Innovation Wave

Cohost, David Crean, provides his insights from the recent JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco in early January. David provides his insightful thoughts as it relates to mergers and acquisitions, partnering, capital financing, IPOs, and the overall outlook for 2024.

Dr. Nazneen Dewji is a distinguished figure in the field of Alzheimer's research. She is the Founder and CEO of Cenna Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical company in La Jolla, California, dedicated to developing new treatments for Alzheimer's disease. Cenna is advancing a patented technology that targets the accumulation of the toxic Aß species, a fundamental cause of Alzheimer's, with the goal of establishing a disease-modifying drug.

On Episode 9 of the podcast we discuss some common issues and pitfalls that Life Science founders struggle with then it comes to fundraising, and Derek Brunelle arms us with some tips to make your pitch deck more impactful.

On this weeks podcast we catch up with Emilie Gross at

Nick Edwards is a serial entrepreneur working at the intersection of tech and biotech. He's currently building a company focused on AI tools for life sciences and is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Allen Institute for AI. Nick's a neuroscientist by training. He did his PhD at Brown University and after a postdoc at UC San Diego, he spent time in consulting at BCG. In his free time, Nick is passionate about building the scientific ecosystem. He runs a podcast called Once a Scientist to help researchers learn about career options.

On episode 6 of the podcast, Bob and David reviewed the current state of the capital markets and deal flow for life sciences in 3Q 2023, as well as discussed the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) with life sciences.

This week on the podcast we turn the tables on Bob McGriff and we discuss the current state of the Life Science real estate market.

The Life Science real estate market has changed dramatically over the past 2 years.  If you were looking for a lab / life science space 16 to 24 months ago, then you were in a very competitive situation, and it was common to see Life science companies battling for lab space. Currently the life science lab space vacancies have spiked, and subleases are now at record numbers resulting in a much friendlier environment for Life Science Tenants.  Lab Space developers looking to take advantage of the hot life science market a couple years ago started building on new sites,  and now they have over 5 million square feet of new construction that will be adding to the inventory of vacant space over the next 12 months.   This will add more lab space to an already saturated market.

Life Science Landlords are scrambling to stop the bleeding and will typically add concessions and other incentive packages to entice lab occupiers to lease new space. Lab space rents are staying steady for now, but there is downward pressure on lease rates and it’s a good time to be a life science tenant looking for new real estate.   

On the podcast today, we have the dynamic founder and

With a rich background in Cell and Gene Therapy, he's been at the helm of groundbreaking projects, bringing innovative cell-based therapies from the lab to the market. Equipped with a Ph.D. in Bioproducts and Sciences, he's not just about the tech but is deeply passionate about creating a brighter future for healthcare. A leader, a visionary, and above all, a young entrepreneur driven to make a difference

Westbrook Weaver, CEO of Tempo Therapeutics, provides insight and his perspective on successful capital financing of his life sciences company.

The last year and a half has been exceptionally challenging for life sciences companies. We have seen many companies struggle to raise money while simultaneously tighten budgets, lay off their employee base, explore  multiple alternative avenues for financing,  and become more focused on priority programs to extend their runways.

With sentiment in the biopharma market improving during the second quarter of 2023, Co-hosts Bob and David Crean of Innovation Wave, explore what they are seeing in the market regarding supply and demand, private capital Venture financing, public market IPO’s and follow financings, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Bob and David remain optimistic about the environment going forward.  The fundamentals of the ecosystem are strong with robust recovery anticipated in H2 2023 and early 2024.