The Bio Report

Whether it’s capturing the imagination of a venture capitalist, enticing a potential partner, or attracting talent, CEOs need to be able to tell their company’s story effectively. In his new book “Winners Have a Story,” Giuseppe Marzio discusses how CEOs can turn complex science and technology into compelling tales. Marzio, who worked as a scientist in biopharma before launching a communications agency, comes to his interest in storytelling honestly. Growing up with a love for the cinema, he had dreams of becoming a filmmaker and has studied the structure of stories. We spoke to Marzio, founder of the communications agency Chiaro, about his new book “Winners Have a Story,” why a good pitch shares a common structure with novels and movies, and why a company’s strategy and story are inextricably linked.

It’s been understood for more than 60 years that cancer cells overproduce sugars on their surface. More recently it’s been discovered that these sugars can help cancer cells evade the immune system. Palleon Pharmaceuticals is developing immunotherapies that work by targeting these cell surface sugars and make them vulnerable to attack. We spoke to David Feltquate, chief medical officer of Palleon, about the potential to harness glycobiology to treat cancer, how the company is working to modulate cell-surface sugars, and its emerging pipeline of glyco-immuno therapies.

Current treatment of acute myeloid leukemia generally consists of chemotherapy followed by a hematopoietic stem cell transplant to eliminate any remaining cancer cells from the bone marrow. Even though outcomes remain poor with around 40 percent of transplanted patients experiencing cancer relapse, and patients who do relapse having two-year survival rates of less than 20 percent, the approach has changed little in 40 years. One reason is that newly transplanted patients are unable to receive targeted cancer therapies since those therapies would be toxic to the fragile transplanted stem cells. Vor Bio’s solution is to edit the stem cells prior to transplanting them so they lack the receptors targeted therapies attack. We spoke to Robert Ang, president and CEO of Vor Bio, about the company’s platform technology, how it works, and why it has the potential to change outcomes for patients with AML and other hematologic malignancies.

In cancer, the rigorous translational machinery of the human body goes haywire, causing an overproduction of proteins that fuel the growth and spread of tumors, as well as enabling them to evade the immune system. Effector Therapeutics is developing a new class of cancer therapies called selective translation regulator inhibitors, or STRIs, that can inhibit the production of proteins that drive a cancer. We spoke to Steve Worland, president and CEO of Effector, about the company’s new class of therapies, how they target a central node where two major cancer signaling pathways converge, and how they pack the punch of a combination therapy in a single drug.

While cell therapies hold great promise for not only halting the progression of degenerative disease but potentially restoring the body, cost has remained a barrier. Lineage Cell Therapeutics is developing allogenic cell therapies that don’t rely on modifying a patient’s own cells, making them scalable and less costly than autologous ones. At the end of last year, the company entered into a partnership with Genentech to develop and commercialize OpRegen, its experimental cell therapy for dry age-related macular degeneration. We spoke to Brian Culley, CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, about the company’s platform technology for off-the-shelf cell therapies, how its platform works, and what the collaboration with Genentech will do to advance the technology.

A broad range of serious diseases involve chronic inflammation, which causes both pain and progressive damage. Xalud Therapeutics is developing a locally-delivered, non-viral gene therapy that is designed to harness the ability of interleukin-10 to regulate the immune system and restore homeostasis. The company’s lead indication is in osteoarthritis We spoke to Diem Nguyen, CEO of Xalud, about the role inteleukin-10 plays in regulating multiple pathways in the immune system, Xalud’s gene therapy, and the indications the company is pursuing.

Traditional antibody discovery depends, in part, on a bit of good fortune that banks on the hope that either screening antibody libraries or exposing an organism to an antigen will result in the discovery of a compelling therapy. Yanay Ofran, CEO of Biolojic Design, says the problem with this approach is that it ignores many of the performance-related aspects of an antibody beyond its ability to bind to a target. His company’s AI platform for antibody discovery seeks to capitalize on the full capabilities of antibodies to develop smarter therapies that can serve as molecular switches and act conditionally. We spoke to Ofran about Biolojic’s platform technology, how it mimics the way the immune system makes antibodies, and why its approach will lead to smarter therapies.

The rise of antibiotic resistance and the threat of emerging viral pathogens have created global public health threats. Recce Pharmaceuticals is developing a new class of synthetic anti-infectives that it says can overcome the hyper-cellular mutation of bacteria and viruses. What’s more, the company says their potency doesn’t diminish even with repeated use. We spoke to James Graham, CEO of Recce, about its synthetic anti-infectives, how they work, and why they can be used repeatedly against a broad range of bacteria and viruses.

Whether in an operating room or in a trauma situation, the ability to quickly stop bleeding represents a critical need in healthcare. At the end of December, Cresilon filed for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to market its hemostatic gel to rapidly stop bleeding. The filing follows the launch of Vitigel, Cresilon’s hemostatic gel for the animal health market. We spoke to Joe Landolina, co-founder and CEO of Cresilon, about how he developed the plant-derived gel, the significant need he is seeking to address, and how the gel is able to halt bleeding in a matter of seconds.

In cancer, synthetic lethality refers to a state in which two genetic mutations that alone may allow a cancer cell to survive will kill it when they exist simultaneously. Cyteir Therapeutics is seeking to exploit that strategy with what it calls next-generation synthetically lethal therapies to treat a wide range of cancers. We spoke to Markus Renschler, president and CEO of Cyteir therapeutics, about synthetic lethality, Cyteir’s pipeline, and life as a small public biotech in 2022.

AI Dynamics is seeking to make AI accessible. Though its NeoPulse platform can be used across industries, the life sciences is one of the key markets the company is targeting with its technology being used to do everything from target identification for drug development to diagnosing and triaging TB patients by the sounds of their cough. We spoke to Rajeev Dutt, CEO and president of AI Dynamics, about the company’s core AI technology, how it seeks to make AI accessible, and why he believes it can transform drug development and healthcare by moving the needle on costs.

Social anxiety disorder can cause debilitating physical and emotional manifestations when a person is doing such things as meeting new people, speaking in public, or interviewing for a job. It can cause sweating, a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, and dizziness. The fear of embarrassment and humiliation can lead to depression and even addiction. VistaGen Therapeutics is developing intranasally delivered therapies for CNS disorders that can provide rapid relief at the onset of an episode much like someone with asthma might use a rescue inhaler. We spoke to Shawn Singh, CEO of VistaGen, about social anxiety disorder, the need for innovative approaches to treat that and other CNS conditions, and the potential for rapid onset therapies to treat a range of mental health conditions.

Humacyte’s human acellular vessels are experimental, engineered, off-the-shelf replacement vessels that are being developed for vascular repair, reconstruction, and replacement. The vessels are designed to overcome long-standing limitations in vessel tissue repair and replacement. Though not yet approved, the manufactured vessels are getting a real-world test as the company has been providing them to hospitals in Ukraine to treat wounded civilians and soldiers with vascular injuries. We spoke to Laura Niklason, CEO of Humacyte, about the company’s human acellular vessels, how they are produced, and the potential needs they can address.

The emergence of tyrosine kinase inhibitors represented a major advance in the fight against cancer, but the ability of tumors to mutate and develop resistance to these therapies remains a challenge. Theseus Pharmaceuticals is developing what it calls “pan-variant” kinase inhibitors in the hopes of outsmarting tumors by anticipating the range of kinases that may drive their spread and growth as they change. We spoke to Tim Clackson, president and CEO of Theseus Pharmaceuticals, about its structural-based approach to drug development, how it determines the appropriate targets for its pan-variant kinase inhibitors, and why it believes its next-generation TKIs can overcome the challenge of drug resistance.

The emerging understanding of the role the microbiome plays in wellness and disease is opening up a large number of potential therapeutic targets in the millions of genes that drive the microorganisms that live within the body. Eligo Bioscience is developing a new class of precision medicines that uses gene editing to address the expression of pathogenic genes in the microbiome to treat not only infectious disease, but other conditions such as inflammatory diseases and cancer as well. We spoke to Xavier Duportet, CEO of Eligo Bioscience, about the company’s use of synthetic DNA to target bacterial genes, its platform technology, and the wide range of conditions that can be addressed through this approach.

While cancer immunotherapies have been promising, CAR T cell therapies have been costly, effective on less than half of patients, and focused on hematologic cancers. Cytovia Therapeutics is enlisting natural killer cells, part of the innate immune system, to develop off-the-shelf immunotherapies to treat liquid and solid tumors. The company is leveraging a cluster of technologies to produce CAR NK cell therapies, edited NK cells to enhance their targeting, and NK engagers to redirect NK cells toward tumor targets. We spoke to Daniel Teper, co-founder and CEO of Cytovia, about the case for NK immunotherapies, Cytovia’s platform technologies, and the company’s pipeline of therapies in preclinical development.

Neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, and frontotemporal dementia have been difficult conditions for drug developers to target. Coya Therapeutics is approaching these conditions as diseases of immune system dysfunction to address the neuroinflammation that underlies them We spoke to Adrian Hepner, president and chief medical officer of Coya, about the role a hyper immune response plays in the progress of neurodegenerative diseases, how the company’s experimental regulatory T cell therapy works to halt that, and its pipeline in development.

The introduction of precision medicine has revolutionized the treatment of cancer and other diseases, but mental health conditions have not benefitted from the same type of treatment innovation. Alto Neuroscience is working to move psychiatry away from a trial-and-error approach to develop targeted medicines with the use of biomarkers to match the right drug to the right patient. We spoke to Amit Etkin, founder and CEO of Alto Neuroscience, about its efforts to develop precision medicines for mental health disorders, its AI platform for biomarker discovery, and its therapeutic pipeline in development.

The use of protein degraders is a promising area of emerging small molecule therapies. Rather than inhibit disease-causing proteins, degraders use a natural cellular process to break them down. Origami Therapeutics is using its proprietary drug discovery platform to develop novel protein degraders to target neurodegenerative diseases. The approach allows the company to target proteins that are considered undruggable because they lack an identified binding site. We spoke to Beth Hoffman, founder and CEO of Origami, about its platform for developing degraders, its focus on neurodegenerative diseases, and how its looking to potential partners to exploit the full potential of its platform technology.

Cancer immunotherapies have shown great promise, but many tumors can develop resistance as the changing tumor microenvironment can help cancers evade detection and allow cancer cells to proliferate. Teon Therapeutics is developing immno-oncology therapies for difficult to treat cancers that are designed to have the dual effect of restoring immune activity while suppressing cancer cell proliferation. We spoke to Serge Messerlian, CEO of Teon Therapeutics, about what happens when immunotherapies fail, the unique approach Teon is taking, and how the dual activity of its cancer therapies can restore immune activity while suppressing cancer cell proliferation.