Intercepting Cancer When DNA Surveillance Fails
In this episode, Daniel Levine talks with Marina Udier, CEO of Newscom, about the company’s innovative cancer‑interception strategy that targets tumors arising from microsatellite instability (MSI) and deficient DNA mismatch repair, such as those seen in Lynch syndrome. Udier explains how frameshift neoantigens—unique peptide fragments created by insertion/deletion mutations—serve as tumor‑specific targets for their off‑the‑shelf vaccine NUS‑209, which uses a heterologous viral‑vector platform to prime a broad, polyclonal T‑cell response. The discussion also covers the advantages of an off‑the‑shelf approach versus personalized vaccines, the importance of combining the vaccine with checkpoint inhibitors, and the potential to prevent cancer before it forms rather than treating it after symptoms appear.
A Class Action Suits Moves RICO From Mobsters to Medicine
In this episode, attorney Harrison James explains how the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), originally aimed at organized crime, is being used in a landmark civil class action against Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly over the diabetes drug Actos....
Outsmarting Resistance with Rhythm
In this episode, Immuneering CEO Ben Zeskin explains the company’s novel “deep cyclic inhibition” dosing strategy, which delivers intense, short‑duration MEK inhibition pulses instead of continuous suppression. By restoring the natural intermittent signaling rhythm in healthy cells while repeatedly ambushing...
Editing Away Autoimmunity at the HLA Source
In this episode, Daniel Levine interviews Richard Freed, CEO of Rheumagen, about the pivotal role of HLA genes in autoimmune diseases and the company’s innovative gene‑editing approach to cure them. Freed explains how a single amino‑acid change at a conserved...
Why Asia Is the Emerging Epicenter for Global Biopharmaceutical Progress
In this episode, Daniel Levine talks with Feng Nying Zhang, a partner at McKinsey Shanghai, about Asia’s rapid rise as a global hub for biopharmaceutical innovation, highlighted by a McKinsey report showing the region’s share of innovative drug pipelines jumping...
Reprogramming Cancer From Within
In this episode, Dr. Aaron Vinnie shares his journey from a leukemia survivor to a Columbia University hematology‑oncology researcher, advocating a shift from traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy to precision strategies that rewire malignant blood cells. He explains how hematologic cancers stem...
A One Two Gene Therapy Punch to Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer
The episode explores EnGene's experimental gene therapy, detalimogene, for treating non‑muscle invasive bladder cancer, a condition affecting half a million new patients annually. Ron Cooper, EnGene's CEO, explains how the therapy uses a non‑viral vector to deliver a dual payload...
Reprogramming T Cells to Cross the Brain’s Border
In this episode, host and guest Michael Roberts, co‑founder and CEO of Adaptin Bio, discuss the difficulty of delivering biologic therapies across the blood‑brain barrier for glioblastoma patients. Roberts explains Adaptin’s platform, which reprograms a patient’s own T cells to...
A Billion Dollar Bet on AI-First Drug Development
In this episode, Marc Tessier‑Lavigne, co‑founder and CEO of Xaira, explains how the company is using an end‑to‑end AI platform to overhaul drug discovery by tackling three core bottlenecks: target selection, molecule design, and patient stratification. Xaira trains high‑dimensional "virtual...
Finding New Targets on the Surface of Misfolded Proteins
In this episode of The Bio Report, host and guests discuss Immuto Scientific’s novel approach to drug discovery that targets disease‑specific protein conformations rather than genetic sequences. CEO Faraz Choudhury explains how the company’s AI‑driven structural surfaceomics platform maps the...
An Effort to Detect and Treat Alzheimer’s at Its Earliest Stages
In this episode, Daniel Levine interviews Valerie Daggett, founder and CEO of AltPep, about the company's strategy to detect and treat Alzheimer's disease at its earliest stage by targeting toxic α‑sheet oligomers with synthetic peptide therapeutics and companion diagnostics. Daggett...
Determining the Cause and Severity of Sepsis with a Point-of-Care Test
In this episode of The Bio Report, host Daniel Levine interviews Tim Sweeney, CEO of Inflammatix, about the company's TriVerity point‑of‑care test that rapidly distinguishes bacterial from viral infections and gauges immune response severity in sepsis patients. Sweeney explains how...