Rewriting the Rules of Antibody Drug Design
In this episode, Metaphor CEO Angela Huang explains how the company’s Function‑First platform uses live‑cell experiments combined with machine‑learning to design antibodies that can agonize, bias, or multi‑target receptors—capabilities that 95% of current antibodies lack. By focusing on functional activity in living systems rather than static structural data, Metaphor can tackle previously undruggable targets in immune, metabolic and cancer pathways, delivering candidates with built‑in drug‑like properties. Huang highlights the three‑step workflow—high‑throughput MAP experiments, computational MIMIC analysis to distill functional features, and AI‑driven DESIGN of developable antibodies—producing multiple viable candidates for each target. Her background as Pfizer’s former CCO underscores the strategic appeal of a platform that promises broader therapeutic applicability and a continuously learning pipeline.
Mapping Cellular Stress Biology to Tackle Undruggable Targets
In this episode, Daniel Levine interviews Yeremiá Gizarian, co‑founder and CEO of Soleil Therapeutics, about the company’s AI‑driven platform that maps cellular stress responses to discover drugs for traditionally "undruggable" targets. The discussion explains how Soleil flips the conventional drug‑discovery...
Turning Abandoned Drugs Into Breakthroughs
In this episode, PureTech Health president Eric Alenko explains the company’s hub‑and‑spoke model for rescuing abandoned therapeutics, focusing on systematic identification of unmet needs, validation of human pharmacology, and solving the specific liabilities that halted development. He details how PureTech...
Addressing Treatment Gaps in Gout
In this episode, Crystallis Therapeutics CEO James McKay explains the biology of gout, why existing urate‑lowering drugs often fail, and how the company’s next‑generation URAT1 inhibitor, detenurad, aims to close the large treatment gap for moderate‑to‑severe patients. He highlights that...
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...
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...