In this episode of the Nucleate Podcast, Armand Cognetta, founder and CEO of General Proximity, shares his compelling journey from a directionless college student to a biotech entrepreneur. Drawing from personal experiences of academic struggles and scientific curiosity, Armand discusses how his passion for chemical biology and small molecule drug discovery led him to create a groundbreaking proximity therapeutics platform. He candidly explores the challenges of startup life, including early fun...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 30
From science to startup: real talk on biotech founding paths. For many early-stage biotech founders, that’s where the real challenge begins—and that’s where Persephoni Bio Partners comes in. In this episode of the Nucleate Podcast , Hillary Schultz and Dr. William Heath share how their unique journeys from clinical medicine and pharmaceutical R&D to early-stage investing led them to co-found Persephoni Bio, a venture studio focused on transforming breakthrough science into scalable biotech c...
Jun 27, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 29
Follow us at https://signal.nucleate.xyz 0:03:41 - Dr. Pao discusses losing his father to colon cancer at age 13, which motivated his career in medicine 0:05:30 - Describes his early academic training, including his PhD work on Gamma Delta T cells 0:09:54 - Begins discussing the EGFR mutation discovery in lung cancer research 0:13:16 - Shares the story of being "scooped" by other researchers when publishing his EGFR mutation findings 0:32:44 - Starts discussing his book "Breakthrough: The Quest ...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 28
Follow us at https://signal.nucleate.xyz/ [0:00] Peter begins by discussing his upbringing in a New Zealand university town. [2:39] He realizes he is not suited for bench work during his PhD and discovers a passion for computational analysis. [4:30] Campbell joins the Sanger Institute and participates in one of the first cancer genome sequencing projects using new technology. [8:00] He describes the revolutionary period of cancer genomics from 2008 to 2015, systematically exploring genetic chang...
May 28, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 27
Follow us at signal.nucleate.xyz 2:23 Raj describes growing up in India as a land of hustlers and the importance of being aggressive to advance oneself. 6:37 Discusses the challenges of the current biotech funding environment and the importance of being capital efficient. 11:17 Explains his career transition from large pharma to biotech, highlighting his ability to translate breakthrough science into products. 21:11 Describes founding Rectify Pharmaceuticals and building a platform for positive ...
May 14, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 26
In this episode of the Nucleate Podcast, Aikium co-founder and CEO Eswar Iyer joins host Anastasia Janas to explore how drug discovery can move beyond structured targets to engage the disordered proteome. Aikium is developing SeqRs, programmable, sequence-specific binders that can selectively target intrinsically disordered regions of proteins, unlocking new therapeutic possibilities in cancer, neuroinflammation, and autoimmune diseases. Built using generative AI and screened with a proprietary ...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 25
In this episode, Anastasia Janas and Paula Lengerke Diaz sit down with Dr. Uli Stilz, Head of the Bio Innovation Hub (BIH) at Novo Nordisk, to explore how strategic partnerships and emerging technologies are redefining the future of drug discovery. Uli reflects on his journey from chemistry and molecular biology to biopharma leadership, and shares how the BIH is accelerating breakthroughs in cardiometabolic diseases using emerging modalities like RNA editing, AI-guided drug discovery, and partne...
Apr 17, 2025•55 min•Ep. 24
In this episode of the Nucleate Podcast, Anastasia Janas sits down with Shelby Newsad, Partner at Compound VC, shares her journey from a small town in Appalachia to investing in some of the most transformative technologies shaping biotech and beyond. Starting as a first-generation college student with a pre-med background, she realized that commercialization is key to translating scientific research into real-world impact. Shelby discusses her work at Compound, a thesis-driven, research-centric ...
Apr 10, 2025•49 min•Ep. 23
Follow us here https://signal.nucleate.xyz/ 02:16 - Dave discusses his early career path and how he got into science 04:41 - Dave’s work on the Human Genome Project 13:38 - Founding Cofactor Genomics 16:42 - Discussing Pioneer Fund and its investment approach 48:58 - Thoughts on AI in health and biology 58:27 - Advice for founders in the current challenging funding environment 1:09:04 - How Pioneer Fund makes investment decisions 1:14:16 - Most difficult advice for entrepreneurs 1:16:47 - Final ...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 22
Follow us https://signal.nucleate.xyz/ Apply to the Entrepreneurial Fellows Program in Chicago with the CBC open from March 20-May 2,2025! https://chicagobiomedicalconsortium.org/awards/entrepreneurial-fellows/ In our latest podcast, hosted by Sam Kessel, Dr. Michelle Hoffmann discusses her unique journey from a PhD in molecular neuroscience PhD to a biotech consultant, and how her experiences shaped her passion for developing future leaders in the biotech industry in Chicago. Dr. Hoffmann’s car...
Mar 19, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 21
Follow us on https://signal.nucleate.xyz/ 04:14 - Dr. Stehman-Breen discusses her decision to pursue a career in medicine. 05:49 - Dr. Stehman-Breen explains her specialty choice in internal medicine and nephrology. 08:09 - Skills and mindset that prepared Catherine for a career in industry. 13:53 - The critical impact that physicians can have in biotech 19:03 - Overview of epigenetic editing and Chroma Medicine's approach. 0:28:22 - Early days of building Chroma Medicine from the ground up. 0:3...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 20
Follow us at https://signal.nucleate.xyz/ 02:18 - Eric Kelsic's background in physics and systems biology and how it shaped his approach to biological problems 03:57 - Differences in problem-solving between Kelsic's physics/systems biology background and traditional biology backgrounds 06:27 - Learning from working with George Church and his lab's approach to fostering innovation 10:02 - George Church's openness to exploring ideas 12:02 - How Kelsic's experience in George Church's lab led him to...
Feb 05, 2025•57 min•Ep. 19
Follow us on https://signal.nucleate.xyz/ Peter Barrett discussed his career journey, from starting in a technical role at Perkin Elmer to co-founding Celera Genomics and being part of the team that first sequenced the human genome. He then transitioned to venture capital, joining Atlas Venture, where he has focused on building and investing in innovative therapeutic and drug discovery companies. He shared insights on Atlas' approach, including their focus on targeted, therapeutics-only funds, t...
Jan 22, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 18
Follow the Nucleate Podcast on our website: https://signal.nucleate.xyz/ Jake Becraft, the co-founder and CEO of Strand Therapeutics, discusses his journey from pursuing a PhD in chemical engineering and synthetic biology at MIT to starting a biotech company focused on developing programmable mRNA therapeutics. At MIT, he worked on developing nanoparticles for DNA delivery and became interested in the challenges of mRNA delivery and therapeutic index. This led him to co-found Strand to engineer ...
Jan 07, 2025•52 min•Ep. 17
The Vagina Business, by Dr Marina Gerner, covers key issues in women's health and the novel solutions in development to address them. The book has already been getting attention with grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Society of Authors. Kirkus Reviews has praised the book as "energetic, thoroughly engaging reading" and emphasized its potential to improve women's health outcomes worldwide. It has also been recommended as a must-read business book by the Financial Times. As a jour...
Dec 08, 2024•41 min•Ep. 16
00:53 Michael discusses his background and inspirations for pursuing an intersectional career in biotech investing and film-making 6:24 Michael shares about taking time away from college to backpack in places like Fiji and New Zealand, and how that impacted his personal growth 12:43 Michael reflects on his experience at Pear Therapeutics, including lessons learned about business model risk and bridging different teams 16:26 Michael discusses how his Pear experience influenced his approach to inv...
Nov 19, 2024•37 min•Ep. 15
In this episode, Anastasia Janas interviews Leo Grady, founder and CEO of Jona. With over 20 years in AI and healthcare, Leo has made a profound impact on the field, including leading the development of the first FDA-approved AI system in pathology at Paige.AI. Together, they dive into the journey that led him to create Jona, a company focused on using AI to analyze the gut microbiome for personalized health insights. Leo shares his thoughts on AI's role in healthcare today, from emerging trends...
Nov 03, 2024•45 min•Ep. 14
In this episode, Sam Kessel and Anastasia Janas interview Luke Timmerman , an award-winning biotech journalist and founder of the Timmerman Report , as well as host of The Long Run Podcast . They explore Luke's non-traditional background, his curiosity, and his openness to learning, which shaped his journey to becoming a prominent figure in the biotech space. Luke shares insights into his career, discussing his book Hood, the founding of the Timmerman Report, and his podcast. He also offers his ...
Oct 20, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 13
In this episode, Sam Kessel speaks with Irene Blat, Senior Director for Search and Evaluation at Servier. Dr Blat discusses her lifelong fascination with science and inspiration to take her Oncology studies to industry to develop new therapies for patients. She discussed the intersection of science and business in Search and Evaluation identifying promising technologies. She talks about the key aspects of early-stage biotechs she evaluates for partnerships with Servier and the emphasis on the pa...
Sep 29, 2024•41 min•Ep. 12
0:00 Background and inspiration for pursuing a career in Biotech 5:10 Pivoting from academia to industry 8:30 Growth in industry from a scientist role into business development 16:15 The inspirational mission and vision for Bayer Co-lab to support early stage entrepreneurs 20:30 Fiona’s role at Bayer Co-lab 24:15 Fiona’s advice for entrepreneurs applying for the Co-lab 29:00 Fiona’s view on trends in Biotechnology 34:00 Discussing diversity in biotech and ways to improve representation...
Aug 28, 2024•45 min•Ep. 11
Part 2 Using TikTok to develop scientific communication skills [0:00] Advice for entrepreneurs starting a company [6:00] Guardian's Series A Fundraise and how they are navigating VC Fundraising [10:30] The long-term vision of Guardian Bio for novel cell therapies treating [14:30] The importance of Diversity in Biotech [17:20] Exciting trends in Biotech that Ananya and Ricky are following [25:40] Passions outside of biotech and staying centered with a busy career [30:30]...
Aug 12, 2024•37 min•Ep. 10
Origin Stories and path to Biotech [00:00] Taking the leap to entrepreneurship [07:30] The formation story of Guardian Bio [20:25] The methodical process Ananya used to identify a co-founder [26:00] The core thesis of Guardian Bio- Dendritic Cells for Solid Tumors [29:00] The key pivots Guardian made early on [34:15]
Aug 12, 2024•40 min•Ep. 9
Check out Episode 8 of the Nucleate Podcast. We were honored to have Sean McClain, the founder and CEO of AbSci speak about generative AI for developing novel therapies. The potential to accelerate development of therapies for patients is astronomical.
May 06, 2024•53 min•Ep. 8
[02:15] Bobby Gaspar’s background [05:10] The science of haematopoietic stem cell therapy [12:30] Spinning out Orchard Therapeutics [21:15] Reverse partnerships with pharma [25:55] Balancing regulatory compliance and innovation [29:45] Value based payments [35:15] Recent approval of Casgevy and gene therapy regulation [39:45] Failures in a biotech’s journey [43:00] Impact and meaning in therapeutics companies
Dec 19, 2023•47 min•Ep. 7
On this episode of the podcast, Signal hosts Michael Retchin and Ursule Demael interview Prof. Lee Cronin from Chemify. Lee Cronin is a Professor at the University of Glasgow, where he leads a research group focused on digital chemistry, automating chemical synthesis and origin of life. Lee Cronin is also the co-founder and CEO of Chemify, a startup advancing digitization and robotics for chemistry. In this episode, we discuss the idea of building a search engine for chemistry, the founding stor...
Oct 19, 2023•51 min•Ep. 6
Trevor talks about his inspirations for his career path [1:22] How to choose his PhD advisor and lab [3:51] Career trajectory, handling moments of uncertainty, and learning from mistakes [9:56] Trevor discovered a niche at the intersection of biology, physics, and computer science [11:54] Mammoth is uniquely positioned as an innovative science-focused company that delivers for patients [18:36] Trevor's key leadership advice he has learned as a CEO [24:43] CRISPR technology has the potential to r...
Sep 29, 2023•35 min•Ep. 5
Show Notes Tony's career foundations as an academic scientist at MIT and early inspiration for entrepreneurship [0:43] Engaging in entrepreneurial groups shaped Tony's early career [07:10] Tony's inspiration to co-found Petri [11:38] Pillar is rethinking the approach to biotech investing [25:21] Pillar's investment thesis [30:34] Tony's advice to a PhD student who is considering industry and entrepreneurship [35:59]
Sep 08, 2023•43 min•Ep. 4
What sparked Dr. Goodman’s interest in biotech (0:00) Deciding to pivot from academia to venture capital (3:45) Failing fast and applying that mindset to science (9:44) Transitioning from academia to a start up (14:44) Advice for aspiring technical founders (20:03) Becoming an investor at MPM Capital (30:24) MPM’s investment thesis in oncology. (40:14)
Jul 24, 2023•51 min•Ep. 3
Introducing Nucleate Signal, a celebration of the next generation of biotech leaders. In this episode, host Emmanuella Nnuji-John is joined by guest Cheri Ackerman, the co-founder and CEO of Concerto Bioscience.
Apr 21, 2023•41 min•Ep. 1
In this episode, host Jingyi Liu and Sam Kessel are joined by guest Martin-Immanuel Bittner, the co-founder and CEO of Arctoris.
Apr 21, 2023•30 min•Ep. 2
