Discovery/R&D

  1. Gene Therapy For Chronic Inflammation With Xalud's Howard Rutman, M.D. 12/12/2022

    While many gene therapy development efforts focus on rare disease, Xalud Therapeutics is taking a swing that, measured in addressable patient market terms, is considerably bigger. Osteoarthritis, or OA, is a chronic, progressive joint disease that affects over 30 million people in the United States. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, we catch up with Xalud Chief Medical Officer Howard Rutman, M.D., MBA for a discussion on the company's late-stage plasmid DNA gene therapy that's showing promise in OA and other chronic inflammatory conditions. 

  2. Democratizing Biologics With Lumen Bioscience's Brian Finrow, J.D. & Craig Behnke, Ph.D. 12/1/2021

    Making powerful and curative biologic therapies accessible to patients from all walks of life, and all corners of the globe, requires radically innovative thinking. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Lumen Bioscience's Co-Founder and CEO Brian Finrow, J.D. and EVP of Production/Development Craig Behnke, Ph.D. discuss a novel approach: developing therapeutic proteins from readily-available food algae spirulina. It's driving a diverse pipeline of candidates into the clinic, for indications reaching from the gut to the heart and lungs.

  3. The Business And Science Of Obesity With Roger Cone, Ph.D., Founder Of Courage Therapeutics 7/9/2025

    On this week's episode, Roger Cone, Ph.D., Founder and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board at Courage Therapeutics, talks about discovering obesity-related protein receptors in the brain, how he spun his academic discoveries out into a biotech company developing new obesity drugs, the need for obesity treatments with fewer side effects than currently available GLP-1 therapies, and the value of pairing scientific leadership with a strong business partner as CEO.

  4. Executing A Product Pivot With Vir's Mark Eisner, MD 5/7/2025

    On this week's episode of the Business of Biotech, Dr. Mark Eisner, EVP and Chief Medical Officer at Vir Biotechnology, talks about the company's post-COVID pivot into infectious diseases (Hepatitis Delta and Hepatitis B) and oncology (solid tumors), how he reprioritized the company's development candidates and assimilated Sanofi's acquired T cell engager platform, and his own transition from healthcare provider to clinical research.

  5. Intranasal Prophylactics For Flu & Coronavirus With Leyden Labs' Koenraad Wiedhaup 8/2/2021

    As Leyden Labs Founder & CEO Koenraad Wiedhaup puts it, we breathe in galaxies of viruses on a daily basis. As those viruses multiply and mutate, our approach to mitigating their risks is largely reactive. That's why his new company is busy developing a prophylactic approach to protecting populations from a host of influenza and coronaviruses via a self-administered intranasal spray. Learn how the company came to be, how its development efforts were buoyed by a recent $40 million series A investment, and why Wiedhaup believes intranasal prophylactics are ready to play a role in prevention of the next pandemic on this episode of the Business of Biotech podcast.

  6. The Face Of African Biotech with Adrienne Leussa, Ph.D. 6/7/2023

    Dr. Adrienne Leussa is one of our favorite follows. If the booming biotech scene on an incredibly diverse continent of 1.2 billion people interests you, she should be one of your faves, too.

  7. Leading A tRNA Startup With Alltrna's Michelle Werner 5/14/2025

    On this week's Business of Biotech, Michelle Werner, CEO at Alltrna, talks transfer RNA (tRNA) therapy with host Ben Comer and guest co-host Anna Rose Welch, editorial and community director at Advancing RNA. Werner explains why a single engineered tRNA therapy has the potential to treat "hundreds, if not thousands," of rare genetic diseases, and how her own child's rare disease diagnosis shaped her career and approach to drug development. Werner also discusses Alltrna's use of AI and machine learning for drug optimization, the company's planned use of basket trials, and more.

  8. Real-Time Clinical Analysis With Glympse Bio's Dr. Caroline Loew 6/1/2021

    On this episode of the Business of Biotech, we're going deep with Glympse Bio President & CEO Dr. Caroline Loew to explore the possibilities and implications of the in-vivo, bioengineered, tunable sensors the company is developing for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in protease-mediates diseases. Currently in the clinic with applications for Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis and other fibrotic diseases as well as Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and other solid tumors, Glympse is unlocking an unprecedented view of near-real-time therapeutic response and therapeutic efficacy that could have big implications on the way biologics are developed, refined, and studied in the clinic.

  9. Myeloid Cells, Transplants, & Immuno-Oncology Inspiration 8/16/2020

    OSE Immunotherapeutics CEO Alexis Peyroles joins The Business Of Biotech: Summer Executive Sessions to discuss myeloid cells' role in immunology, why a team of transplant specialists is key to his company's therapeutic development approach, and creating differentiation as a clinical-stage immunotherapy company in an ever-growing sea of competitors. 

  10. Computational Drug Discovery With Gain Therapeutics' Matthias Alder 1/11/2023

    Gain Therapeutics' newly-appointed CEO Matthias Alder offers up a deep, yet abundantly clear explanation of how his company is applying compute power to speed up drug discovery. At Gain, computational models help researchers winnow down not just which molecules might have therapeutic effect, but also how adept those molecules will be at binding—and staying bound—to their target. It's not just theory, either. On this episode of the Business of Biotech, Alder shares on how the virtual successes seen on Gain's servers have translated in the wet lab, and how they've contributed to the company's fast-growing preclinical pipeline.