19
Jan
2021
Gene Editing for Transplants and Cell Therapy: Luhan Yang on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Luhan Yang. Luhan is the founder and CEO of Hangzhou, China-based Qihan Biotech. Qihan is using genome editing technology to engineer pigs with organs that can be safely transplanted into humans. This is what scientists call xenotransplantation. The concept has been around a long time, but new CRISPR-based gene editing technologies make it... Read More
19
Jan
2021
A Vision for an mHealth-Driven Biopharma Future
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17
Jan
2021
Two Doses or One? Let’s Stick To the Data
With COVID-19 surging and a chaotic political situation, we still have reasons to consider ourselves fortunate. We have two safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While the rollout has been frustratingly slow thus far, these vaccines and others under study hold our best promise of pandemic control. Both products, the... Read More
14
Jan
2021
Restoring Local Journalism in America
National traumas force us out of our comfort zones. They can force us to search, to ask new questions, to think deeper about our world. This week, my first real journalism job came to mind. One day, when I expressed surprise to my editor in Madison, Wisconsin that the tiny Grand Forks Herald in North Dakota had won the Pulitzer... Read More
14
Jan
2021
How Worried Should We Be About Emerging Strains of SARS-CoV-2?
All virus strains mutate continuously. That’s normal. There’s nothing inherently concerning about that word, “mutation.” Unless, of course, the mutations give an evolving virus new properties that make it more transmissible or more pathogenic. That’s trouble. The news has been worrisome in recent weeks with reports on the B.1.1.7 strain first detected in the UK, and other new strains of... Read More
13
Jan
2021
The Politics of Speaking Up
We thought we had lived through the most difficult year of our lives in 2020, from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic to the delusional and autocratic ambitions of a sitting President of the United States. Then we were shocked once more, by deadly mob violence and ominous threats of more to come at the U.S. Capitol in the days before the... Read More
13
Jan
2021
Cell & Gene Therapy Boom Sparks Investment in Biologics Manufacturing
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12
Jan
2021
A Moment of Truth
Democracy is fragile. Its stability depends on the acceptance of its principles by the population as a whole, the resilience of the institutions that support it, an independent judiciary, a free press, free and open elections and, in the United States, the foundation laid by the Constitution. The struggle to balance those critical pillars has been waged across the... Read More
11
Jan
2021
EQRx Gets $500M To Hit the Gas on High-Quality, Low-Cost Drug Model
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8
Jan
2021
Biotech Is Radiant In a Dark Moment
The virus, at the start of a New Year, has arrived on all seven continents. Even Antarctica. An estimated 2 million people have died worldwide from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and that’s surely an undercount. About 4,000 people are dying per day in the US. About 255,000 new people are being diagnosed with this dangerous and mysterious invader every day in... Read More
7
Jan
2021
Fungus-Based Startup, LifeMine, Fetches $50M; Arsenal Attracts BMS Cell Therapy
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6
Jan
2021
mRNA Vaccines Inspire Hope for Emerging Technologies; Is Digital Pharma Next?
The mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, developed by Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer, were a conspicuous bright spot in a generally devastating year. Besides giving us a chance to bring the pandemic to an end, they remind us more generally of the profoundly transformative potential of emerging technologies. Audacious scientific and entrepreneurial ambitions can take years of grinding persistence, often sounding unrealistic or... Read More
6
Jan
2021
Startup Profiles: Senti and Myeloid Raise Cash to Push Cell Therapy Frontiers
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5
Jan
2021
The Vaccine Rollout Could Prompt Real Reform to the US Health System
When I received the COVID vaccine on Dec 24, it was the end of a tense, frustrating two-week period. Thousands of healthcare workers like me — doctors, nurses, physician assistants and more — at the Mass General Brigham health system were eager to get vaccinated, and antsy about whether we’d get the shot as soon as it was available. The... Read More
4
Jan
2021
Pan-Cancer Tests Have a Long Road Ahead
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22
Dec
2020
Creative New Treatments for Mental Health: Steve Paul on The Long Run
Today’s guest on The Long Run is Steve Paul. Steve is the chairman, president and CEO of Boston-based Karuna Therapeutics. Karuna is developing new treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders. By the time you listen to this conversation, Karuna will either be very close to starting a Phase III clinical trial of its lead drug candidate, or it will already have begun.... Read More
22
Dec
2020
Listening Through The Noise and Talking to Those Who Will Listen
Pediatric oncologists like me tend to know their cancer chemotherapy combinations, chapter and verse. But for me and many of my colleagues, vaccines have always loomed large, integral to the “pediatric” part of our medical training. As a medical student in the late 1990s and a resident in pediatrics during the early 2000s, vaccination was a constant source of discussion.... Read More
21
Dec
2020
Celsius, Servier Forge Single-Cell Analysis Partnership in Colorectal Cancer
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21
Dec
2020
More Than Words. Taking Steps Together Towards Greater Health Equity
Healthcare leaders have made many commitments this year on racial equity. The question now is how we turn words into action. Over the past couple years, I’ve become a believer in the power of small groups that share an immersive, cultivated experience. In September, I convened one such group on a two-day virtual journey to Montgomery, Alabama. This virtual conference... Read More
20
Dec
2020
Science in the Face of Fear: Vaccine Hesitancy and Public Trust
This month has been a media whipsaw. News of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines’ compelling efficacy and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s rapid response and issuance of an Emergency Use Authorization for both vaccines have been met with equal parts jubilation and fear from a divided public. For me, as a medical virologist and researcher, this remarkable achievement... Read More