05.02.22 -- New Episodes: Allogeneic CAR-T Therapies, Antibodies for Severe Allergies, and more.

Check out the latest episodes from Cell & Gene: The Podcast and Business of Biotech. As a member of the Life Science Connect community, you have access to content beyond our weekly newsletters including our podcast series. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode!

Celyad Oncology’s CMO, Dr. Charlie Morris, shares the benefits and challenges of the allogeneic approach versus the autologous approach and why a non-gene edited shRNA approach may result in better efficacy and safety for CAR-T therapies.

In this episode, Rocket Pharmaceuticals CEO, Dr. Gaurav Shah, offers his take on why gene therapy developers have been plagued by clinical holds, whether the FDA’s adeno-associated virus (AAV)-focused CTGTAC meeting's takeaways will hold up throughout 2022, and more. 

Opus CEO Ben Yerxa, Ph.D., serves in triplicate as CEO at the RD Fund, Foundation Fighting Blindness, and Opus Genetics. His plate is full, but he's a man on a mission. Here, Dr. Yerxa shares his story, that of Opus Genetics' unique approach to addressing inherited retinal diseases, and how the company is addressing current funding, development, and capacity challenges in the cell and gene manufacturing space.

Context Therapeutics co-founder and CEO Martin Lehr shares stories from his self-described "recovery from venture capital," the work his company is doing in gynecological cancers, and how his small company manages a modality-agnostic approach and investigator-sponsored trials across multiple clinical candidates, four of which are in Phase 2 clinical trials.

Tuyen Ong, M.D., shares about his challenging formative years, the unspoken love between a father and son, facing down racism as a poor Chinese kid in Vietnam and London, and how those experiences shape his leadership as CEO at Ring Therapeutics. Oh, and we talk about some really cool commensal viral vector science, too.

IgGenix CEO Jessica Grossman, M.D., discusses the gender gap in the biopharma C-suite, why women work harder than men, what it means to be a female biopharma leader, and IgGenix's approach at isolating and re-engineering allergen-specific IgE antibodies into IgG antibodies designed to alleviate allergic cascade. 

Since assuming the president and CEO role at SparingVision in August 2020, Stéphane Boissel has been making big moves in the arenas of talent acquisition and IP expansion. On this episode, Boissel shares the company's foundation story and the role venture philanthropy played in it, his strategy for attracting and retaining big-league talent, and the why behind his vigorous allegiance to internal development.