Ben Oakes is Co-founder, President, & CEO @ Scribe Therapeutics. He has contributed to over 25 publications and patent applications across synthetic biology, molecular engineering, CRISPR, and zinc finger-based genetic modification. A previous Innovative Genomics Institute Entrepreneurial Fellow, Ben has been named to the San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40, Endpoints 20 Under 40 in biopharma, Business Insider 30 Under 40 transforming healthcare, and the Biocom Life Sciences Catalyst Awards. He received a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked in the Doudna Lab and Savage Lab developing CRISPR-Cas9 molecules with enhanced characteristics.

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Dave Savage is Co-founder & Scientific Advisor @ Scribe Therapeutics. He is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology at the University of California, Berkeley and in 2021 was selected as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dave is an expert in biochemistry and protein engineering, and his laboratory develops novel tools for studying and manipulating the genome. Previously, he was a Department of Energy Physical Biosciences Fellow of the Life Sciences Research Foundation at Harvard Medical School.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

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Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement nor recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views & opinions expressed by guests are their own & their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them nor any entity they represent. Views & opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees & do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, nor its content sponsors.

Becky Pferdehirt is a Partner on the a16z bio + health investing team. She focuses on early stage companies building technology platforms for therapeutic discovery and development. Prior to joining Andreessen Horowitz, Becky worked at Amgen where she most recently led business development efforts for therapeutic platform partnerships. Before moving to BD Becky was a research scientist in Amgen R&D, focused on cell and gene therapy technology innovation. Becky completed her postdoctoral education at Genentech studying cancer cell biology and proteomics. She holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from UC Berkeley and a BS in Biology from MIT.

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Seth Lieblich is a Principal on the 8VC Bio Team. Seth came from Amgen where he was in Amgen Business Development’s technology group where he was responsible for search & evaluation and transactions for platform technologies across a number of therapeutic and functional areas. Seth was also responsible for strategic academic partnerships across all therapeutic and geographic areas. Prior to Amgen, Seth was at ZS Associates where he led teams engaging in market research, sales force design, and strategy. Prior to ZS Associates, Seth was co-founder and COO of Protomer Technologies, a Pasadena-based biologics startup. Seth received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the California Institute of Technology and holds a B.S and M.S. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

————————————————————————————————

Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement nor recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views & opinions expressed by guests are their own & their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them nor any entity they represent. Views & opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees & do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, nor its content sponsors.

Michael Jewett is the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, a Professor of Chemical & Biological Engineering, & Co-Director of the Center for Synthetic Biology @ Northwestern University. He is also an Institute Fellow at the Northwestern Argonne Institute for Science & Engineering. Jewett’s lab seeks to re-conceptualize the way we engineer complex biological systems for compelling applications in medicine, materials, and energy by transforming biochemical engineering with synthetic biology. Dr. Jewett is the recipient of the NIH Pathway to Independence Award in 2009, David and Lucile Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering in 2011, the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2011, the Agilent Early Career Professor Award in 2011, the 3M non-tenured faculty grant in 2012, the Camille-Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award in 2015, the ACS Biochemical Technologies Division Young Investigator Award in 2017, and the Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award in 2018.

w/ Special Guest Host: David Mace

David Mace is Co-founder & CEO @ SwiftScale Biologics, a life sciences startup based in San Francisco, California. SwiftScale Biologics accelerates time to market for protein drugs by turning a labor-intensive drug production scale-up challenge into a computational challenge. Previously David was an Entrepreneur in Residence at 8VC, where he focused on the intersection of biology & computer science. He is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology.

SwiftScale Biologics seeks to bring life-saving drugs to patients faster than previously possible. Specifically, SwiftScale uses cutting-edge cell-free and bacterial production platforms to rapidly produce protein therapeutics. SwiftScale’s technology is faster and cheaper than traditional manufacturing approaches, reducing time and cost to reach clinical trials and market. In Dec 2021, National Resilience acquired SwiftScale. Resilience is a technology focused manufacturing company dedicated to broadening access to complex medicines.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Vik Bajaj is a Managing Director @ Foresite, evaluating and pursuing investments at the intersection of technology and life sciences, including in personalized and precision healthcare.

Prior to joining Foresite Capital, Vik was the chief scientific officer of GRAIL, a life sciences company working to detect cancer early when it can be cured, and remains on its Scientific Advisory Board. He is also the co-founder and former chief scientific officer of Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) and served as chair of its Scientific Advisory Board. A former academic principal investigator, Vik retains appointments as associate professor (consulting) at the Stanford School of Medicine, and as an affiliate scientist of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, for which he serves on the advisory board of the College of Chemistry. He is an advisor to the Department of Defense through the Defense Science Board’s Task Force on Biology.

Vik’s research interests lie at the interface of the physical sciences, engineering, and the life sciences. He and his collaborators have developed nanotechnology probes for the early detection and molecular imaging of disease, spectroscopic tools for imaging objects on the nanoscale, microfabricated and miniaturized analytical and imaging systems for point-of-care testing, methods and devices that dramatically enhance the sensitivity and specificity of MRI, and new tools for clinical bioinformatics and integrative systems biology. Aspects of this work have been commercialized through several startups. At GRAIL, Vik led laboratory and data science teams at the forefront of industrial cancer genomics and diagnostics development.

He holds a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Vik’s scientific and engineering awards include the Anatole Abragam Prize (2012), the R&D 100 Award for the most promising commercialized technologies (2011 and 2013), and the Department of Energy’s LBL Innovation Grant (2013). In 2011, he was named as a Visiting Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Samir Mitragotri is the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering. Samir is an elected member of the National Academies of Engineering and Medicine, and elected fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Inventors, the Controlled Release Society, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He is a Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals and currently serves as the founding Editor-in-Chief of Bioengineering and Translational Medicine.

Samir has made groundbreaking contributions to the field of biological barriers and drug delivery systems. His research, which is focused on the fundamental understanding of biological barriers, has led to the development of new materials and technologies for diagnosis and treatment of various ailments including diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, skin conditions and infections. Many of his technologies have advanced to human clinical studies and products. Samir’s key technical contributions include the development of novel transdermal and oral delivery systems. Specifically in transdermal drug delivery, Samir has established a fundamental knowledgebase of transport properties of skin and has pioneered numerous technologies including low-frequency ultrasound, pulsed microjet injector, high throughput screening (INSIGHT), in situ hydrogels and ionic liquids for transdermal drug delivery. He has also developed ionic liquid-based technologies for oral delivery of insulin, monoclonal antibodies and other biologics. Samir has also developed unique bio-inspired nanoparticles that hitchhike on circulatory cells to avoid immune clearance and allow targeted delivery to tissues.

Samir is the author of more than 400 publications in the area of drug delivery and biomaterials, has given close to 500 invited and contributed presentations worldwide, and is an inventor on more than 200 pending or issued patents. He is a co-founder of several companies that are developing therapeutic or diagnostic products based on his inventions.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

————————————————————————————————

Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement nor recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views & opinions expressed by guests are their own & their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them nor any entity they represent. Views & opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees & do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, nor its content sponsors.

Hans Clevers is Director & Professor of Molecular Genetics @ the Hubrecht Institute in the Netherlands. He is also University Professor at the University Utrecht and Oncode Investigator. Clevers is one of the world’s leading researchers on stem cells and their potential for regenerative therapy. Over the past decade, his lab has produced vital studies on stem cells and the nature of self-renewal pathways controlling stem cells. Clevers was the first researcher to demonstrate the existence of long-lived stem cells in many tissues, including the intestine and stomach. Starting from the discovery that the TCF gene is the transcriptional endpoint of the WNT pathway, a pathway that is implicated in stem cell control, Clevers demonstrated that one of the TCF genes is essential for the stem cell compartment in the intestine.

w/ Special Guest Host: Xiling Shen - Co-Founder & CEO @ Xilis

Xiling Shen is Co-Founder & CEO @ Xilis. Before Xilis, Shen was the Hawkins Family Associate Professor at Duke University. Shen’s research interests lie in precision medicine and systems biology. His lab integrates engineering, computational and biological techniques to study cancer, stem cells, microbiota and the nervous system in the gut. This multidisciplinary work has been instrumental in initiating several translational clinical trials in precision therapy. He is the director of the Woo Center for Big Data and Precision Health (DAP) and a core member of the Center for Genomics and Computational Biology (GCB).

Hans Clevers & Xiling Shen are Co-Founders @ Xilis. Xilis is developing a precision oncology platform that guides treatment decisions for oncologists to improve cancer care outcomes for patients and supports drug discovery and development for pharmaceutical companies. Xilis’ proprietary MicroOrganoSphere™ (MOS) technology consists of miniature patient tumors that capture the full microenvironment and heterogeneity and provides an automated and scalable solution. Using MOS and AI-driven algorithms, Xilis is developing a Xilis Response Score™ for the clinic, enabling oncologists to make informed and timely treatment decisions. Additionally, the MOS technology is speeding up development and clinical trials of cancer drugs by enabling analysis of authentic tumor microenvironments, high-throughput preclinical modeling, and clinical patient selection capabilities.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Stephen Quake is the Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering & Professor of Applied Physics @ Stanford University & Co-President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.

Quake has invented many measurement tools for biology, including new DNA sequencing technologies that have enabled rapid analysis of the human genome and microfluidic automation that allows scientists to efficiently isolate individual cells and decipher their genetic code.

Quake is also well known for inventing new diagnostic tools, including the first non-invasive prenatal test for Down syndrome and other aneuploidies. His test is rapidly replacing risky invasive approaches such as amniocentesis, and millions of women each year now benefit from this approach. His innovations have helped to radically accelerate the pace of biology and have made medicine safer by replacing invasive biopsies with simple blood tests.Quake was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2013 for achievements in single-cell analysis and large-scale integration of microfluidic devices. He has also been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the American Physical Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Human Frontiers of Science Nakasone Prize, the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award, the MIT-Lemelson Prize for Innovation, the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Biophysics, the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, the American Society of Microbiology’s Promega Biotechnology Award, and the Royal Society of Chemistry Publishing’s Pioneer of Miniaturization Award. He has founded or co-founded several companies, including Fluidigm, Helicos Biosciences, Verinata Health, Quanticel Pharmaceuticals, Moleculo, Cellular Research, Immumetrix, and Karius.

Quake received a B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics from Stanford University in 1991 and a doctorate in Theoretical Physics from the University of Oxford in 1994 as a Marshall Scholar. He did his postdoctoral work at Stanford in single molecule biophysics with Steven Chu. Quake joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology at the age of 26, where he rose through the ranks and was ultimately appointed the Thomas and Doris Everhart Professor of Applied Physics and Physics. From 2006 to 2016 he was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

John Flavin is Founder & CEO @ Portal Innovations, a premier venture development engine that builds and invests in early stage life sciences ventures. Portal’s differentiated mix of crafted capital drives companies from scientific ideation to business creation, helping entrepreneurs translate cutting-edge technology into sustainable, global businesses with breakthrough products to help patients.

Prior to launching Portal, John founded and built several life sciences companies including Pyxis Oncology (NASDAQ: PYXS) and civic incubators MATTER and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago, a first-of-its-kind, fully integrated academic value creation engine which translates innovation through the launch of new businesses and partnerships at the University of Chicago, 2 national laboratories and Chicago’s South Side by providing entrepreneurship education, incubation space, IP licensing and capital. 

John has completed numerous public and private capital financings totaling over $365 million including 3 NASDAQ IPOs and has raised over $135 million in philanthropic and corporate funding to support university technology commercialization and venture start-up activities.

He possesses a deep understanding of academic-to-commercial innovation ecosystem development with a particular focus on the life sciences sector and has established key relationships with a diverse set of prospective partners representing all elements of the life sciences community including corporate, venture capital and academic stakeholders.

John is a frequent key-note speaker, panelist and lecturer on the topics of innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialization and is quoted often in the financial press including Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business and thought leadership media appearances on Bloomberg, WGN, and WTTW Chicago Tonight. 

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Don Ingber is the Founding Director of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering @ Harvard University, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and the Vascular Biology Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He received his B.A., M.A., M.Phil., M.D. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Ingber is a pioneer in the field of biologically inspired engineering, and at the Wyss Institute, he currently leads scientific and engineering teams that cross a broad range of disciplines to develop breakthrough bio-inspired technologies to advance healthcare and to improve sustainability. His work has led to major advances in mechanobiology, cell structure, tumor angiogenesis, tissue engineering, systems biology, nanobiotechnology and translational medicine. Through his work, Prof. Ingber also has helped to break down boundaries between science, art and design.

Ingber has authored more than 500 publications and almost 200 patents, founded 7 companies, and has presented over 550 plenary presentations and invited lectures world-wide. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Inventors, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Ingber has been the scientific founder of seven companies: Neomorphics, Tensegra, Boa Biomedical, FreeFlow Medical Devices, Unravel Bio, StataDx, and Emulate.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Dave Mooney is a leader in the fields of biomaterials, mechanotransduction, drug delivery, tissue engineering and immunoengineering. He is interested in understanding how cells sense signals in their environment and how this alters cell behavior. His laboratory develops biomaterials that exploit these signals to regulate specific cells and their function. They were the first to demonstrate in 3-D culture that the mechanical properties of a substrate regulated stem cell fate. His lab also developed the first implantable biomaterial cancer vaccine that contained biochemical cues to recruit and re-educate the immune system to destroy cancer cells. Mooney’s goal is to use our knowledge of cell biology in conjunction with materials to boost therapeutic effects.

Mooney is the Robert Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. He is a member of several national academies and has won numerous awards for his research and his mentorship/teaching. He has published over 400 articles and has been issued numerous patents, several of which have been licensed to companies, resulting in successful commercial products. He is also an active member in major engineering professional societies, an editorial advisor to multiple journals, and serves on several industry and government advisory boards.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Tom lnsel, psychiatrist & neuroscientist, has been a national leader in mental health research, policy, and technology. From 2002-2015, Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). More recently (2015 – 2017), he led the Mental Health Team at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) in South San Francisco, CA. In 2017 he co-founded Mindstrong Health, a Silicon Valley start-up building tools for people with serious mental illness. In 2019, Insel served as a special advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom, helping on behavioral health issues. In 2020, he co-founded Humanest Care, a therapeutic online community for recovery. He is currently Chair of the Board of the Steinberg Institute and serves on the boards of Fountain House, Foundation for NIH, and the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy as well as being an advisor to several mental health start-ups. He is the author of the forthcoming book Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health, to be published by Penguin Random House in February 2022. With journalist co-founders, he recently launched MindSite News (www.mindsitenews.org), a non-profit digital publication focused on mental health issues. Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards including honorary degrees in the U.S. and Europe.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

David Berry is Founder & CEO @ Valo. Since 2005, he has served as General Partner @ Flagship Pioneering, having founded over 25 companies including Indigo Agriculture, Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), Eleven Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: EBIO), T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA), and Joule Unlimited. David played an instrumental role in the conception and implementation of Flagship Labs, which is the foundation of all of its companies.

David has been broadly recognized as a world-leading innovator: elected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, named as Innovator of the Year by Technology Review from amongst its Annual TR35 list, and selected as one of 12 Innovators Reshaping Reality by the U.S. State Department, alongside pioneers such as Tim Berners-Lee. He holds over 200 patents and patent applications. David and his companies have been awarded with over 150 additional awards and honors.

David currently serves on the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN), where he was a Founding Leadership Council Member. David received his MD from Harvard Medical School and his PhD from MIT in Biological Engineering.

David received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. from MIT in biological engineering, through the Health Sciences and Technology program completing the fastest dual degree in the modern history of the program, during which he was awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize award for the most inventive and innovative student at MIT.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

David Baker is the director of the Institute for Protein Design, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor in Biochemistry, and an adjunct professor of genome sciences, bioengineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and physics at the University of Washington. His research group is focused on the design of macromolecular structures and functions.

He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry with Randy Schekman at the University of California, Berkeley, and did postdoctoral work in biophysics with David Agard at UCSF. 

Baker has received awards from the National Science Foundation, the Beckman Foundation, and the Packard Foundation. He is the recipient of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Irving Sigal and Hans Neurath awards from the Protein Society, the Overton Prize from the ISCB, the Feynman Prize from the Foresight Institute, the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, the Sackler prize in biophysics, and the Centenary Award from the Biochemical society. Sixty-five of his mentees have gone on to independent faculty positions, he has published over 500 research papers, been granted over 100 patents, and co-founded 13 companies.

Baker is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a project leader with The Audacious Project.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

————————————————————————————————

Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement nor recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views & opinions expressed by guests are their own & their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them nor any entity they represent. Views & opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees & do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, nor its content sponsors.

Jim Collins is The Termeer Professor of Bioengineering in the Department of Biological Engineering and Institute for Medical Engineering & Science @ MIT. He is also affiliated with the Broad Institute and the Wyss Institute. His research group works in synthetic biology and systems biology, with a particular focus on using network biology approaches to study antibiotic action, bacterial defense mechanisms, and the emergence of resistance. Professor Collins' patented technologies have been licensed by over 25 biotech, pharma and medical devices companies, and he has helped to launch a number of companies, including Senti Bio, Sample6 Technologies, Sherlock, Synlogic, and EnBiotix. He has received numerous awards and honors, including a Rhodes Scholarship, a MacArthur "Genius" Award, an NIH Director's Pioneer Award, a Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Award, as well as several teaching awards. Professor Collins is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

————————————————————————————————

Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement nor recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views & opinions expressed by guests are their own & their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them nor any entity they represent. Views & opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees & do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, nor its content sponsors.

Michael Snyder is the Stanford Ascherman Professor and Chair of Genetics and the Director of the Center of Genomics and Personalized Medicine. He is a leader in the field of functional genomics and proteomics. His laboratory study was the first to perform a large-scale functional genomics project in any organism, and currently carries out a variety of projects in the areas of genomics and proteomics both in yeast and humans. These include the large-scale analysis of proteins using protein microarrays and the global mapping of the binding sites of chromosomal proteins. His laboratory built the first proteome chip for any organism and the first high resolution tiling array for the entire human genome.

He is a cofounder of several biotechnology companies, including Protometrix (now part of Life Technologies), Affomix (now part of Illumina), Excelix, and Personalis, and he presently serves on the board of a number of companies.

Snyder received his Ph.D. training at the California Institute of Technology and carried out postdoctoral training at Stanford University. He is a leader in the field of big data and implementing it into healthcare.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Alaa Halawa & Ayman AlAbdallah are two integral members of the Mubadala Ventures team & lead the firm’s efforts in TechBio.

Alaa Halawa is the Co-Head of Mubadala Capital Ventures SF, where he focuses on investing in venture and early growth-stage companies at the intersection of life sciences and technology. Among other themes within life sciences investing, Alaa has concentrated on the following: how technology is enhancing the pharmaceutical industry, from drug discovery through clinical trials; and how technology - and in particular bio-informatics, artificial intelligence and machine learning - is enhancing disease diagnosis. Alaa joined Mubadala in 2009 where he worked on designing and implementing the strategy to develop a technology cluster in Abu Dhabi focusing on semiconductor research through partnerships with Silicon Valley companies and academic institutions. Alaa then moved to the Bay Area to support the transition of Executive Leadership in one of Mubadala's key assets in Silicon Valley, GlobalFoundries, where he worked on a series of strategic, corporate development and transformation initiatives. Alaa holds an MBA from Cornell University and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Jordan.

Alaa sits on the boards of Recursion, Alloy Therapeutics, Outpace, Xilis, Innovaccer, among others.

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Ayman AlAbdallah is a San Francisco-based investor at Mubadala Ventures. In his role, he focuses on early and growth stage investments in technology, healthcare, and life sciences. Prior to Mubadala, Ayman worked in corporate development at Tecan Group (SWX: Tecan) where he co-managed M&A and equity investment efforts in the US and Europe. He began his career as a management consultant at Accenture, where he helped businesses in Canada and the US solve critical strategy and operational challenges. He has also worked with the hedge fund team at OMERS Capital, where he focused on the intersection of machine learning and event-driven investing. In addition to his investing and consulting background, Ayman’s journey includes operating experience having been involved with a number of startups, including Sentinelle Medical (acquired by Hologics), Pullsar Technologies (acquired by Tecan), and Airo Health (Y Combinator, Summer 2016 batch). Ayman completed his M.B.A. and mechanical engineering studies at the University of Toronto where he received the Chalmers award and a fellowship for his engineering research thesis investigating novel Lab-on-a-Chip platforms.

Ayman sits on the board of Xilis, Unlearn, & Ansa

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

————————————————————————————————

Alix Ventures, by way of BIOS Community, is providing this content for general information purposes only. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement nor recommendation by Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, or its affiliates. The views & opinions expressed by guests are their own & their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them nor any entity they represent. Views & opinions expressed by Alix Ventures employees are those of the employees & do not necessarily reflect the view of Alix Ventures, BIOS Community, affiliates, nor its content sponsors.

David Schaffer is a Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Bioengineering, & Neuroscience @ University of California Berkeley, he also serves as the Director of QB3 - Berkeley.

At Berkeley, Schaffer applies engineering principles to enhance Stem Cell & Gene Therapy approaches for Neuro-Regeneration. This work includes mechanistic investigation of stem cell control, as well as molecular evolution & engineering of viral gene delivery vehicles.

He has Co-founded six companies including: 4D Molecular Therapeutics - which uses a novel technology platform to engineer optimized, proprietary adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for gene therapy, Ignite Immunotherapies, which is developing novel oncolytic virus technologies as cancer therapies in partnership with Pfizer, Valitor - which is developing a novel protein-polymer conjugation technology to develop greatly enhanced protein biologics for a range of disease targets, Axent focused on stem cell therapies, & two others in stealth.

Schaffer graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1993. Afterward, he pursued a PhD @ MIT with Professor Doug Lauffenburger & conducted a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Fred Gage @ The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, before moving to UC Berkeley in 1999.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Jennifer Friel Goldstein is the Managing Partner for Life Science & Healthcare Practice @ SVB Capital and is a founding member of Venture Forward, a nonprofit that provides resources and education toward developing a diverse, equitable and inclusive venture capital (VC) ecosystem.

She is also an advisory board member of Springboard Enterprises and the Women’s Health Innovation Coalition. Jennifer has more than 20 years of experience in the VC and startup market segments, including leading and building several teams over the past eight years at Silicon Valley Bank. Before that, she was a director on Pfizer’s VC team, where she helped lead or co-lead investments into several life sciences companies. She also led fund of funds investment decisions and independently managed Pfizer’s $250 million private equity (PE) portfolio. Jennifer served as a consultant on PE deals across Europe while at Bain & Company and held operational and research roles at Chiron, Genelabs, and Genencor. Jennifer graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering and a master’s degree in biotechnology from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School, where she was named a Joseph Wharton Fellow. She also serves as an independent director at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. Jennifer lives in the Bay Area with her husband and their twin children.

W/ Special Guest Host: Nabiha Saklayen - Cofounder & CEO @ Cellino

Nabiha Saklayen is a bio-inspired physicist and Co-Founder & CEO @ Cellino. Nabiha launched Cellino to converge physics, biology, and machine learning to enable paradigm shifts in autologous regenerative medicine. Nabiha was recognized as a Pioneer in MIT Tech Review’s 35 Innovators under 35 list for her inventions in laser-based delivery methods and is on the 2019 Forbes under 30 List for Healthcare. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University as an HHMI International Fellow. She made significant scientific contributions to the field of pulsed-laser delivery to cells, with several peer-reviewed papers published, patents pending, and grants awarded. Nabiha grew up in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Germany, and Sri Lanka and currently lives in Boston, MA.

Cellino is on a mission to make personalized, autologous cell therapies accessible for patients. Stem cell-derived regenerative medicines are poised to cure some of the most challenging diseases within this decade, including Parkinson’s, diabetes, and heart disease. Patient-specific cells provide the safest, most effective cures for these indications. However, current autologous processes are not scalable due to extensive manual handling, high variability, and expensive facility overhead. Cellino’s vision is to make personalized regenerative medicines viable at large scale for the first time. Cellino’s platform combines label-free imaging and high-speed laser editing with machine learning to automate cell reprogramming, expansion, and differentiation in a closed cassette format, enabling thousands of patient samples to be processed in parallel in a single facility.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license) 

Vijay Pande is a General Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he focuses on investments in Biopharma & Healthcare.

As the founding investor of a16z’s Bio Fund, Vijay leads the firm’s investments at the cross section of biology and computer science, including applications in computation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in healthcare; digital therapeutics; diagnostics; and other novel transformative scientific advances applied to industry that take bio beyond healthcare. Op-eds by Vijay defining trends and issues in this emerging space have been published by The New York Times, Scientific American, and Forbes, among others. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University.

Previously, Vijay was the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Structural Biology and of Computer Science at Stanford University, where he led a team of researchers pioneering computational methods and their application to medicine and biology (resulting in over 300 publications, two patents, and two novel drug candidates). Vijay was also concurrently the director of the Biophysics program at Stanford, where he led a team of more than 50 faculty members and propelled the program to the top in the country.

During his time at Stanford, Vijay co-founded Globavir Biosciences, where he translated his research advances into a successful startup that aimed to discover cures for Dengue Fever and Ebola. Vijay also founded the Folding@Home Distributed Computing Project for disease research, which pushed the boundaries of computer science techniques (distributed systems, machine learning, and exotic computer architectures) into biology and medicine, in both research as well as the development of new therapeutics.

Vijay holds a BA in Physics from Princeton University and a PhD in Physics from MIT. He has been awarded the DeLano Prize in Computation; a Guinness World Record for Folding@Home; the American Chemical Society Thomas Kuhn Paradigm Shift Award; and was selected for MIT TR10. In his teens, Vijay was the first employee at video game startup Naughty Dog Software, maker of Crash Bandicoot.

Vijay serves on the board of the following Andreessen Horowitz portfolio companies: Apeel Sciences, BioAge Labs, Ciitizen, Devoted Health, Freenome, Insitro, Nautilus Biotechnology, Omada Health, Scribe Therapeutics, and Q Bio.

Thank you for listening!

BIOS (@BIOS_Community) unites a community of Life Science innovators dedicated to driving patient impact. Alix Ventures (@AlixVentures) is a San Francisco based venture capital firm supporting early stage Life Science startups engineering biology to create radical advances in human health.

Music: Danger Storm by Kevin MacLeod (link & license)