Building Biotech Ecosystems | Tony Kulesa, Pillar VC

0:00 Background and inspiration for pursuing a career in Biotech5:10 Pivoting from academia to industry 8:30 Growth in industry from a scientist role into business development 16:15 The inspirational mission and vision for Bayer Co-lab to support early stage entrepreneurs20:30 Fiona’s role at Bayer Co-lab24:15 Fiona’s advice for entrepreneurs applying for the Co-lab29:00 Fiona’s view on trends in Biotechnology34:00 Discussing diversity in biotech and ways to improve representation

Part 2Using TikTok to develop scientific communication skills [0:00]Advice for entrepreneurs starting a company [6:00]Guardian's Series A Fundraise and how they are navigating VC Fundraising [10:30]The long-term vision of Guardian Bio for novel cell therapies treating [14:30]The importance of Diversity in Biotech [17:20]Exciting trends in Biotech that Ananya and Ricky are following [25:40]Passions outside of biotech and staying centered with a busy career [30:30]

Origin Stories and path to Biotech [00:00]Taking the leap to entrepreneurship [07:30]The formation story of Guardian Bio [20:25]The methodical process Ananya used to identify a co-founder [26:00]The core thesis of Guardian Bio- Dendritic Cells for Solid Tumors [29:00]The key pivots Guardian made early on [34:15]

Check out Episode 8 of the Nucleate Podcast. We were honored to have Sean McClain, the founder and CEO of AbSci speak about generative AI for developing novel therapies. The potential to accelerate development of therapies for patients is astronomical.

[02:15] Bobby Gaspar’s background[05:10] The science of haematopoietic stem cell therapy[12:30] Spinning out Orchard Therapeutics[21:15] Reverse partnerships with pharma[25:55] Balancing regulatory compliance and innovation[29:45] Value based payments [35:15] Recent approval of Casgevy and gene therapy regulation[39:45] Failures in a biotech’s journey[43:00] Impact and meaning in therapeutics companies

On this episode of the podcast, Signal hosts Michael Retchin and Ursule Demael interview Prof. Lee Cronin from Chemify. Lee Cronin is a Professor at the University of Glasgow, where he leads a research group focused on digital chemistry, automating chemical synthesis and origin of life. Lee Cronin is also the co-founder and CEO of Chemify, a startup advancing digitization and robotics for chemistry. In this episode, we discuss the idea of building a search engine for chemistry, the founding story of Chemify, and important differences between running an academic lab and a successful Series A stage startup. Lee Cronin shares how unique aspects of his personality and persistence were critical to build Chemify. Lee Cronin is an outspoken scientist, who is active on Twitter and has appeared on the Lex Fridman podcast, making for a fascinating and engaging episode!

Trevor talks about his inspirations for his career path [1:22]How to choose his PhD advisor and lab [3:51]Career trajectory, handling moments of uncertainty, and learning from mistakes [9:56]Trevor discovered a niche at the intersection of biology, physics, and computer science [11:54]Mammoth is uniquely positioned as an innovative science-focused company that delivers for patients [18:36]Trevor's key leadership advice he has learned as a CEO [24:43]CRISPR technology has the potential to revolutionize healthcare [27:55]

Show NotesTony's career foundations as an academic scientist at MIT and early inspiration for entrepreneurship  [0:43]Engaging in entrepreneurial groups shaped Tony's early career [07:10]Tony's inspiration to co-found Petri [11:38]Pillar is rethinking the approach to biotech investing [25:21]Pillar's investment thesis [30:34]Tony's advice to a PhD student who is considering industry and entrepreneurship [35:59]

What sparked Dr. Goodman’s interest in biotech (0:00)Deciding to pivot from academia to venture capital (3:45)Failing fast and applying that mindset to science (9:44)Transitioning from academia to a start up (14:44)Advice for aspiring technical founders (20:03)Becoming an investor at MPM Capital (30:24)MPM’s investment thesis in oncology. (40:14)

Introducing Nucleate Signal, a celebration of the next generation of biotech leaders. In this episode, host Emmanuella Nnuji-John is joined by guest Cheri Ackerman, the co-founder and CEO of Concerto Bioscience.