Sickle Cell Disease: New Wave of Gene Therapies

Sickle cell disease was once considered an incurable disease, until recently. A wide variety of gene therapies have now become available, allowing patients with sickle cell disease to now have futures once thought unimaginable. In this podcast episode, we talk through these treatments and get expert advice on what these treatments mean for our future. 

Roivant Pharma is reinventing the discovery, development, and commercialization of new medicines. Mayukh Sukhatme, M.D. was recently appointed to Roivant's board of directors and has served as Roivant’s President and Chief Investment Officer since January 2021. He is responsible for identifying, performing diligence on, devising development strategies for, and transacting on new therapeutic programs for the company. He also informs Roivant’s view of its existing biopharmaceutical subsidiary companies for capital allocation decisions across the Roivant portfolio. Mayukh joined Roivant in 2015 and previously served as President of Roivant Pharma and as Chief Business Officer. Programs that he has in-licensed or acquired for Roivant have produced all 10 of Roivant’s positive Phase 3 studies and have garnered 6 FDA approvals. Before joining Roivant, Mayukh was a healthcare-focused analyst and portfolio manager for several large institutional investment firms, including both public markets and venture capital firms. He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his B.S. in Biology and B.S. in Literature from MIT.Hosted by Joe Varriale.

Dr. Ignacio Guerrero-Ros is an immunologist turned scientific communicator and biotech media innovator. Currently, he is an Assistant Vice President at Russo Partners, providing public and investor relations services to clients in the healthcare and technology industries. Originally from Spain, Ignacio earned his PhD in Immunology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Ignacio embraces the Hopkins Biotech Podcast's mission of the pursuit of alternative careers for PhD holders. In this episode, we discuss his ideas for how to find success beyond grad school and how he found a passion for science communication.Hosted by Joe Varriale.

Carina Clingman, Ph.D., is the Founder and CEO of Recruitomics Consulting, a niche talent acquisition and talent strategy firm specializing in biotech startups. She recently founded The Collaboratory Career Hub to help biotech job seekers find confidence and success in their job search. If you're exploring careers in biotech, join the free Collaboratory Slack Community to work directly with Carina and her team. In this episode, we discuss the state of the biotech job market and offer advice to job seekers and those considering careers in the biotech industry.Hosted by Joe Varriale.

About this episode: David Dornan is the Chief Scientific Officer of Elevation Oncology, a clinical-stage biotech company developing targeted cancer therapeutics, with a focus on antibody drug conjugates. David brings to Elevation over two decades of industry and academic oncology drug discovery and development experience. His research spans multiple therapeutic modalities targeting cancer susceptibilities and modulating the immune system to translate into meaningful therapeutic interventions for patients. As Chief Scientific Officer, he is responsible for scientific strategy and building of the company’s portfolio in targeted immunotherapies. Before leading these efforts at Elevation Oncology, David was the CSO at Bolt Biotherapeutics. Prior to this, he was the head of Oncology Research at Gilead. David began his career at Genentech, where he spent 10 years serving in positions of increasing responsibility and played key roles in target discovery and validation, as well as translational research programs.David received his Ph.D. from the University of Dundee in Molecular Oncology and Biochemistry and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Genentech. In this episode, we discuss Elevation’s ongoing clinical development of antibody-drug conjugate molecules to treat cancer and David’s wealth of experience in biotech and pharma.Hosted by Joe Varriale.

Emily Gransky is the Vice President of Recruiting at RA Ventures (RAVen). RAVen is the early-stage venture arm of the multi-stage investment firm RA Capital. In this role, Emily works closely with senior leaders, venture partners, and managing directors within the Venture Team at RA Capital and within RAVen. Her primary responsibility is leading and executing full-cycle recruiting across all newcos and portfolio companies. Prior to RAVen, Emily worked as Director, Talent Acquisition, at Generation Bio, leading hiring across all functions and building out systems to support that growth. Prior to this, she served as Director, Talent Acquisition and Operations at Flagship Pioneering, a role in which she built talent systems to support the growth of 30+ pre-series B biotech startup companies. Prior to Flagship, Emily held roles as Associate Director, Head of Global Talent Acquisition at bluebird bio. While in these roles, Emily helped Bluebird grow from 300 to 1000 employees. Emily received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in NY.In this episode, we discuss crucial factors that drive the hiring process for start-up biotech companies, and how to stand out as a candidate while recruiting in this competitive environment. Hosted by Joe Varriale.

Dr. Isaac Klein is the Chief Scientific Officer at Dewpoint Therapeutics. Dewpoint Therapeutics is leveraging condensate biology to impact a wide range of therapeutic targets across diverse disease areas. Armed with significant funding from venture capital and several big pharma partnerships, Dewpoint is poised to lead the generation of medicines targeting biomolecular condensates.Prior to joining Dewpoint, Isaac was on the faculty at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, as well as a scientist at the Whitehead Institute of MIT. He holds a Ph.D. in Biology from The Rockefeller University and an MD from Weill Cornell Medical College. He trained in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School and in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2022, Isaac was named one of Endpoints News 20 under 40 in Biopharma.Hosted by Joe Varriale.

Dr. Adam Jenkins is the Regional Site Director for the Massachusetts sites of Biolabs. BioLabs is an international, membership-based network of shared lab and office facilities located in key biotech innovation clusters. Since 2009, over 230 companies have launched from Biolabs facilities, and those member companies have collectively raised more than 1 billion dollars in private financing. With a growing number of sites across the globe, Biolabs is enabling company formation and promoting the biotech revolution. Prior to joining Biolabs in 2022, Adam worked at Biogen for seven years in various data science roles and eventually held the title of Associate Director of Corporate Strategy and Partnerships for Insights and Analytics. Adam holds a Ph.D. in Genomics from Boston College.In this episode, we discuss Biolabs’ unique business model that facilitates biotech company founding, the influence of biotech hubs, and the future of data science in biotech. Hosted by Joe Varriale.

In this episode, we talk with our panel about updates their company gave at the recent JP Morgan Healthcare Conference that took place earlier this year. This once-yearly conference is the epicenter for biotech deal-making and groundbreaking data releases. Dr. Robert Ross is the Chief Executive Officer of Surface Oncology. Surface Oncology’s mission is to deliver transformative outcomes for people with cancer by breaking through the frontiers of immuno-oncology research. Before becoming CEO, Rob served as Chief Medical Officer at Surface. Prior to joining Surface, he led several programs in hematology and oncology at Bluebird Bio, including the anti-BCMA CAR T cell therapy program. Rob received his MD from Columbia University and has received extensive training in hematology and oncology at top institutions including the University of California San Francisco, Dana Farber, and Mass General Hospital.Dr. Paul Lammers is the Chief Executive Officer of Triumvira Immunologics. Triumvira is leveraging its proprietary T-cell antigen coupling technology to enhance engineered cell therapy to target solid tumors. Paul has a rich background in biotech management, having served as President & CEO at Mirna Therapeutics and Chief Medical Officer and Head of US Product Development for EMD Serono. Paul received his MD from Radboud University in the Netherlands.Hosted by Joe Varriale.

Brian Culley is the CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech company whose mission is to pioneer a new branch of medicine based on transplanting specific cell types to patients with serious medical conditions. Lineage currently has several programs undergoing clinical and preclinical investigation for indications in ophthalmology, neurology, and oncology. Prior to joining Lineage in 2018, Brian held a number of senior leadership and executive roles at various biotech companies, including Artemis Therapeutics and Mast Therapeutics. Brian has more than 25 years of business and scientific experience in the life sciences industry and started at the bench, working in drug development research at Neurocrine Biosciences. He received a B.S. in biology from Boston College, a master's in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an M.B.A. from The Johnson School of Business at Cornell University.In this episode, we discuss Brian’s path to biotech senior leadership, Lineage’s proprietary platform technology, and bringing partnered programs to the clinic.Hosted by Joe Varriale.This episode was recorded on September 27th, 2022.