Ori Spotlight

In episode 24 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Matthew Durdy, CEO of CGT Catapult as they discuss the progression of the cell and gene therapy industry. 

CGT Catapult is an independent center of excellence that aims to advance the growth of the UK cell and gene therapy industry, by bridging the gap between scientific research and full-scale commercialization. CGT Catapult works with partners in academia and industry to ensure advanced therapies can be developed for use in health services throughout the world. 

In this episode, the demand for talent within the industry and how this is evolving as the industry progresses, as well as, the efficiency and economics of advanced therapies were just a few topics Jason and Matthew discussed. They also explored the areas within the industry where the need for innovation is most acute. 

Learn more about Matthew Durdy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-durdy/

In episode 23 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Jonathan Hay, Partner at Delin Ventures and Ori board member.

Delin Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in breakthrough technologies and life science businesses that can have a positive impact on human lives. 

Having supported Ori in their $100M Series B round, Jason joined Jonathan to discuss how Ori’s mission resonated with Jonathan as an investor, key challenges in the development and deployment of advanced therapies at scale and the importance of having a multi-site parallel approach to clinical trials.  

Learn more about Jonathan Hay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-hay-2046046/ 

In episode 22 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Elliot Menschik Chief Digital Officer at Resilience, and Kevin Gordon Chief Digital Officer at Ori. 

Founded in 2020, Resilience is a manufacturing and technology company building a sustainable network of high-tech, end-to-end manufacturing solutions to ensure the medicines of today and tomorrow can be made quickly, safely, and at scale.  Elliot began his career as a physician and engineer before moving into the healthtech industry, where he founded, built and invested in a number of healthtech startups. Prior to Resilience, Elliot worked at Amazon Web Services where he led the company’s work supporting startups, scaleups and investors in highly-specialized industries. He is now responsible for all things digital across Resilience, including software development, data, applications and infrastructure and security.  

Jason, Elliot and Kevin sat down together to delve into the opportunities for efficiencies within cell and gene therapy development, the future of manufacturing and digital-first automation, and to answer the pivotal question of what does good look like in cell and gene therapy?  

Learn more about Elliot Menschik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/menschik/

In episode 21, Ori CEO Jason C. Foster had the honour of being joined by two families, both of whom are strong advocates for increasing the accessibility of CAR-T therapy: Emily, Kari and Tom Whitehead from the Emily Whitehead Foundation, and Lucy and Lewis Jones, parents of Opie Jones.

In episode 20 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Jason Bock, CEO at CTMC (a joint venture between Resilience and MD Anderson Cancer Center) as they discuss bringing advanced therapies to patients at scale. Jason has also recently joined Ori as a member of our SAB - we’re honored to have Jason’s expertise and insights support us in achieving our mission.

For episode 19 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Isabelle Rivière, Director of Cell Therapy and Cell Engineering Laboratory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), one of the world’s leading cancer centers. Isabelle has also recently joined Ori as our newest SAB member – we’re honored to have her supporting us in achieving our mission. 

To this episode, Isabelle brings insights she has gathered from 25 years of experience within the cell and gene therapy industry. Isabelle is also a co-founder of Juno Therapeutics, a board member of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), and past board member of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM).

Together, Jason and Isabelle explore the most significant barriers to treating patients at scale, how automated systems - to improve monitoring, recording and tracking could help make therapies more affordable, and the importance of industry partnerships to accelerate the development of therapies and implementation of new technologies.  

Learn more about Isabelle Rivière

For episode 18 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Ori’s very own Chief Technology Officer, Stuart Milne. 

Stuart has extensive experience in the CGT sector, having held leadership positions across R&D, startups and scale-ups – including leading a multidisciplinary CGT R&D team from start-up (Asymptote, 2012) through to acquisition (GE Healthcare, 2017) and divestiture (Cytiva, 2020), and launching IOT-enabled products in CGT.  

Together, Jason and Stuart discuss how the industry is overcoming current manufacturing challenges, the need to build in quality throughout the development and manufacturing process, and how Ori is preparing now to be able to meet the future demands of customers, the supply chain and regulators.  

Learn more about Stuart Milne: LinkedIn

For Episode 17 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Mike Paglia, COO of ElevateBio, a centralized R&D and manufacturing company developing its own innovative cell and gene therapies.

For episode 16 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Germfree CEO, Kevin Kyle and VP of Regulatory and Business Development, Carol Houts.

For episode 15 of Ori Spotlight, Jason C. Foster is joined by Jo Anne Valentino, Chief Operating Officer at Minaris Regenerative Medicine as she shares her insights into cell and gene therapy development.  

Jo Anne has extensive experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing, having previously held senior positions at Merck and Novartis. Minaris Regenerative Medicine is a CDMO dedicated to the production of CGT products, offering high-quality clinical and commercial manufacturing services, developmental solutions and technologies.  

Together, Jason and Jo Anne discuss how digital transformation can support scalability within CGT manufacturing, what can be learned from pharmaceutical supply chains, and the challenges faced within the CDMO industry.

Learn more about Jo Anne: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-anne-valentino/