AI in Oncology Takes Off, Tackling HIV and Liver Disease, Pharma’s Recent Gains
The episode recaps highlights from the AACR conference, emphasizing that AI is moving from pre‑clinical research into clinical oncology, but adoption is hampered by low digital pathology uptake (under 10% of U.S. labs), trust issues, and infrastructure costs. It then shifts to two breakthrough studies: a CRISPR‑based genome‑wide screen in primary human CD4+ T cells that identified new antiviral proteins (PI16 and PPID) that can block HIV infection, and a bioengineering approach to grow a small “satellite” liver implant that expands in‑situ to support patients awaiting a full transplant. The guests—Jen editors and AI reporter—provide expert perspectives on the technical challenges and potential patient impact of these innovations.
Drugs From a Text Prompt, Wegovy Pill Competition Dampens Lilly’s Surge
In this episode of Touching Base, the GEN editors discuss how AI agents are accelerating scientific discovery, highlighting startups like Latent Labs that can design therapeutic antibodies from a simple text prompt and LabOS, an extended‑reality platform that integrates AI,...
Agentic AI, Virtual Cell, LNP Vaccine Boosters, Engineered Organs, and Mergers
In this episode of Touching Base, the Gen editorial team discusses the latest advances in AI for life sciences, including NVIDIA’s GTC announcements on agentic AI, the deployment of 3,500 GPUs by Roche, and the emergence of open‑source autonomous agents...
AI for Scientists, FDA Reverses Course, and Advances in Cancer Therapeutics
The episode covers three main business stories: Tamarin Bio’s $13.6M Series A to build an AI model‑coordination platform that makes tools like AlphaFold accessible to wet‑lab biologists; the FDA’s reversal on Moderna’s mRNA‑1010 seasonal flu vaccine, spurring a modest stock...
Women in Science, Robotics, Automation, SLAS, and Lilly Updates
The episode opens with a celebration of Women in Science Day, highlighting the historic origin of the term “scientist” and the push for greater female leadership in biotech. Medra CEO Michelle Lee discusses how the company is merging robotics with...
Editors’ Choice: Top Stories of 2025
In the year‑end episode, GEN editors review six headline biotech stories, highlighting AI’s expanding role in drug discovery, a landmark success for Baby KJ in cell‑gene therapy, and the turbulent year for Sarepta’s DMD gene therapy Elevidys, including patient deaths...