The Bio Report

The use of smartphones, low-cost sensors, and ubiquitous connectivity is changing the way researchers think about recruiting, monitoring, and interacting with participants in biomedical research. The use of evolving technology is not just eliminating geographic barriers to participation, but also enabling the collection of new types of data. The Scripps Research Digital Trials Center is pioneering the use of digital health technologies to re-engineer the way studies are conducted. We spoke to Edward Ramos, director of digital clinical trials for Scripps Research Digital Trials Center, about how digital health technology is transforming biomedical research, how it is changing what is possible, and some of the ongoing research projects the center is conducting.

The body has a natural cellular recycling machinery known as the ubiquitin proteasome system that breaks down unwanted proteins. Kymera Therapeutics has developed a drug discovery platform that exploits this natural biologic process to target disease-causing proteins that had been previously considered undruggable using small molecule therapies. We spoke to Nello Mainolfi, co-founder, president, and CEO of Kymera, about the company’s discovery platform, how it exploits a natural housecleaning mechanism within the body, and why this approach could enable the targeting of proteins that previously had been considered beyond the reach of small molecule therapies.

About 70 percent of daily deaths are caused by aging or age-related diseases. The newly formed Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, or A4LI, is an independent nonprofit advocating for greater investment in scientific research, new measures to recognize the value of extending healthy life expectancy, and steps to expedite the development gerotherapies and regenerative medicines. We spoke to Sonia Arrison, chair of the Alliance for Longevity Initiatives, about the need the new organization is seeking to address, its agenda, and how therapeutic advances may be able to alter our notions of longevity.

As concerns about the use of animals to test drugs, scientist have sought new ways to analyze the efficacy and toxicity of their products. Genoskin is seeking to enable better, faster, and safer drug development through the use of its proprietary ex vivo human skin platforms for preclinical drug testing. The company provides natural human skin obtained from patients that it maintains in a living and functional state. We spoke to Pascal Descargues, founder and CEO of Genoskin, about the company’s ex vivo human skin models, how they provide an alternative to animal experiments, and how they can accelerate the generation of reliable human data in drug development.

While cell therapies have been advancing rapidly, therapies that rely on taking a patient’s own cells, altering them, and reinfusing them back into a patient are costly. Part of the reason why is that the process for doing this is labor intensive. Cellino has developed a platform for producing personalized autologous cell therapies in an automated and scalable fashion. We spoke to Marinna Madrid, co-founder and vice president of product, for Cellino, about the company’s platform technology for cell-based therapies, how it works, and why it may help enable a new era of personalized regenerative therapies.

Integrins are a diverse family of proteins that play an essential role in many cellular biological processes. They also have been implicated a number of autoimmune, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, as well as fibrosis and cancer. While a number of biologics have come to market that target integrins, drug developers have been stymied in efforts to develop oral therapies that can target these proteins. Morphic Therapeutic is developing a new generation of oral integrin drugs it believes can transform the treatment model for a range of serious medical conditions. We spoke to Praveen Tipirneni, president and CEO of Morphic Therapeutic, about intgerins, the challenges of using small molecule therapies to target them, and why this can have a dramatic effect on how patients with a range of conditions get treated.

As the treatment of cancers has moved toward an increasing emphasis on the role the immune system can play in fighting tumors, a range of new ways to enlist and train the immune system have emerged. Candel Therapeutics is developing oncolytic viral immunotherapies, which it says combines anti-tumor activity while also stimulating the immune system. We spoke to Paul Peter Tak, president and CEO of Candel Therapeutics, oncolytic viral immunotherapies, how they work, and why they may be able to bring benefits to the treatment of a range of solid tumors.

The discovery and cell line development of biotherapeutics has been traditionally a distinct process. Absci is taking what it describes as a more wholistic approach by collapsing the process down and addressing the functionality and manufacturability of therapeutic candidates simultaneously. We spoke to Sean McClain, founder and CEO of AbSci, about how it is using AI and synthetic biology to reinvent the discovery process, how this is expanding the therapeutic potential of proteins, and how it translates into time and cost benefits.

While CAR-T cell therapies have been a promising new area of cancer treatments, they are costly to produce, have had limited success in treating solid tumors, and can carry sometimes serious side effects. Shoreline Biosciences is developing off-the-shelf natural killer and macrophage cellular immunotherapies derived from induced pluripotent stem cells for cancer, inflammatory, and genetic diseases. The company programs these cells to target and kill tumors, as well as repair tissue homeostasis. The company said its approach allows for the creation of a streamlined, affordable, and scalable manufacturing process that can deliver cell therapy treatments to patients in a faster and more cost-effective manner. We spoke to Kleanthis Xanthopoulos, co-founder and CEO of Shoreline Biosciences, about the company’s off-the-shelf cell therapies, its focus on the innate immune system, and how it’s leveraging its technology through recent partnerships with BeiGene and Kite Pharma.

The ability to discover new drugs can be limited by the tools and technologies small companies can access. Alloy Therapeutics says it democratizing access to a set of technologies and capabilities that are foundational for discovering and developing biologics. We spoke to Errik Anderson, CEO of Alloy Therapeutics, discusses the challenges of drug discovery the company is seeking to address, its business model, and the dealmaking it has done to build beyond platform technologies to become involved in the discovery and development of therapeutic candidates.