Matt Begemann: The Cancer-Killing CRISPR

Dyve Biosciences is developing a technology to deliver drugs through the skin that conventional transdermal approaches cannot accommodate. Its lead oncology program, DV800, targets tumor acidity, a longstanding therapeutic challenge. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, CEO Ryan Beal, MD, discusses the technology, its potential in cancer treatment, and how his own cancer experience reshaped his approach to drug development.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ new whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing assay expands the detection of clinically significant gene fusions across solid tumors, helping refine cancer diagnoses and inform targeted treatment decisions. Hussam Al Kateb, PhD, co-director of Mayo Clinic’s Clinical Genomics Lab, takes us behind the scenes of a major reference laboratory to explore the challenges of developing advanced genomic diagnostics, keeping pace with scientific discovery, and translating technological breakthroughs into precision oncology.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What began as a search for plant-friendly CRISPR tools led Matt Begemann, PhD, and colleagues to Cas12a2, or CasCLEAR, an unusual system that can trigger broad nucleic acid damage after recognizing an RNA target, creating potential applications in cancer therapy, diagnostics, and antimicrobials. With early studies showing promise against cancer-causing mutations, Begemann’s story highlights both the challenges of translating Cas12a2 into therapies and the value of pursuing unexpected scientific discoveries.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Human Longevity executive chairman Wei-Wu He discusses how the integration of genomics, advanced imaging, and artificial intelligence could transform disease prediction and personalized preventive medicine. Reflecting on Craig Venter’s legacy, he explores the challenges of democratizing precision medicine and the quest to extend human healthspan by identifying and intervening in disease before symptoms emerge.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roche’s AXELIOS sequencer, Alzheimer’s blood test, and push to automate mass spectrometry point to a broader strategy of making advanced diagnostics routine. Whether AXELIOS can meaningfully challenge Illumina’s sequencing dominance, however, remains an open question.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gene therapy’s biggest bottleneck remains delivery: getting increasingly sophisticated genetic medicines safely into the right cells. SonoThera is taking a radically different approach, using ultrasound and microbubbles instead of viral vectors and nanoparticles, which could allow for larger payloads, repeat dosing, and precise tissue targeting. The key question is whether this seemingly too-good-to-be-true approach can work in humans after promising results across multiple organs in animals.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Biocatalysis has evolved from a scientific curiosity into a powerful manufacturing platform, culminating in enlicitide, the first oral macrocyclic peptide PCSK9 inhibitor. Merck’s David Thaisrivongs explains how enzyme engineering helped create this “Goldilocks” class of medicines—and could open previously inaccessible drug targets to oral therapies.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) isn't going to be solved by new antibiotics alone—it also requires identifying resistant infections quickly enough to guide treatment and prevent transmission. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Anne Beaubrun, PhD, of Cepheid and Amish Acharya, PhD, of the Fleming Initiative, discuss how rapid molecular diagnostics, including the TRACE-CPE study, could bring precision medicine to infectious disease by enabling earlier detection of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE)—dangerous, last-resort antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are spreading rapidly in hospitals. They also explore the scientific, clinical, and policy challenges of making rapid diagnostics a routine part of healthcare worldwide.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades, psychiatry has relied on symptom-based diagnosis and trial-and-error treatment, but precision medicine is set to transform mental health care by using objective biological measures—such as EEG, sleep and circadian rhythm data, and cognitive testing—with AI-driven analysis to match patients with the therapies most likely to work for them. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Alto Neuroscience founder and CEO Amit Etkin explains how biomarker-guided drug development and biologically defined patient populations could make precision psychiatry routine, improving outcomes and changing how psychiatric disorders are diagnosed and treated.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI is transforming biomedical research, but meaningful advances in drug discovery require more than just increasingly powerful algorithms—they depend on combining machine learning with physics-based simulations, mechanistic models, and rigorous experimental validation. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Michael Antonov, co-founder of Oculus and computational drug discovery company Deep Origin, shares a pragmatic perspective on AI's opportunities and limitations in medicine, explaining where it is accelerating innovation and why human expertise and experimental science remain indispensable.Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhDAudio mixed and mastered by Erick ZieglerBrought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing)Medicine is full of breakthroughs. Most don't become medicine. Behind the Breakthroughs explores scientific ideas that could change how we diagnose and treat disease—and what it will take for them to work. Host Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD, a scientist-turned-journalist, speaks with the researchers, physicians, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of genetic medicines, diagnostics, AI, precision therapeutics, and biotechnology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.