Nature Biotechnology Podcast

Brady Huggett signs off. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jay Keasling is a professor in the College of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, where he runs the Keasling lab. He's also the CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute, and has been involved in several startups. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers growing up on the family farm in Nebraska, how Genentech led him into biotech, and the future of biofuels. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ingmar Hoerr is a co-founder and former CEO of CureVac. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers his initial discovery with RNA while in his PhD program, the struggle to find venture financing for CureVac, and how a brain aneurysm changed his view on life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lita Nelsen is the former long-time director of the Technology Licensing Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her talk with Nature Biotechnology covers her father's life designing television antennas, what drove her to the chemical engineering program at MIT, and the ingredients required to create an entrepreneurial environment on campus (and beyond). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stan Crooke is born ⬩ A tenuous existence ⬩ Life with his mother ⬩ The Tech Corner ⬩ Arsenal Tech High School ⬩ Nancy ⬩ Hoodlum ways ⬩ Off to Purdue See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anthony Atala is the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University. He is also a co-founder of Precise Bio. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers implanting the first tissue-engineered bladder into a patient, Wake Forest's plans for fostering entrepreneurship, and how he was coerced into a research career by a mentor. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nancy Simonian is president and CEO of Syros Pharmaceuticals. Her conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers going against the advice of her mentor to take a job at Biogen; the long, winding path to approval for the multiple myeloma drug Velcade; and assisting her father in the operating room as a girl. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Carl June is a co-founder of Tmunity Therapeutics, and a professor in immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also runs the June Lab. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology includes how a boyhood fractured arm led him to his first scientific experiment, his years of service with the Navy, and his groundbreaking work with CAR T-cells. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Craig Mello is co-founder of Atalanta Therapeutics and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he runs the Mello Lab. He is also a Nobel Laureate. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers the lure of conspiracy theorists, the state of RNA therapeutics, and getting that call from the Nobel committee. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Neil Kumar is a co-founder and CEO of BridgeBio Pharma. He discussed with Nature Biotechnology his youth in the Midwest, the founding principles behind BridgeBio, and understanding where your strengths lie. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Grace Colón is president and CEO of InCarda Therapeutics. Her conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers growing up in San Juan, Puerto Rico; her love of musical theater; and how grad school at MIT guided her toward a career in entrepreneurship. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tillman Gerngross is the CEO and co-founder of Adimab, and a professor of bioengineering at Dartmouth College. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers his years at GlycoFi, the nature of problem solving in entrepreneurship, and Adimab’s paper last year challenging the work of MIT researcher Ram Sasisekharan. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Noubar Afeyan is the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers his family fleeing the Lebanese Civil War when he was a boy, how a chance encounter at a scientific meeting opened his mind to entrepreneurism, and why immigrants (and entrepreneurs) benefit from having a “paranoid optimist” mindset. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Katrine Bosley is former CEO of Editas Medicines and Avila Therapeutics. She discusses growing up in Ohio, her first job in biotech (as an administrative assistant) and why her five years at CRISPR company Editas felt more like 1,000. This episode is part of Nature Biotechnology's focus issue on translating the CRISPR technology. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ted Love is the president and CEO of Global Blood Therapeutics. In his conversation with Nature Biotechnology, he discusses why his time at Haverford College was transformative, why he views Global Blood Therapeutics as a social justice company, and what might be gained from the “racial catharsis” happening in America after the police killing of George Floyd. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alexis Borisy is CEO and Chairman of EQRx, and a long-time biotech builder with Third Rock Ventures. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers growing up as a “faculty brat” in Wisconsin, dropping out of his PhD program at Harvard and why, even as an investor, biotech cannot be all about the money. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A conversation with Jeremy Levin, chairman of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and CEO of Ovid Therapeutics, about industry versus government responses to covid19, the split within biotech on how to address charges of high prices, and why the biopharma industry is so disliked. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bassil Dahiyat is co-founder, president and CEO of Xencor. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers his parents emigrating from Jordan, how Xencor has survived (and changed) over the past 22 years, and when it’s necessary for a CEO to speak out. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Senior Editor Irene Jarchum talks to Stefan Schneeberger about the significance of a recent Nature Biotechnology paper describing a sophisticated perfusion machine to keep human livers alive for a week. The work was carried out by Pierre-Alain Clavien and colleagues from ETH Zurich. Read the paper here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Greg Verdine is a professor at Harvard University, and CEO and president of FogPharma and LifeMine Therapeutics. He is co-founder of more than 10 companies. His talk with Nature Biotechnology covers growing up in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, the importance of excelling in the lab versus the classroom, and drugging the undruggable. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Samantha Du is founder, CEO and chairman of Zai Lab. In her conversation with Nature Biotechnology she discusses her thoughts on the US-China trade war, what makes Zai Lab a success, and her family's experience during the Cultural Revolution in China. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pardis Sabeti is a co-founder of Sherlock Biosciences, the head of the Sabeti Lab, and a co-author of Outbreak Culture. Her conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers her family fleeing the Iranian revolution, the Sabeti Lab's role in the Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016, and the ATV accident that nearly killed her. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nina Tandon is co-founder and CEO of EpiBone. Her First Rounders conversation covers growing up on Roosevelt Island in New York City, witnessing September 11, and tackling her company's first Phase 1 trial. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Cigall Kadoch is a co-founder of Foghorn Therapeutics and assistant professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she runs the Kadoch lab. In her talk with Nature Biotechnology, she discusses launching Foghorn, how geography affects biotech success, and the link between interior design and scientific rigor. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Robert Langer is the David H. Koch Institute professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also runs the Langer Lab and is co-founder of more than 40 biotech companies. His talk with Nature Biotechnology covers the death of his father, his experience teaching high school science and math, and the requirements for launching a successful biotech. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

George Church is professor of genetics at Harvard University, and professor of health sciences and technology at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also co-founder of more than 20 biotech companies. His talk with Nature Biotechnology covers being held back in 9th grade, launching the Human Genome Project, and the necessity of surveilling synthetic biologists. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Chad Womack is senior director of STEM initiatives at UNCF. The episode covers Womack's path to HIV research at Harvard, his experience founding a biotech just before the Great Recession, and what the election of President Barack Obama meant to African Americans. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Christoph Lengauer is a venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, the president of Celsius Therapeutics, and executive vice president at Blueprint Medicines. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers growing up in Austria, why he nearly gave up research for a career helping settle refugees, and his role in the Henrietta Lacks story. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Feng Zhang runs the Zhang Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He's also a faculty member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and has co-founded several biotech companies, including Editas Medicine. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers immigrating to America as a boy, his moment of discovery with CRISPR, and what massive success before the age of 35 does to a researcher. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

John Maraganore is CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. In his talk with Nature Biotechnology he discusses his decade at Biogen, running an RNAi company when skepticism covered the field, and growing up the son of Greek immigrants in Chicago. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jeff Leiden is chairman, president and CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers rebuilding Vertex toward cystic fibrosis, competing for talent in the innovation economy and dropping out of high school to enter college early. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Susan Windham-Bannister is president and CEO of Biomedical Growth Strategies and was the founding president and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC). Her conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers her childhood in segregated St. Louis, her work at MLSC helping grow the life sciences sector in Massachusetts through Governor Deval Patrick's $1-billion initiative, and race relations in Boston and the United States. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stelios Papadopoulos has been a biotech analyst, investment banker, and company founder. He's the current chairman of the board at Biogen. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology touches on his reasons for leaving Greece to come to the United States, how he made his mark in the nascent biotech analyst field, and his participation in late '60s radicalism. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Greg Winter is the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and a serial entrepreneur, who co-founded Cambridge Antibody Technology. Much of his career was spent at the Medical Research Council, and his research led to humanized monoclonal antibodies. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers growing up in west Africa, how suffering an attack in the street led to a breakthrough in the lab, and the state of UK biotech. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jan is the co-founder, CEO and chairman of the Vilcek Foundation, and also a long-time researcher and professor at New York University's School of Medicine. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers his harrowing childhood in Czechoslovakia during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II, his escape from communist Czechoslovakia through defection, and his role in the discovery of the blockbuster drug Remicade. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rachel Haurwitz is co-founder, president and CEO of Caribou Biosciences. In her discussion with Nature Biotechnology, she explains what drew her into the sciences, how her father's journalism career brought their family to Austin, Texas, and how she found herself at the cutting edge of CRISPR technology. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stephen Quake is a professor in the department of bioengineering at Stanford University and a serial founder of biotech companies. His talk with Nature Biotechnology covers launching Fluidigm, being chosen as copresident of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, and what it was like to be one of the first people to have their genome sequenced. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Jeremy Levin is chairman and CEO of Ovid Therapeutics, formerly president and CEO of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and former member of the executive committee at Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he led that company's 'string of pearls' strategy. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers shifting his mindset from treating patients to business development, his youth in South Africa, and how his past influences his view of the 2016 US presidential election results. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anu Acharya is founder and CEO of Mapmygenome, a co-founder of Ocimum Biosolutions and a leading light for life science entrepreneurship in India. Her discussion with Nature Biotechnology covers the importance of mentorship, running a consumer genomics company, and grieving the death of a parent. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nancy J Kelley, founder and chief executive of Nancy J Kelley + Associates, a consultancy creating and developing projects and institutions for science and medicine, touches on establishing the East River Science Park, excelling at Yale as a young mother of three and why one must take risks in life. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Baltimore, president emeritus of the California Institute of Technology, discusses his parents moving him from New York City to Great Neck, Long Island, as a child; his initial interest in animal virology; and getting that Nobel call from Sweden. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tom Maniatis is a founder of Kallyope, and head of the Maniatis lab at Columbia University. Among other things, he's founded several biotechs and authored a manual nicknamed 'the bible of cloning.' His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers being the first in his family to go to college, the moratorium on recombinant DNA research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his long relationship with Jim Watson at Cold Spring Harbor. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Daniel Cohen is chairman and CEO of Pharnext. He was also co-founder of CEPH, Genethon and Millennium, and an early leader in the genomics field. His talk with Nature Biotechnology covers the industrialization of genomic sequencing, his part in founding Millennium and why the conductor has the most difficult job in an orchestra. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

James Wilson is the director of the Gene Therapy Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a founder and chief scientific advisor at Regenx Bio, as well as founder and chairman of scientific advisory council at Dimension Therapeutics. Wilson's conversation covers his love of motocross racing, the triumphs and tribulation of gene therapy (including the Jesse Gelsinger tragedy), and the future of drug pricing. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Bill Rutter is founder, chairman and CEO of Synergenics, which manages a consortium of biotech companies. He was also a founder of Chiron and is credited with bringing the University of California at San Francisco to its prominent position in life sciences research. His discussion with Nature Biotechnology covers building out the labs at UCSF, sequencing the hepatitis C virus and his short stint in the Navy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Stan Crooke is the founder, chairman and CEO of Isis Pharmaceuticals. Nature Biotechnology spoke with Crooke about his troubled youth, the crests and valleys of antisense, and the skills needed to be a good leader. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rachel King is president and CEO of GlycoMimetics and former chairwoman of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. Talking with Nature Biotechnology, King discusses gene therapy, how a CEO handles layoffs and growing up with chickens. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Colin Goddard is former CEO of OSI Pharmaceuticals, and current chairman and CEO of Coferon. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology details the history behind OSI's blockbuster drug Tarceva (erlotinib), the benefits of having a British accent in the United States and how to survive a hostile takeover. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kari Stefansson's conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers the founding of deCODE, his love for literature (and his favorite poet), plus his encounter with the tortured chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Carl Feldbaum was the founding president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and he is the current chairman of the Life Sciences Foundation. His podcast conversation with Nature Biotechnology touches on his assistance in prosecuting Watergate, his visit to Saddam Hussein's palace and how he built BIO from the ground up. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Daphne Zohar is the founder, CEO and managing partner at PureTech, a venture creation company with a new approach to building biotechs, and she sits on the board of several life science firms. Her conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers starting her first company (in high school), the usefulness of Bioentrepreneur courses, and women in venture capital. (Updated February 6, 2015). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.