The World Health Organization reports that more than 600 million people suffer from lower back pain globally, making it the leading cause of disability worldwide. Chronic lower back pain – where the pain persists for more than 3 months – develops in between 5 and 10% of all lower back pain cases, with life-altering impacts for patients. And that’s where today’s guest, Steve Ruston, of Persica Pharmaceuticals comes in. Persica is developing a groundbreaking and transformative treatment for chroni...
Jul 04, 2025•38 min•Ep. 154
Trauma surgeons in Ukraine operating theaters saved lives and limbs thanks to the innovative lab-grown blood vessels from US biotech, Humacyte . Humacyte is pioneering a platform that enables the investigation, development, and manufacture of bioengineered human tissues and organs that are designed to be universally implantable, off-the-shelf, and regenerative, with the goal of treating a wide variety of diseases, injuries, and chronic conditions. This week I had the chance to speak to Humacyte ...
Jun 27, 2025•36 min•Ep. 153
Much of the attention of the biotech industry has been focused on the city of Boston this week as the annual BIO International Convention hit town. BIO is the world’s largest partnering conference for the biopharma industry and thousands of innovators, out-licensors, venture capitalists, top pharma dealmakers, thought leaders and more than a few politicians gathered for three days of meetings, presentations, and networking. In this week’s episode we meet three innovators on the floor in Boston a...
Jun 20, 2025•38 min•Ep. 152
What are the most interesting questions in biotech, and is it even possible to find answers to those questions? Alex Telford is the co-founder of Convoke and a biotech blogger from the San Francisco Bay Area. His blog post, ' Some questions about biotech that I find interesting ' provoked conversations online as readers engaged with questions about topics as diverse as the impacts of regulation, the role of serendipity in drug discovery, clinical trial failure rates, and the best structure for g...
Jun 13, 2025•46 min•Ep. 151
When biotechs start fundraising they regularly turn to the venture capital market seeking investment. The pool of VC money can be large, and part of that pool is corporate venture capital. Backed by firms keen to identify the next big thing in biotechnology, corporate VC money can be an attractive way for biotechs to raise funds privately while benefiting from the support and expertise of corporate supporters. This week I talked with Paolo Di Giorgio and Regina Hodits of Angelini Ventures, the c...
Jun 06, 2025•42 min•Ep. 150
Biotechnology has always been a dynamic domain, but the world of finance that provides the fuel for the fire is just as vibrant. Trying to predict where the market for biotech investment is heading is always risky but for experts like Baker McKenzie’s Roel Meers, understanding where the market is moving is where he eats. I spoke to Roel this week to unpack just where biotech funding stands in Q2 2025, to get a feel for the sorts of M&As, IPOs, and licensing deals we should be looking for in ...
May 30, 2025•39 min•Ep. 149
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is already changing how people research, communicate, and interact, but its biggest impacts on biotech are still to come. Cradle is a Dutch-Swiss biotech startup founded in 2021 that has developed a web-based software platform leveraging GenAI to accelerate protein design and optimization, aiding scientists in biotechnology R&D. Cradle’s technology integrates AI with wet lab experimentation, doubling the speed of most projects compared to industry b...
May 23, 2025•35 min•Ep. 148
There are cell therapies, gene therapies, and biologics – and then there is Immusoft. Immusoft sits at the nexus point of some of the most innovative approaches in biopharma, and their Immune System Programming platform is unique in its capacity to address the rare disease, MPS I. This week we talk with Immusoft CEO Sean Ainsworth to learn more about his journey in biotechnology, the work that Immusoft is doing in B-cell reprogramming and unpack some of the positive results that the company rece...
May 16, 2025•34 min•Ep. 147
Flagship Pioneering doesn't go out to find the next big thing in biotech when investing their billions in fund capital - instead, they take a different route. Flagship Pioneering has founded more than 100 companies in the life sciences worth in total an estimated $75 billion. With a proven model for biotech startup success and a culture designed to surface new and interesting ideas, Flagship offers a different approach to biotech funding that is paying off time and again. In this episode I talk ...
May 09, 2025•44 min•Ep. 146
Are TCR-NK treatments the next big thing in cell therapies for cancer patients? As biotechs and pharma companies continue to innovate to address patient needs in oncology, T-cell receptor therapies, or TCR-Ts, are attracting significant interest and investment. There are already some promising results for TCR-Ts tackling solid tumors – but one Norwegian biotech is taking a slightly different track. This week, we sit down with Namir Hassan, CEO of Zelluna, a company with a mission to eliminate so...
May 02, 2025•34 min•Ep. 145
AI is driving innovation across industries, including biotech, but where is its influence felt most and what opportunities for future impact are emerging? David del Bourgo is the co-founder and CEO of WhiteLab Genomics, an innovative biotech that is leveraging the power of AI to accelerate drug discovery and development from its Paris, Boston, and Montreal bases. In this episode he explains how WhiteLab uses AI technologies to identify targets and engineer vectors, but also offers a wider view o...
Apr 25, 2025•40 min•Ep. 144
From llamas and camels to humans worldwide. Nanobodies are enjoying success in the clinic and experts are hailing these camelid-derived biologics as one of the next big things in immunotherapy. Kristian Reich is co-founder and CSO of MoonLake Immunotherapeutics. After a long and distinguished career as a clinician and researcher, Kristian helped to launch MoonLake in 2021 and quickly helped move their lead candidate to the clinic. Now, on the verge of Phase III trials, he joins 'Beyond Biotech' ...
Apr 11, 2025•41 min•Ep. 143
Cell therapies are at the cutting edge of personalized medicine but as demand for these therapies grows, how will the industry scale manufacturing to meet patient needs? Fabian Gerlinghaus is co-founder and CEO of Cellares. He and his team have developed the Cell Shuttle, an advanced cell manufacturing technology that is already demonstrating the potential to 10x cell yields while halving costs for pharmaceuticals companies and innovators. Is this the future for smart cell manufacturing? 0:52 A ...
Apr 04, 2025•40 min•Ep. 142
Spinal cord injuries impact millions of people worldwide and, unlike many chronic injuries, they usually arrive with no forewarning, impacting the young and old alike. Brian Culley is CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics and his company is now in the clinic with a stem cell therapy for spinal cord injuries. Learn why stem cells could be promising for these devastating injuries and how Brian and his team plan to overcome the challenges of manufacturing at scale and succeeding in a highly regulated sp...
Mar 28, 2025•34 min•Ep. 141
Mitochondria are famously the powerhouse of the cell, but will mitochondrial therapeutics power the next big mainstream medical breakthrough? Klaus Dugi is CEO of Vandria, a biotech that develops mitophagy inducers that rejuvenate cells to treat age-related and chronic diseases. He joins 'Beyond Biotech' to talk cell mitophagy, biotech agility, and innovation in tackling neurodegenerative disease. 00:42 Introducing Klaus Dugi 02:51 Lessons learned in top pharma 05:10 The gap that Vandria seeks t...
Mar 21, 2025•38 min•Ep. 140
Regeneration Biomedical has developed a new technique to address neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's using stem cell therapy. Dr. Christopher Duma, has long been an innovator in neurosurgery using a gamma knife radiosurgery to treat glioblastoma. Now with Regeneration Biomedical, Duma is taking on neurodegenerative diseases with a first-in-human clinical trial where a patient's own stem cells are injected directly into their brain. On the podcast this week, we talk with Duma about his ca...
Mar 14, 2025•42 min•Ep. 139
We’re taking a short break this week and, while we’re away, we invite you to enjoy one of our favorite episodes. We will return with a brand-new episode next week! Immunai is mapping the immune system at unprecedented scale and granularity. The map, paired with machine learning, looks at how the immune system will respond to drug targets, offering an affordable way to prevent expensive drug failures. The ultimate goal is to market immune treatments for diseases like cancer faster than ever befor...
Mar 07, 2025•29 min•Ep. 138
Sweden's fastest growing private biotech, Anocca, is making plans for clinical trials in pancreatic cancer, with the TCR-T cell therapy trials called VIDAR-1. The CEO, Reagan Jarvis, when a researcher, pitched the company idea to a leading Swedish industrialist, who became co-founder, and provided the initial financing. The company has raised more than €100m to date. On the podcast this week, we have a conversation with Jarvis about TCR-T cell therapies, creating off-the-shelf products and partn...
Feb 28, 2025•27 min
Resalis Therapeutics is pursuing a groundbreaking approach to obesity treatment. Unlike current therapies that primarily focus on appetite suppression, Resalis’ lead program, RES-010, is a non-coding RNA drug candidate that targets underlying biological pathways to promote sustainable weight loss. By enhancing energy expenditure through white-to-brown adipose tissue conversion while preserving muscle mass, RES-010 is positioned as an ideal standalone therapy or a synergistic option for long-term...
Feb 21, 2025•30 min
CatalYm is preparing to initiate its broad phase 2b clinical development program for visugromab to tackle multiple solid tumor indications. Visugromab is a monoclonal antibody that neutralizes the tumor-derived growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15), a locally acting immunosuppressant fostering immunotherapy resistance. Neutralizing GDF-15 with visugromab reverses key cancer resistance mechanisms to reinstate an efficient anti-tumor response by reenabling immune cell activation, proliferation...
Feb 14, 2025•21 min
In the fall of 2024, Haya Therapeutics, based in Switzerland and San Diego, landed a $1bn deal with Eli Lilly to apply its long non-coding RNA (ncRNA) technology to obesity. The company’s lead candidate, HTX-001, is making progress towards the clinic in cardiomyopathy. CEO Samir is one of the first researchers to publish on lncRNA – which is also known as the Dark Genome This week, our podcast guest is Samir Ounzain, CEO and co-founder of Haya Therapeutics. Ounzain was one of the first researche...
Feb 07, 2025•33 min
Solid tumors present a big challenge for current treatments. However, a new approach might provide the answers - Tumor Activated Therapy. By targeting specific proteins common in all solid tumor micro-environments, Seekyo scientists think this can induce self-destruction of the tumor itself. Seekyo’s lead therapy, SKY01, can only be activated within the tumor, making it a highly-targeted solution. This differentiated approach overcomes the limits of existing treatments, such as small molecule or...
Jan 31, 2025•31 min
This week, we take a look at some of the highlights from the 43rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, which took place in San Francisco recently. While there weren’t necessarily many financial blockbusters, there were plenty of announcements and discussions on everything from artificial intelligence to the rising influence of Chinese companies and research, to the potential ramifications of the incoming Trump administration in the U.S. To help us navigate some of the highlights of the even...
Jan 24, 2025•20 min
Jessica Owens and Iana Dimkova are co-founders of Initiate Ventures—a female-led venture capital firm and studio that launched recently with a $45 million debut fund. Initiate Ventures is shaking up the traditional venture capital model by blending investments in healthcare, life sciences, and technology with a company creation platform. The company is tackling some of the most pressing challenges in healthcare, and their innovative approach offers fresh insights into what it takes to scale tran...
Jan 17, 2025•37 min
Brixton Biosciences, a clinical-stage life sciences company spun out from Massachusetts General Brigham, has been awarded $2m from the NIH HEAL Initiative to support the development of non-opioid, injectable pain relief solutions. As part of the NIH's efforts to tackle the U.S. opioid crisis, the funding will advance research into safer, drug-free alternatives to opioid pain management. Brixton’s Neural Ice is an injectable, drug-free pain management technology designed to provide long-lasting r...
Jan 10, 2025•33 min
While our podcast takes a brief break, Labiotech invites you to enjoy some of our favorite episodes. We will return with a brand-new episode on January 3rd, 2025! Have an awesome holiday season! On this podcast , we speak to Artiva Biotherapeutics’ CEO, Fred Aslan, M.D. The company has demonstrated the potential for efficacy and safety with natural killer (NK) cells in two cancer clinical trials. In August 2023, the company announced FDA clearance for an IND for lupus – marking a first for an al...
Dec 27, 2024•29 min
Our guest on the podcast this week is John Cassidy, director of life sciences and healthtech investments at SoftBank Vision Fund. Softbank Vision Fund is the world’s largest technology-focused investment fund, with $166bn assets under management, and a portfolio of more than 250 companies. In the discussion, we cover investment trends within life sciences, the European health and biotech scene, as well as the precise applications of new and emerging AI technologies. We also look ahead to what th...
Dec 20, 2024•39 min
There is a constant risk of severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reactions for individuals with peanut allergies, which leads to significant physical, social, and emotional burdens. IgGenix, a clinical-stage immunology biotechnology company, recently announced the first patient dosed in its phase 1 trial evaluating IGNX001, a novel monoclonal antibody-based therapeutic, for peanut allergy. Designed to neutralize the most clinically important peanut allergens and epitopes, IGNX001 combat...
Dec 13, 2024•31 min
ambiom is a life science commercial-advisory business development company based in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. The company helps its corporate clients with their product strategy, in- and out-licensing efforts, including asset valuation (NPV, rNPV), M&A scouting, complex due diligence and dealmaking. ambiom also provides input on regulatory matters, support in pricing and reimbursement decisions and communication with decision-making authorities. The company guides products from the...
Dec 06, 2024•38 min
Biological control company Oxitec recently launched Sparks, a new platform designed to rapidly scale Wolbachia replacement technology to take on dengue fever. Backed by a multi-million-dollar investment from the Gates Foundation, Sparks adds to Oxitec’s Aedes aegypti technology, called Friendly, which is taking on dengue fever in Brazil. With mosquito-borne diseases on the rise, Oxitec’s Friendly mosquitoes are designed to suppress populations of disease-spreading mosquitoes and, in turn, reduce...
Nov 29, 2024•36 min
