Personalized Medicine Podcast

Dear listeners,

This is a bittersweet moment for us. With this episode, we conclude the Personalized Medicine Podcast series. 

We would like to thank all of you for staying with us over the last 3 years! This has been an amazing ride and we appreciate your constant support and feedback. We hope you enjoyed listening to this show as much as we enjoyed making it for you.

In this final episode, our team sits down once more to remember how it all started and how the team came together over these years. We share our most memorable podcast moments and words of gratitude to our guests and listeners. 

Thank you so much for being with us on this journey! 

Stay tuned for our next projects.

Sincerely yours,

Oleksandr (aka Sasha), Luisa, Aradhana, Ivana, Ting and Mehar

In this episode of the Personalized Medicine Podcast we sat down with Dr. Victor Bustos, the co-founder and COO of Refoxy Pharma, a pharmaceutical company focused on new therapies for age-related diseases.

Victor is a molecular biologist by training and dedicated his research career to understanding the biology of aging. In this interview, we discuss the role of FOXO transcription factors in regulating lifespan, Victor's transition from academia to the world of biotech start-ups and his progress with Refoxy Pharma.

Welcome to the next episode of the Personalized Medicine Podcast. In this episode, our host Aradhana sat down for a conversation with Dr Ali Aghebat Rafat, Scientist at Tilibit Nanosystems. Aradhana and Ali discussed DNA nanostructures, DNA self-assembly, barcoding, biochips and their potential applications in Personalized Medicine.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about:

  ◦ Tilibit Nanosystems and their mission

  ◦ Application areas of DNA origami in diagnostics

  ◦ What is DNA Paint

  ◦ A day in a life of a start-up scientist

  ◦ Role of nucleic acid nanostructures in Personalized Medicine 

  ◦ The outlook on the future of DNA origami technology

Welcome to the next episode of the Personalized Medicine Podcast. In this episode, our host Aradhana talked to Martin Rabel, the Field Application Scientist at Precision Nanosystems, about nanoparticles, microfluidics, gene delivery in the context of personalized medicine.

Tune in to this episode to learn more about:

◦ Precision Nanosystems and their mission

◦ Role of nanoparticles and microfluidics in Personalized Medicine

◦ Next-Gen microfluidics technologies

◦ Application of nanoparticles in pharmaceutical applications

◦ Challenges in developing RNA-based lipid nanoparticles

◦ Role of regulatory bodies in implementation of personalized medicine approaches

◦ The outlook on the future of personalized medicine

Get in touch with Martin:

◦ LinkedIn: Martin Rabel

◦ Twitter: @rabel_martin

In this episode we dive deep into the world of structural biology. We discuss the role of cryogenic electron microscopy in the development of precision medicines with the founder and CEO of Gandeeva Therapeutics, Dr. Sriram Subramaniam. Cryo-EM opened a new way to study drug-target interactions and is changing the way we develop new therapies.

Tune into our interview with Sriram to learn more about:

◦ The founding story of Gandeeva Therapeutics

◦ The evolution of Cryo-EM technology

◦ Application of Cryo-EM in drug discovery

◦ Advantages of Cryo-EM over crystallography im mapping protein structures

◦ Making sense of experimental data with AI and machine learning

◦ The future of personalized medicine and role of structural biology in it

◦ Sriram's advice for budding life science entrepreneurs

In this next podcast episode we dive into a topic of personalized skincare. Our host Oleksandr is joined by the co-founders of Mitra Bio, Dr. Shakiba Kaveh and Dr. Cristiana Banila.

Pharmaceutical and personal care companies have been trying to unlock personalized skincare for decades. Shakiba and Cristiana bring a special key to the table, and it is epigenetics.

Tune in into our interview to learn more about:

◦ The founding story of Mitra Bio

◦ The role of genetic and epigenetic factors in skin health

◦ Cracking epigenetic code

◦ Role of reliable models in understanding skin diseases

◦ Skin aging and personalized approaches to reverse it

◦ The future of personalized skincare

◦ Advice to young biotech entrepreneurs from Shakiba and Cristiana

Welcome to the next episode of the Personalized Medicine Podcast. In this episode, we have talked about a variety of topics ranging from exploring space and microgravity for applications in biotechnology and physical science to developing pathogen detection systems.

Our guest today is Dr. Daniela Bezdan, the Chief Scientific Officer of Yuri Gravity and co-founder of Poppy. Daniela is also the co-chair at several space-associated organizations such as ISSOP (International Space Standards Operation Procedure) and NASA GeneLabs that foster international cooperation, and support educational citizen science projects.

Together with Daniela we discussed:

◦ Evolution of microgravity in biotech

◦ Yuri Gravity and its space mission

◦ Key factors in designing space biotech experiments

◦ Poppy and its pathogen detection system

◦ Challenges of starting a start-up

◦ Advice to budding biotech entrepreneurs

◦ The outlook on the next decade of personalized medicine

Get in touch with Daniela:

◦ LinkedIn: Daniela Bezdan

◦ Twitter: @Daniela_Bezdan, @yurigravity, @poppy_health

◦ Web: https://www.yurigravity.com/, https://poppy.com/

Welcome to the next episode of the Personalized Medicine Podcast. On this podcast we have talked extensively about antibody, vaccine and CAR-T cell based approaches to treat cancer. Today we will be talking about a new approach in oncology that is based on invariant Natural Killer T Cells, or iNKTs.

Our guest today is Dr. Jennifer Buell, the founder, CEO and President of MiNK Therapeutics and the former President and COO of Agenus. Jennifer has over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical space, having held multiple leadership positions at biotech companies. In her tenure at Agenus, she transformed a neoantigen vaccine development startup into a multifaceted company with a strong global footing. She is now leading MiNK therapeutics, the precision oncology company that develops targeted iNKT cells for treatment of various types of cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Together with Jennifer we discussed:

◦ Evolution of immunooncology over the the last two decades

◦ Role of immune system in fighting cancer

◦ Neoantigen vaccines as a tool for personalized cancer treatment

◦ Invariant Natural Killer T Cells (iNKTs) and their role in combating cancer

◦ Advantage of iNKTs over other cancer treatments

◦ Potential of combination therapies in oncology

◦ Challenges in bringing novel cell-based therapies to the market

◦ Advice to budding biotech entrepreneurs

◦ The outlook on the next decade of cancer treatment

Get in touch with Jennifer:

LinkedIn: Jennifer S. Buell

Twitter: @jbuell01

Web: https://minktherapeutics.com/

In this episode we dive deep again into the topic of protein degradation and how it can be leveraged to treat neurodegenerative diseases. Our guest today is Dr. Beth Hoffman, the founder, CEO and President to Origami Therapeutics. Beth's career is a showcase of remarkable success in the biotech industry. She spent almost 25 years working in CNS drug discovery and was involved in the development of over 30 therapeutic molecules. Most notably she led the discovery and development of a few first-in-class blockbuster drugs for cystic fibrosis at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Her most recent venture, Origami Therapeutics, is focusing on developing protein degraders aiming at neurodegenerative disorders and, specifically, Huntington's Disease.

Together with Beth we discussed:

◦ The evolution of drug discovery & development over the last 30 years

◦ How protein degraders work

◦ Role of protein structure prediction algorithms in therapy design

◦ Possibility of using targeted protein degradation for treatment of Huntington's diseases

◦ Differences between treating familial vs sporadic neurodegenerative disorders

◦ The future of personalized medicine

◦ Actionable advice for young biotech entrepreneurs

Make sure to download the full show notes with our guest's bio, links to their most notable work, and our recommendations for further reads on the topic of the episode at pmedcast.com

Thank you very much for tuning into this special episode of the Personalized Medicine Podcast. Some of you might know that our founder and host Oleksandr (a.k.a. Sasha) is Ukrainian. In this difficult moment for his country, Sasha shares his thoughts on current situation in Ukraine and explains how anyone in the world can help and support people of Ukraine and its scientific community.

Out team has prepared a list of trusted organizations and charitable foundations supporting Ukraine at the moment:

Support Ukrainian military (Official Bank Account of Ukrainian Ministry of Defense): https://bit.ly/35Kl4Gy

Humanitarian aid organizations providing aid for Ukrainians affected by war:

◦ Ukraine Humanitarian Fund managed by United Nations https://crisisrelief.un.org/t/ukraine - The Ukraine Humanitarian Fund is one of the UN's country-based pooled funds. Contributions are collected into a single, unearmarked fund and managed locally under UN leadership. As crises evolve, funds are made directly and immediately available to a wide range of partner organizations at the front lines of response. This way, funding reaches the people most in need when they need it

◦ Voices of Children - https://voices.org.ua/en/ - Charitable Foundation Voices of Children helps children affected by the war in (eastern) Ukraine. They provide psychological and psychosocial support to children. It helps them overcome the consequences of armed conflict

◦ Vostok-SOS - https://vostok-sos.org/en/ - Non-profit organization focused on comprehensive assistance to conflict-affected persons and IDPs, promoting democratic transformation and human rights values in Ukraine

If you would like to host a refugee, you can register at one of the following platforms:

◦ https://www.eu4ua.org/

◦ https://www.unterkunft-ukraine.de/

◦ https://www.ukraineshelter.com/en/

The global list of research groups and labs that are supporting Ukrainian scientists. Feel free to add your group or share this list with fellow Ukrainian scientists in need of help: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HqTKukfJGpmowQnSh4CoFn3T6HXcNS1T1pK-Xx9CknQ/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you very much for your support! You are awesome!

Stay safe

Peace