such as a drug that prevented calcification in the first place? Arsenii Zabirnyk leads the Calinhib project which is searching for just that, molecules that block heart valve calcification, using cell biology and artificial intelligence (AI).

In this episode, we discuss Arsenii's journey as a researcher from Ukraine to Norway and now from an academic to an entrepreneur. We also talk about the Calinhib project, supported by SPARK Norway, and its aims to support this growing patient population.

While many diseases are now known to have genetic components, many of the specific mutations involved are unknown in 60-70% of patients.

Our DNA contains vast non-coding regions that Uirá Melo likens to dark matter in the universe - we know it's there but what does it do in these diseases?

Now, thanks to new technologies in genome sequencing, he is working at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin to sort through this DNA dark matter from an array of patients.

In this Episode, Uirá explains his work illuminating the darkness in DNA and how he decided to become an entrepreneur on his journey from Brazil to Berlin.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) has been characterised for many years, not just as a disease, but as a syndrome. It affects different phases of the immune system from the brain to the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system. Throughout the life of an MS patient, the disease has different phases.

The most common is the relapsing-remitting stage, usually followed by the secondary progressive stage of multiple sclerosis. Most of the drugs on the market target the relapsing-remitting stage to decrease the number of relapses, but there is a huge need to target the progressive stages when demyelination occurs. 

In this episode, we talk to Antonis Katsoulas, a PhD student at the University of Zurich who is leading the Innunity project investigating treatments for MS. He tells us about his journey juggling both entrepreneurship and his PhD studies, and how he hopes to make a real difference for later-stage MS patients.

Nearly 900 million women worldwide use reversible contraception, but finding the right method can be difficult. One-third of women stop using contraception due to varying side effects caused by different methods. This challenge requires determining which side effects an individual can tolerate. Contraception is used to treat specific symptoms in many women, such as heavy bleeding and acne. These patients may also have underlying conditions like PCOS or endometriosis that need treatment.

Elena Rueda co-founded Dama Health to help patients understand their needs, goals, and risks when using hormonal contraceptives in order to find them a better treatment match.

Elena shares her journey from the lab to founding Dama Health and why she is motivated to impact women's health.