Podcasts about Juno Therapeutics

Nina is one of the up-and-coming superstars in biotech. Having just earned her PhD in bioengineering at Stanford in the Sunwoo Lab this summer, she has the scientific horsepower and storytelling ability to make a large impact on drug development, business, and the lives of patients. At the age of 8, Nina was diagnosed with an ovarian teratoma. In some ways, that shifted Nina towards a career in science and a mission to cure cancer. But while she was always interested in science, growing up in the suburbs of New York City enabled her to become world-class oboe and bassoon player as well. But in her words, she chose the research path rather than joining a conservatory because "science is a way to help other people [while] music is fun." At Williams College, she studied mathematics and biology and became interested in the progress going on in the cell therapy space, particularly CAR-T. This is around 2014 when companies like Juno Therapeutics, Novartis, and Kite Pharma were engineering patient T-cells to hone in on lymphomas. With a growing interest in bioengineering and the early clinical successes in CAR-T, Nina was compelled to join the LEAP program at Boston University to study bioengineering with a goal of engineering immune cells to target cancer. After applying to a number of graduate programs, Nina ended up at Stanford. She rotated through 5 labs: Irv Weissman, Garry Nolan, Crystal Mackall, Edgar Engleman, and John Sunwoo. These experiences ended up having a major impact on her research where she was able to have the flexibility to pursue the projects she was excited by in cell therapies and use various tools/methods she picked up from the other 4 groups in her graduate research. Early-on in grad school, her cancer relapsed and she was treated again. One thing about Nina is her grit. She was able to still move forward with her work despite all of this. Truly amazing. Her first project ended up not working out perfectly but taught Nina how to choose problems to work on. Michael Fischbach helps teach a class at Stanford, BioE 395, on this topic that Nina and I would recommend checking out. Her next project focused on studying subtypes of NK cells in tumors and generating functional data to figure out if they are a unique class of immune cells or an artifact of single-cell sequencing. After figuring out how to run an experiment with 1 month of prep, around 4 days of work, and then 3 weeks of data acquisition and analysis (shout-out to Gail for the help), Nina was able to discover a novel functionality of a new NK cell type that resembles ieILC1s, which have potent anti-tumor activity. Once she was able to show the experiment worked, Nina did the harrowing experiment another five times to verify her discovery and did an incredible job to combine various tools to map out new NK cell biology. At the end of the conversation, we discuss her new job as Head of Research at ImmuneBridge and the opportunities she sees in cell therapies. Nina is truly a role model to scientists and cancer survivors everywhere.

For episode 19 of the Ori Spotlight Podcast, Jason C. Foster is joined by Isabelle Rivière, Director of Cell Therapy and Cell Engineering Laboratory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), one of the world's leading cancer centers. Isabelle has also recently joined Ori as our newest SAB member – we're honored to have her supporting us in achieving our mission. To this episode, Isabelle brings insights she has gathered from 25 years of experience within the cell and gene therapy industry. Isabelle is also a co-founder of Juno Therapeutics, a board member of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), and past board member of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM). Together, Jason and Isabelle explore the most significant barriers to treating patients at scale, how automated systems - to improve monitoring, recording and tracking could help make therapies more affordable, and the importance of industry partnerships to accelerate the development of therapies and implementation of new technologies. Learn more about Isabelle Rivière

Hong Tang is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of OnQuality Pharmaceuticals, a targeted cancer supportive care (TCSC) pharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of treatments to address specific side effects of cancer therapies- to improve the quality of life and outcomes for patients fighting cancer. Prior to founding OnQuality, she worked as a Physician-Scientist in numerous medical affairs and leadership roles at the NIH, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Astellas Pharma, Dendreon, and Juno Therapeutics. She studied medicine at Guangzhou University and studied pharmacology at the University of Texas-San Antonio. In this episode, we discuss OnQuality's clinical pipeline of TCSC drugs, the field of medical affairs, the inspiration we draw to pursue science and medicine, and the role of clinical conferences.Hosted by Joe Varriale.

T-Cell Therapies offer enormous promise in the development of new approaches to treating cancer. A federal appeals court recently heard arguments in a patent dispute between two companies that have emerged as leaders in CAR-T technology for new cancer treatments. The patent relates to a treatment approach that uses specially altered T cells to fight cancer. In 2020 Juno Therapeutics won a $1 billion judgment against Gilead's Kite Pharma in connection with alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,446,190, entitled “Nucleic Acid Encoding Chimeric T Cell Receptors.” In this episode of the Harris Beach Podcast, partner Laura Smalley provides additional background on the case, analyzes the Circuit Court arguments, and provides her thoughts on the implications of the case and what might happen next. Related Links: Laura Smalley Bio - http://bit.ly/2uoTz2FIntellectual Law Practice Group - https://bit.ly/30dLcCU

In this episode, we cover the man behind the largest biotechnology IPO in history, Steve Harr.  Steve co-founded Sana biotechnology, a company that  went public earlier this year (2021) and raised almost $600 million dollars in its IPO.  Sana is changing the way diseases are cured.  Their approach is based on repairing and controlling genes within cells, essentially engineering cells so that they are better equipped to fight off diseases.  Prior to co-founding Sana, Steve served as an executive at Juno Therapeutics, a biotech company that was acquired for $11 billion in 2018, and worked as managing director at Morgan Stanley for over a decade.  If you stick around for the whole episode, you'll get insight into the extreme highs and lows of Steve's career journey, you will hear what Steve would advise his younger self, and you will get a peek into how he thinks about leadership.

Curing cancer, eliminating diseases, reprogramming cells to help 80-year-olds feel like they're 30 -- could it all be possible in our generation? America is in the midst of a biotech revolution that is transforming modern medicine and will save countless lives. At the forefront is Dr. Rick Klausner, former director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, co-founder of Juno Therapeutics, GRAIL, and MindStrong Health, renowned scientist, and billionaire innovator. Dr. Klausner has played a pivotal role in this movement on a number of fronts, not least by discovering how to treat previously incurable end-stage cancers -- and then founding companies that do just that, already saving tens of thousands of lives. And he is just getting started. In this wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Klausner explains how these remarkable breakthroughs occurred, giving a rundown on the science of cell therapies and their remarkable potential, alongside other new possibilities. As he charts the future of medicine, he also draws upon his wealth of historical knowledge and hints at how modern science could harness recent Nobel-Prize winning breakthroughs to discover the source of youth that eluded sixteenth-century explorer Juan Ponce de León. [Joe briefly confuses Ponce de León with Vasco de Gama.]

In this episode, we will hear an exclusive conversation from the recent CSV Virtual Event, "Excellence and Next-Generation Approaches to Quality System Monitoring." This discussion was moderated by Michelle Miller and features Nuala Calnan, Alyce Deegan, and Daniel Caparros. The discussion will be focused on providing reflections on the current landscape, team challenges in data governance programs and policies, understanding sources of bad data, missing data, data consistency and data integrity, as well as the speed of data delivery and defining metrics, and help in establishing digitally-enabled facilities using real-time analytics for agility in meeting ever-changing markets, and leveraging predictive capabilities to ensure highest levels of quality and control. About the panel: Michelle Miller Michelle Miller is Director of Global Validation at Illumina Inc. In this role, Michelle leads the global non-product validation across the company. This includes the strategy and execution of validation for facilities, manufacturing processes, consumables production, quality system, enterprise software, and other systems across all of Illumina. Over the past 12+ years, she has held roles in product engineering, product transfer, validation engineering, and quality assurance, supporting the manufacturing of microarrays, genome sequencing reagents, and consumables. Nuala Calnan Nuala is a 25 year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry. Her work as a consultant, academic, author and commentator is directed toward the development of practical, patient-focused excellence and has included research for FDA(USA), HPRA(Ireland) on patient safety and product quality. Nuala works with organizations to transform organizational culture, deliver more effective end-to-end risk management, implement knowledge excellence strategies, behavior-based good data governance, and enhance performance management through people. Nuala co-leads the ISPE Quality Culture Team, is a founding member of the ISPE Knowledge Management Task Team, and an Arnold F. Graves Scholar at TU Dublin, Ireland, where she leads many patient-focused regulatory science research projects at Masters and Ph.D. level. Alyce Deegan Alyce has over 20 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, and Gene Therapy industries. Alyce recently was the CSV Director at SeaGen and the IT Director of Manufacturing and GxP Lab Systems at Juno Therapeutics a CAR-T Cell Therapy Manufacturing Plant located in Bothell, WA. Throughout Alyce's career, she has held leadership positions in Quality, Validation, and IT at Pfizer, Biogen, and ThermoFisher. Daniel Caparros Head of Global Quality Strategy Data and Vendor Management at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany   Voices in Validation brings you the best in validation and compliance topics. Voices in Validation is brought to you by IVT Network, your expert source for life science regulatory knowledge. For more information on IVT Network, check out their website at http://ivtnetwork.com. 

Bob was born & raised in Dumont, NJ as the youngest of four siblings. He grew up in a typical, middle-class family where his father worked as a policeman and his mother was a stay-at-home mom. Bob worked as a janitor during his time in high school while playing several sports throughout the year.After getting his B.A. in Economics & Religious Studies, he worked as an assistant trader on wall-street for some time before realizing he wanted to do something else. Bob took a job selling pharmaceuticals to doctors for two years before making a significant career move. He then was admitted into the Harvard Business School to pursue an MBA, and he would become one of the top leaders in biotechnology/pharmaceuticals.Throughout his career, Bob made several risky career moves that ended up paying off. At one point, he was managing a $6 billion business at Amgen, a large pharmaceutical corporation, but decided to take a leap of faith and leave to join a smaller company called Juno Therapeutics.In the full podcast, Bob shares career setbacks, temporary failures, and most importantly shares key advice for how you can better prepare yourself to reach your career ambitions.

In early 2020, Juno Therapeutics won a $1 billion jury verdict against Gilead's Kite Pharma in connection with alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 7,446,190, entitled “Nucleic Acid Encoding Chimeric T Cell Receptors. In this episode, Harris Beach partner Laura Smalley discusses the implications of the Juno v. Kite pharma case, including the use of the “reasonable royalty” concept to support a large damaged award. Laura is an authority on intellectual property law and is a regular contributor to the American Intellectual Property Law Association's Biotech Buzz newsletter as well as a presenter on regulatory and IP issues for immunotherapies, including Car-T and antibody technologies. Related Links: Laura Smalley Bio - http://bit.ly/2uoTz2FIntellectual Property Law Practice Group - https://bit.ly/30dLcCUDownload Episode Transcript

On today’s episode, Stacey Bruzzese presents a recording with clips from a mock audit. The mock audit was recorded at a recent IVT conference and was facilitated by Alyce Deegan, Vice President of Data Integrity at Compliance Path LLC.What factors impede a zero-findings review?How can I prepare for an audit review?What can I expect from the inspectors?What kinds of questions do they ask?What is the best way to answer these questions?These questions and more are covered during the mock audit. This episode has a lot of useful tips for anyone preparing for an audit. For additional information about Alyce’s presentation got to http://www.ivtnetwork.com/article/data-integrity-mock-inspection-mitigating-risk Alyce Deegan has over 20 years of experience in Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Gene Therapy industries.  Most recently, Alyce was the IT Director of Manufacturing and GxP Lab Systems at Juno Therapeutics a CAR-T Cell Therapy Manufacturing Plant located in Bothell, WA.  Throughout Alyce’s career she has held leadership positions in Quality, Validation and IT at companies such as Pfizer, Biogen and ThermoFisher.  Throughout her career she has built and continues to build "Unified Compliance Models" within companies to address the ever changing regulations and has been directly involved with multiple agency inspections throughout the years.Voices in Validation brings you the best in validation and compliance topics. Voices in Validation is brought to you by IVT Network, your expert source for life science regulatory knowledge. For more information on IVT Network, check out their website at http://ivtnetwork.com.

Welcome to another episode of Biotechnology Focus radio. I am your host – Michelle Currie – here to give you the rundown on the Canadian biotech scene. This week I’ll be discussing how the regenerative medicine community is abuzz, expanding personalized medicine, and the very recent announcement from the Ontario government that brings great news to the life sciences sector.   +++++  The regenerative medicine field, which includes cell and gene therapies (CGTs), is still abuzz with the fall approvals of three CGTs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Novartis’ Kymriah, Gilead/Kite Pharma’s Yescarta and Spark Therapeutics Inc.’s Luxturna.  At the Cell and Gene Therapy World conference in Miami, Florida (January 22-25), many of the talks were either about the approved treatments or congratulating the industry on these significant milestones.  Reni Benjamin, of Raymond James Financial, reminded delegates that the pharmaceutical industry is also feeling confident about cell and gene therapes s. Acquisitions in 2017 were worth billions: Gilead acquired Kite for $11.9 billion, Takeda bought Ariad for $5.2 billion and Roche acquired Ignyta for $1.7 billion. As the conference was just getting underway, the news was announced that Celgene is buying Juno Therapeutics for $9 billion.  Illustrating the future of the field are the more than 1,300 currently open clinical trials listing stem cells (from sources other than blood) as the primary therapeutic, the 1,000 clinical trials in gene therapy, and clinical trials involving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells (a type of immune system cell) accounted for around half of clinical trials in 20162.  As such, global investment in the cell and gene therapies and regenerative medicine industry is booming. For example, public and private investment in immuno-oncology has grown to $1.5 billion2. When it comes to gene therapies, the forecast for the year 2025 ranges from $4.3 billion to $10 billion2 due to recent advances in the understanding of genetic disease, and innovation in genetic engineering tools. Altogether, it is estimated that the regenerative medicine industry will explode to a valuation of up to $20 billion by the year 2025.     So, where does Canada sit in terms of being an innovator in these advanced therapeutic technologies?     Let’s start with the good news. Canada is a prominent force in this emerging global field. We have a strong backbone of Canada-based researchers who are recognized scientific leaders, and a robust system for the development of highly-qualified personnel through Canada’s universities. We have also benefited from strategic investments in research, collaborative networks and infrastructure, and are developing a deep understanding of how to translate these advanced therapies from the bench to the bedside.  One way to sustain Canada’s leadership position is to nurture the right skills and education within our borders. Encouraging STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education from a young age is a necessary first step. Extending STEM-based education with biomedical engineering programs at the university level is a good strategy for supporting the growth of Canada’s CGT and regenerative medicine industry. Biomedical engineering – where engineering design principles and mathematics are applied to medicine and biology, allowing students to make significant contributions to improving human health by finding new diagnostic or therapeutic solutions – is an area Canadian universities are increasingly focusing on.  An illustration of how biomedical engineers are already impacting the regenerative medicine field can be found at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and at Medicine by Design. The 55-year-old IBBME fosters a multidisciplinary research community where students and investigators in engineering, medicine and dentistry collaborate to develop innovative solutions that address global challenges in human health. Their impact can be seen in the development of breakthrough biomedical devices and new biomaterial products.  Funded in 2015 with a generous federal grant, Medicine by Design builds on IBBME’s successful multidisciplinary model to conceive, create and test strategies to address critical problems in regenerative medicine. By working across disciplines and generating and using emerging methods, like genome editing, computational modelling and synthetic biology, Medicine by Design is generating a deeper understanding of core biological concepts controlling stem cell fate, and devising new therapeutic approaches that will improve health outcomes.  This successful approach is now receiving a significant boost in Vancouver, where the University of British Columbia (UBC) has launched a new School of Biomedical Engineering as a partnership between the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Applied Science.     Centre of commercialization and regenerative medicine, a Toronto-based leader in developing and commercializing regenerative medicine technologies, understands how the intersection of engineering and medicine, introduced by biomedical engineers, can help provide the tools that will advance the industry now and into the future.  One area where Centre of commercialization and regenerative medicine employs biomedical engineers is in its Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies (CATCT), a joint investment by GE Healthcare and the Government of Canada. Biomedical engineers work on process development strategies and solutions, and on projects involving reprogramming and engineering cells, immunotherapies and gene therapies. Operational for over a year, Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies was created to accelerate the development and adoption of cell manufacturing technologies that improve patient access to novel regenerative medicine-based therapies. The team introduces new technologies to solve emerging technical challenges and closes gaps in current and future workflows.      Our next challenge is to make certain that we have the people, technologies, processes and infrastructure to ensure Canadians have equitable access to these potentially game-changing therapies. Biomedical engineering programs are a start. Engineers are trained to look for efficiencies through cost reductions and improved technologies.  We need to build a Canadian innovation cluster that will attract talent and business expertise to capture the intellectual property developed in Canada and mobilize it for the benefit of Canadians.  We also need to work with government to position our health-care system as part of our competitive advantage. A big part of getting to this step in getting to this solution is starting to look at health economic models that integrate therapeutic costs and savings from development through to long term patent treatment costs.  Together, Canada’s companies, networks, researchers, start-ups and innovative centres are starting to deliver on the promise of regenerative medicine. With the technical know-how and a spirit of collaboration, biomedical engineers are a driving force in the country’s quest to lead the regenerative medicine industry into the future.  +++++  Personalized medicine is becoming a very popular term heard amongst researchers and the scientific community. It is a more tailored approach to preventing disease that is based on an individual’s predispositions. Whichever way you put it – personalized medicine, genomic medicine, precision medicine – it is reshaping healthcare.  Dr. Richard Kim, a scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute and clinical pharmacologist at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), has received $4.4 million to study an expanded personalized medicine program at London Health Sciences Centre. One-third of the funding comes from the provincial government’s Ontario Research Fund (ORF) while the remainder is contributions from Thermo Fisher Scientific and donor funding through London Health Sciences Foundation.  Personalized medicine uses pharmacogenomics – the study of genetic changes that alter the way a person responds to individual drugs. The new funding will enable researchers to follow patient outcomes and assess the cost-effectiveness of London Health Sciences Centre’s personalized medicine program, providing evidence on the relationship between the cost of the program and how patient care is improved.  London Health Sciences Centre’s personalized medicine program involves the full integration of research into patient care and was the first in Canada to implement personalized medicine as a clinical strategy. The practice began in 2008 through Dr. Kim’s research on warfarin – a blood thinner prescribed to treat blood clots.  Adverse drug reactions in patients is a significant problem. Some drugs do not metabolize with every patient, and can even lead to toxicity. It is the fourth leading cause of death among hospitalized patients and costs the Canadian health care system over $5 billion a year.  Dr. Kim explains, “For every medication, there are patients who should be prescribed lower or higher than the recommended standard dose and patients who should be prescribed an entirely different medication. Personalized medicine studies a patient’s unique DNA to ensure he or she is prescribed the right dose of the right medication at the right time.”  The team’s research continues to grow since inception and is providing testing for several other drugs. For example, they can now offer testing for cancer patients that have been prescribed 5-fluorouracil – a highly toxic form of chemotherapy – but is integral in treating bowel, stomach, head, and neck cancers.  Oncologists at London Health Sciences Centre’s London Regional Cancer Program can now refer patients to get tested for their potential reaction to 5-fluorouracil to better predict if they may or may not have an adverse reaction. A blood sample will be taken and tested with genotyping, and a full report given to the recommending oncologist. If a patient’s predicted to react poorly with the drug, they can follow clinical guidelines to either reduce the dose or find a method of treatment.  The team will study the outcomes of any patients referred to the program, including hospital stays, emergency department visits, and physician visits. These patients will be compared to others in the province using provincial health care data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The team hopes to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of implementing personalized medicine in a large acute-care hospital in Ontario.  +++++  The most recent announcement from the government of Ontario this past week was that it is investing $50 million in venture capital funds focused on life sciences.  Ontario is moving forward with their plan for a venture capital fund to aid life sciences firms access the capital they need to grow their business, create jobs, and grow on a global level.  The Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC) would like to identify fund managers to partner with other institutional investors such as corporations, banks and pension funds. Ontario’s new life sciences venture capital fund is designed to respond to the challenges faced in raising capital by innovative, high-potential life sciences companies to scale up and reach global markets.  The Hon. Reza Moridi, Minister of Research and Innovation says, “Providing much needed capital to growing life sciences companies is a crucial step towards a strong and sustainable life sciences ecosystem. Supporting high-potential life sciences companies will create good jobs and help commercialize technologies and services for improved healthcare at home and around the world.”  Ontario’s new venture capital fund focused on life sciences is designed to respond to the challenges faced in raising capital by innovative, high-potential life sciences companies to scale up and reach global markets. It will also help businesses foster new discoveries, including new technologies, treatments and cures for illnesses while supporting high quality, knowledge-based jobs for people across the province. It will also drive Ontario’s ability to attract and retain talent.  The Ontario Capital Growth Corporation, venture capital agency of the government of Ontario, was created to promote and develop the venture capital sector in Ontario, so that more high-potential technology companies have access to the capital needed to grow and prosper.  Supporting innovation in the life sciences is part of Ontario’s plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.  Ontario is the largest life sciences jurisdiction in Canada with more than 50 per cent of overall Canadian revenue. The province includes an incredible 1,840 firms employing close to 61,000 people across the province. This fund will open many doorways for Canadians and Ontarians.   +++++  Well, that wraps up another episode of Biotechnology Focus radio. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have a story idea or would like to be on the show, please email me at press@promotivemedia.ca. To see the articles in full check out the website biotechnologyfocus.ca ca so you don’t miss a beat! Have a momentous week. From my desk to yours – this is Michelle Currie.

Today in FirstWord:

Welcome to another episode of Biotechnology Focus radio. This week we are discussing some of the recent mergers and acquisitions that have been rocking the headlines, some recently awarded grants and how machines are moving fast. I am your host Michelle Currie, here to bring you the lowdown on the Canadian biotech scene.  +++++  Celgene, a biotech giant, has merged with and acquired Juno Therapeutics and their leading blockbuster drug cancer therapy in one of their largest deals ever. For a total of $9 billion, Celgene will pay $87 a share in cash for those not already owned by this corporation.  Celgene and Juno have been collaborating since June 2015 under which the two companies would leverage T cell therapeutic strategies to develop treatments for patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases with an initial focus on CAR-T and TCR technologies. In April 2016, Celgene exercised its option to develop and commercialize the Juno CD19 program outside of North America and China.  Juno develops cell-based cancer immunotherapies based on chimeric antigen receptor and high-affinity T cell (CAR-T cell) receptor technologies to genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer. Several product candidates have shown compelling clinical responses in clinical trials in refractory leukemia and lymphoma conducted to date.  This acquisition will position Celgene to become a preeminent cellular immunotherapy company with a platform to be at the forefront of future advances. JCAR017, a pivotal stage asset, with an emerging favorable profile in DLBCL, is expected to add approximately $3 billion in peak sales and significantly strengthen Celgene’s lymphoma portfolio, and JCARH125 will enhance Celgene’s campaign against BCMA (B-cell maturation antigen), a key target in multiple myeloma.  +++++  The global pharma industry is undergoing a dramatic transition from a quest for blockbusters to the design of a precision medicine based drug design. Artificial intelligence is one of the most prominent elements that has been adopted as part of the transition from a fully integrated pharmaceutical company model of drug design to extensive interaction with smaller innovative R&D companies as well as academic institutions.  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the activity devoted to making machines intelligent, and intelligence is that quality that enables an entity to function appropriately and with foresight in its environment (definition proposed by Nils J. Nillson, Stanford U.). Even though there are numerous definitions for AI, this one fits nicely into the goal of using machine learning for improving the rate of success in the design of novel and cost-effective therapeutics.  One of the primary reasons that AI has such a great potential in drug development is that there is a huge amount of health data available right now in the public health system. Clinical trials’ data, electronic medical records (EMR), genetic profiles and much more is the wealth representing the notion of BIG DATA in healthcare. The main challenge regarding the processing of big data is the need to process it in a meaningful and cost-effective fashion. That is why training a machine to fulfill the task becomes so attractive. Selecting and adjusting the right algorithms is the first essential step but once it is in place, training machines to find optimal patterns between the structure of “druggable molecules” and their optimal activity is within reach.  Canada has established a leadership position in training of machines to learn how to perform complex tasks, in a relatively short period of time. Based on recent commitments to the space, it is expected that we will witness in the foreseeable future designs of novel and much more specific therapeutics with higher potency and lesser side effects. The prospects are quite encouraging in light of the shift global pharma industry is adopting towards precision medicine. That shift will rely on sifting through patients’ medical records. Canadian AI machines are learning fast and are expected to become a key player in advancing academic concepts into standard and streamlined processes and organizations. In Ontario, the University of Toronto has emerged as a world-leading hub for research and entrepreneurship in this area. A potent combination of long-standing academic research in conjunction with the adoption of machine learning methodologies have already proven to be game-changing opportunities. Interactive approaches to computer science and medical research, combined with emerging best in class entrepreneurship programming and training is already yielding some fascinating fruits in the area of AI for drug discovery.  Companies like Structura Bio are taking the complex computational challenge of reducing noisy images from cryo-electron microscopes into readable highly accurate 3D structures of proteins and are doing what used to take a server room filled with computers a week, in a matter of seconds. Similarly, Phenomic AI (a recently incorporated UTEST company) uses a technique called deep learning to analyze data from high-throughput phenomic screens to analyze cell and tissue phenotypes in microscopy data with incredible accuracy. It holds out the potential for eliminating human intervention in the assessment of all that data. In some cases, companies like Deep Genomics and Atomwise are going all the way by leveraging their respective AI technologies to become drug discovery engines themselves. Our awareness of the impact of the AI revolution in drug discovery is already enormous and we’re only at the beginning of its adoption cycle. Future advances in Canada will be buoyed further by strong academic and institutional foundations that have been put in place to assist Canada in sustaining this advantage. The Vector Institute, as an example, was established in 2017 in partnership with Canada’s largest companies and the Federal and Provincial Government’s to attract and retain world-leading research talent and to promote cutting-edge research in the field.  Recently, partnerships have been established between the MaRS Innovation research healthcare ecosystem (UHN, Sickkids, Sunnybrook) with global players in the space of machine learning based drug design and developments. Partnerships with Schrödinger and Evotec have been established to capture the enormous potential of “fishing in the pond” of EMR’s rich source of unraveling the tissue/cellular architecture as a baseline for the discovery of novel disease targets, which thereby establishes a mechanism for better drugs.  The field of AI in the service of medical research is still in its infancy, but the initial avalanche of results is already starting to give us an idea of the great potential that machine learning can offer to those embarking on advancing drug development. Reducing screening times, aiding new drug candidates and finding the most effective drugs for specific diseases at a speed that humans cannot achieve is compelling, and we believe that AI will increasingly become part of the medical landscape. Once hurdles such as data standardized collection and storage as well as data privacy concerned are addressed, it is expected that we will witness an exponential inclination in the implementation of machine learning as a powerful tool in the design of more potent drugs with lesser side-effects. The FDA and Health Canada are encouraging pharmaceutical companies to join the choir.  To conclude, rephrasing from Eric Topol of the Scripps Research Institute (CNBC, May 2017), “The potential of artificial intelligence has probably the biggest impact of any type of technology on healthcare.”  +++++  Two of Canada’s largest producers of cannabis have struck a deal after months of negotiations and a hostile takeover bid. The board of directors and the special committee of the CanniMed board have agreed to support a new offer made by Aurora for the acquisition of all of the issued and outstanding shares of CanniMed not owned by Aurora.   Terry Booth, the CEO of Aurora Cannabis says, “We are very pleased to have come to terms with CanniMed on this powerful strategic combination that will establish a best-in-class cannabis company with operations across Canada and around the world.”   The new offer for CanniMed is approximately $1.1 billion based on Aurora’s implied share price of $12.65. The maximum amount of cash available under the amended offer will be $140 million, and the number of Aurora shares to be issued will be between approximately 72 million and 84 million. Assuming maximum cash elections, each CanniMed shareholder would receive $5.70 in cash and 2.9493 Aurora shares.  Despite CanniMed filing a law suit against Aurora earlier this month, this deal provides the optimum outcome for both companies.  +++++  The Ottawa Hospital has been awarded $12.7 million in the most recent project grant competition from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The grant funding will be going to sixteen research groups at the hospital who are in affiliation with the University of Ottawa. This represents an enormous success rate of 30 per cent, doubling the national average.  The new funding will provide researchers the much-needed capital to delve deeper into their studies ranging on a plethora of subjects – anywhere from oncolytic viruses as immunotherapy treatments, using a holistic approach to improving the quality of life for the homeless, to understanding the role of liquid metabolism in the brain.  “I’m delighted that our researchers have once again achieved such a high success rate,” says Dr. Duncan Stewart, executive vice president of research at The Ottawa Hospital and professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa. “These new research projects have the potential to redefine the future of health-care, both at home and around the world.”  The Ottawa Hospital has scored above the national average in CIHR grant competitions for the past several years, including 2015, 2016, and 2017. This research centre shows great promise and innovative studies for the years ahead.  For the summaries of all the projects please visit biotechnologyfocus.ca   +++++  Well that wraps up another episode of Biotechnology Focus radio. If you have any questions, comments or story ideas, please contact us at press@promotivemedia.ca, and don’t forget to follow us on our twitter handle @BiotechFocus. From my desk to yours – this is Michelle Currie.    

PharmaPills - Pillole dal farmaceutico: Novità, Curiosità e Lavoro dal mondo del farmaceutico. A cura di Stefano LagravineseIn questa puntata parliamo di:Aziende: Gsk, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Bioverativ, Celgene, Juno Therapeutics, EMA, Dompè, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim.Persone: Tamara Rogers (GSK), Rita Levi Montalcini.Nuove terapie: Cenegermin, emicizumab.Patologie: cancro, emofilia, cheratite neurotrofica.Lavoro: Medical Scientific Liaison, Clinical Site Manager.Ogni mercoledì alle h 12.00 su Spreaker.com e iTunes.Seguici su: www.telegram.me/pharmapillswww.facebook.com/pharmapills/Hai un dispositivo Apple? Seguici e abbonati al podcast tramite la app iPod http://nelfarmaceutico.link/pharma-apple

PharmaPills - Pillole dal farmaceutico: Novità, Curiosità e Lavoro dal mondo del farmaceutico. A cura di Stefano LagravineseIn questa puntata parliamo di:Aziende: Gsk, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, Bioverativ, Celgene, Juno Therapeutics, EMA, Dompè, Roche, Boehringer Ingelheim.Persone: Tamara Rogers (GSK), Rita Levi Montalcini.Nuove terapie: Cenegermin, emicizumab.Patologie: cancro, emofilia, cheratite neurotrofica.Lavoro: Medical Scientific Liaison, Clinical Site Manager.Ogni mercoledì alle h 12.00 su Spreaker.com e iTunes.Seguici su: www.telegram.me/pharmapillswww.facebook.com/pharmapills/Hai un dispositivo Apple? Seguici e abbonati al podcast tramite la app iPod http://nelfarmaceutico.link/pharma-apple

Tencent and Google partnership on patents, Celgene buys the rest of Juno Therapeutics, Apple invests in the Malala Fund,and Uber Eats buys Ando --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dollarsandcents/support

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