The Biotech Voyager

Jack Gugel, co-founder and CEO of Arkana Therapeutics, joins the show to explain how a molecule discovered in Burmese python metabolism could offer an alternative to GLP-1 drugs, why pythons are the perfect model organism for studying extreme metabolic swings, and why he thinks every PhD should end with a company instead of a postdoc application.

Arkana spun out of a University of Colorado Boulder lab that's spent 20 years studying how Burmese pythons survive a year without eating, then consume a meal their own body weight, spiking their metabolism 40x in the process. That extreme biology led to the discovery of a novel appetite suppressant molecule that acts only on the brain, unlike GLP-1 drugs, which also slow gastric emptying and cause GI side effects in roughly half of patients. Jack walks through the science, the company's origin story, and where the platform goes next.

• 00:00:00 Intro and meet Jack Gugel, CEO of Arkana Therapeutics
• 00:01:03 How studying pythons for a PhD led to a biotech
• 00:02:45 The discovery: a python molecule that suppresses appetite
• 00:04:26 GLP-1 vs. Arkana's molecule, why the side effects differ
• 00:06:10 From 200 metabolites to one drug candidate
• 00:07:04 How they actually manufacture it (they're not farming pythons)
• 00:08:46 The origin story: an Oklahoma road trip and a CU Boulder lab
• 00:11:00 Why every PhD should end with a company
• 00:14:16 The eureka moment: a drug target with zero competition
• 00:16:06 The flip side: could this help cancer and ICU patients?
• 00:17:36 Arkana's next steps and funding stage
• 00:18:49 The other half of weight loss: burning calories like a python
• 00:20:27 Inside the lab: how they pull compounds from snakes
• 00:24:20 Other biotechs betting on extreme animal biology
• 00:25:47 What's being slept on in biotech right now

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 AM.

#biotech #arkana #GLP1

Welcome to the BioTek Voyager. It's the show that covers what's next in BioTech, mapping the early-stage signals that are going to be a big deal in a couple years.

Welcome to The Biotech Voyager.
It's the show that covers what's next in biotech, mapping the early-stage signals before they become major news.
If you have any questions, drop them below.

Welcome to The Biotech Voyager. It's the show that covers the early-stage biotech space, uncovering the companies that are going to be a big deal in a couple of years.

Welcome to the Biotech Voyager. It's the show that covers what's next in biotech.
Drop a question in the chat to be part of the conversation .

Kevin Walton, CEO of Baseimmune, joins Ben and Jeff to break down one of the most underappreciated problems in modern medicine: fibrosis. IPF alone carries a life expectancy of three to five years upon diagnosis, and despite decades of research only three drugs have been approved, none of which halt or reverse the disease. Kevin explains why every previous approach has failed, why fibrosis is a network-driven redundant disease that defeats single-target therapies, and how Baseimmune's computational platform uses active immunotherapy to go after multiple pathways simultaneously with a single vaccine. Beyond fibrosis, Kevin reveals two additional applications the platform is being explored for, including a therapeutic vaccine for chronic pain and migraines, and a cardiovascular application. He also shares his take on what is most slept on in biotech right now: the immune system as a drug manufacturing platform.

0:00 Introduction

1:02 What is Baseimmune targeting with active immunotherapy

1:25 IPF — the disease, the stats, the failure of current drugs

1:49 Why single-target approaches keep failing

4:03 How the vaccine approach works

4:28 Additional applications beyond fibrosis

7:31 The data they've seen so far

9:35 Early results and what's encouraging

13:30 Pain vaccine — chronic migraines and the marketing opportunity

14:42 Cardiovascular applications

15:43 AI and the future of peptide-based immunotherapy

19:45 What's slept on in biotech — Kevin's answer

20:33 Immune system as a drug manufacturing platform

21:31 Jeff's response and closing thoughts

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 AM 🚀

Welcome to the Biotech Voyager. It's the live show that covers what's next in biotech.
Feel free to leave a comment, and we will get to it as quickly as we can.

Jonathan Cohen-Gold, CEO of Houdini Bio, joins Ben and Jeff to break down one of the most underappreciated problems in cell and gene therapy: cells don't like foreign DNA. When you deliver a therapeutic gene, the cell's innate immune system recognizes it as a threat and shuts it down. Houdini Bio's platform uses AI and proprietary Houdini elements, short 100 base pair sequences, to give the therapeutic DNA a self-hallmark, essentially camouflaging it against the cell's defense machinery without touching the pathway globally. The result is better transgene expression, safer delivery, and a plug-and-play approach that works across AAV, lentiviral, and other delivery formats.

0:00 Introduction

0:10 Welcome Jonathan Cohen-Gold, Houdini Bio

0:49 The problem: cells reject foreign DNA

1:39 Why this kills gene therapies

3:19 The market adoption crisis

4:42 Why previous approaches failed

5:11 The HUSH complex explained

6:15 Jonathan's PhD and unfair advantage

9:52 Building Houdini Bio from scratch

11:45 The Venture Science Doctorate

12:25 Academic system vs entrepreneurship

13:28 Houdini's platform and approach

14:00 Houdini elements explained

16:23 AI and the closed loop wet lab system

17:55 Current data and proof points

20:43 Rescuing failed gene therapies

22:18 What's next for Houdini Bio

25:22 The big opportunity

26:17 Investors and funding

29:19 Closing and what to watch for

Welcome to The Biotech Voyager. It's the show that covers what's next in biotech.

Wesley Wierson and Alex Abel founded Leah Labs seven years ago around a pets-first model. When generative biology arrived, they designed something that no existing investor would fund. Animal investors won't back human-scale outcomes. Human investors won't back animal health companies. So VelociTx had to be built. Their CAR-T platform redesigns the transmembrane domain using a 2,000 de novo screen, finding 200 enriched candidates across 7 functional families, making CAR-T cells behave like TCR T cells to target solid tumors in ways nature never could.

Wesley Wierson and Alex Abel are co-founders of VelociTx, a company using generative protein design to build the next generation of CAR-T cell therapy for solid tumors.

• 00:00:00 Welcome: Wesley Wierson + Alex Abel, VelociTx
• 00:00:58 Why VelociTx Had to Be Built
• 00:02:32 What If You Could Engineer a CAR Like a T Cell Receptor?
• 00:02:54 The Transmembrane Domain Discovery
• 00:06:34 The 2,000 De Novo Screen and What They Found
• 00:12:01 Going Into Lung Cancer First
• 00:15:51 How Generative Biology Changes Everything
• 00:27:35 What's Next in Biotech

New episodes every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 AM 🚀