Send us a text

Dr. Oren Gilad, Ph.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer of Aprea Therapeutics ( https://aprea.com/ ), a clinical stage, platform biotechnology company focused on the development of novel, synthetic lethality-based therapies, with direct on-target mechanisms of action, and clear clinical pathways, that target various aspects of DNA Damage Response (DDR) Pathways.

Dr. Gilad previously served as President and CEO of Atrin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., leading its transaction with Aprea Therapeutics.

Dr. Gilad brings extensive experience across multiple phases of drug development. During his time at Atrin, he led development from idea through early stage into the clinical stage while securing financing to support pre-clinical and clinical development, regulatory, and intellectual property activities.

Before founding Atrin in 2011, Dr. Gilad authored several high-impact scientific publications over a 13-year academic career, including one demonstrating the importance of the ATR kinase pathway in cancer development and treatment.

Dr. Gilad earned his doctorate in comparative pathology from the University of California at Davis, did his post-doc work at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and his B.S. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.

#Cancer #Oncology #TumorBiology #OrenGilad #ApreaTherapeutics #Biotechnology #DrugDevelopment #Macrocycles #SyntheticLethality #DNADamageResponse #Doylestown #Philadelphia #ATRKinase #WEE1 #BRCA #PARP #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Support the show

Send us a text

Dr. Luba Perry, Ph.D. is Co-Founder and CEO of ReConstruct Bio ( https://wyss.harvard.edu/technology/reconstruct/ ), an innovative venture emerging from Harvard’s Wyss Institute ( https://wyss.harvard.edu/team/advanced-technology-team/luba-perry/ ), aimed at redefining the fields of medical reconstruction and aesthetics with an initial application of their groundbreaking technology on breast reconstruction and augmentation. With a multidisciplinary team of experts, the ReConstruct Bio team has developed the BioImplant—a living, bioengineered tissue created from the patient’s own cells, to provide safer, more natural alternative to current standards, which are often associated with significant drawbacks and health concerns.

Dr. Perry also serves as a Senior Scientist at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering working at the 3D Organ Engineering Initiative since 2018 and is leading a Wyss Validation Project aiming to fabricate vascularized functional tissues for transplantation. Her interest is in tissue and organ engineering, focusing on vascularization and implantation studies utilizing complex surgical models.

Dr. Perry’s background is in molecular biology, pharmacology, and biomedical engineering, with a Bachelor of Science - BS, Biology, Master of Science - MS, Molecular Pharmacology, and a Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Biotechnology, all from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. She also has industry experience in a vascular gene therapy company (MGVS, now VESSL Therapeutics).

#LubaPerry #Harvard #WyssInstitute #ReConstructBio #Aesthetics #3DOrganEngineering #BreastReconstruction #BreastAugmentation #Vascularization #Innervation #Fat #AdiposeTissue #BreastImplants #Organogenesis #OrganEngineering #TissueEngineering #Bioengineering #Organs #Tissues #MolecularPharmacology #Breasts #Nipples
#ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Support the show

Send us a text

Dr. Richard Scranton, M.D., M.P.H., is the President of Global Product Development and the Chief Medical Officer of Lyndra Therapeutics ( https://lyndra.com/ ), a company pioneering long-acting oral therapies, designed to deliver medicine for up to a week or longer in an oral form.

Dr. Scranton is responsible for advancing the company's proprietary LYNX™ drug delivery platform ( https://lyndra.com/platform/ ) and evolving and overseeing portfolio strategy, current and future product development from preclinical through commercialization, and external partnerships and alliances.

Dr. Scranton has 20+ years of expertise in pharmaco-epidemiologic research, clinical epidemiology, health services research and clinical trials research.

Prior to joining Lyndra, Dr. Scranton held roles with increasing responsibility at Pacira Pharmaceuticals, including Chief Medical Officer, where he led the global development and advancement of their non-opioid long-lasting injectable local anesthetic. Dr. Scranton also served as Chief Medical Officer at VeroScience, where his responsibilities included all aspects of clinical development, regulatory and pharmacovigilance of their investigational drugs in the metabolic disease and immunological domains.

Dr. Scranton also has served as instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and associate physician in the division of aging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, associate medical director and research consultant for Phase V Technologies, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and a senior research fellow at the Massachusetts Veterans Administration Epidemiology, Research and Information Center (MAVERIC).

Dr. Scranton earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee and a Doctor of Medicine from the Quillen College of Medicine at Eastern Tennessee State University. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Va, and served as chief resident. He completed his Harvard General Medicine Fellowship and received a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

#RichardScranton #LyndraTherapeutics #LongActing #OralTherapies #Risperidone #Pharmacoepidemiology #MedicationAdherence #RobertLanger #BiochemicalEngineering #Schizophrenia #OpioidUseDisorder #PregnancyPrevention #Pharmacokinetics #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Support the show

Send us a text

Mrs. Cheryl Halpern is a Director, Producer, Documentarian, and Co-Founder and Partner of HQ Creative LLC ( https://www.hqcreative.com/ ), an Emmy Award-winning production company and branding agency serving clients around the world.

The award winning film '"The Golden Rule: Do Unto Others" produced by HQ Creative and Indonesian award winning company Angel Pictures, began it's theatrical release from September 20-27th, 2024 -

https://vimeo.com/904241685/c4fae53c3a

Mrs. Halpern has a long record of public service in broadcasting, education and international affairs.

Mrs. Halpern was nominated to serve on the boards of America’s national and international broadcasting organizations by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In 1990, she was confirmed as a member of the Board for International Broadcasting and as a director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). From 1995 through 2002, Mrs. Halpern served on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) overseeing Voice of America, Radio and TV Marti, RFE/RL, Worldnet, Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Iraq. While serving on the BBG she helped create Radio Sawa, a new American Arabic radio voice to the Middle East. In August, 2002, she was confirmed to serve as a director of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). She was subsequently elected by her peers as chairman of the CPB and served the two-term limit. In addition, Mrs. Halpern was a Public Delegate of the United States, with the rank of Ambassador, to the 63rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. During the Obama Administration she has been a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Mrs. Halpern has also chaired the character education program of the Words Can Heal organization. This national campaign to curb gossip, fight verbal violence and promote the healing powers of ethical speech received bipartisan support from the US Congress as well as from diverse ethnic and religious groups. In her capacity as a Presidential-appointed US delegate to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Conference on Anti-Semitism, Mrs. Halpern addressed the plenary on children’s programming and textbook development.

As the current chairman of the Queen of Sheba Foundation Mrs. Halpern has partnered in the development of “Midako”, an illustrated children’s book publishing initiative to promote literacy in Ethiopia.

As a documentarian, Mrs. Halpern has produced several commissioned as well as independently produced documentaries. Most notably, the government of Ethiopia commissioned Mrs. Halpern and her HQ Creative LLC team to produce a memorial documentary to the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi. A special tribute to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was also produced for screening at the 50th Anniversary of the African Union.

Mrs. Halpern’s independently produced documentaries have provided compelling historical and cultural information to her audiences. Her films have focused on embodying the spirit of achievement and thereby providing positive visual images and messages for all; regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. Mrs. Halpern’s documentaries have received awards from film festivals around the world. They have been screened by colleges and universities and have been included in Museum exhibits and archive collections.

#TheGoldenRule #DoUntoOthers #CherylHalpern #EthicOfReciprocity #Peace #Coexistence #Interfaith #Humanitarian #Tolerance #Religion #EphraimIsaac #ImamShamsiAli #Ghandi #Documentary #Indonesia #Ethiopia #Israel #Nigeria #CorporationForPublicBroadcasting #HerRoyalMajestyQueenAngeliqueMonet #HolocaustMemorialCouncil #OrganizationForSecurityAndCooperationInEurop

Support the show

Send us a text

Dr. Rasha Hammamieh, Ph.D. is Director, Medical Readiness Systems Biology (MRSB), at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research ( https://wrair.health.mil/Biomedical-Research/Center-for-Military-Psychiatry-and-Neuroscience/Medical-Readiness-Systems-Biology/ ) where her lab seeks to apply integrative biology approaches to diseases of military relevance, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury pain and biological responses to polytrauma and austere environments (heat stress, acute mountain sickness, hypoxia, radiation and microgravity).

The majority of Dr. Hammamieh’s work aims to provide an understanding and develop countermeasures for diseases and injuries in support of service members.

Currently, the MRSB lab is assessing the effect of spaceflight conditions onboard the International Space Station (ISS) on health and disease, and Dr. Hammamieh’s team has multiple biological investigations sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory examining the effects of microgravity on the healing of bone and skin wounds.

Dr. Hammamieh has authored and co-authored more than 145 publications, three book chapters, and is a co-inventor of the patent “Biomarkers of Immune Dysfunction in Response to Chronic Stress.”

Dr. Hammamieh earned a pharmacy degree from Damascus University, Damascus, Syria and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Georgetown University.

#RashaHammamieh #MedicalReadiness #SystemsBiology #WalterReedArmyInstituteOfResearch #MilitaryPsychiatry #PTSD #Neuroscience #IntegrativeBiology #Military #PostTraumaticStressDisorder #TraumaticBrainInjury #Polytrauma #AustereEnvironments #HeatStress #AcuteMountainSickness #Hypoxia #Radiation #Microgravity #EpigeneticClocks #SpaceBiology #InfectiousDiseases #Sepsis #Toxicology #Radiobiology #InternationalSpaceStation #ISS #Biomarkers #ImmuneDysfunction #ChronicStress #Aging #Damascus #Syria #Georgetown #NASA #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Support the show

Send us a text

Dr. Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., ( https://www.francisscollins.com/ ) is the former Director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), where as the longest serving director of NIH (spanning 12 years and three presidencies) he oversaw the work of the largest supporter of biomedical research in the world, from basic to clinical research.

Dr. Collins continues to serve as NIH Distinguished Investigator,
Center for Precision Health Research, at the National Human Genome Research Institute ( NHGRI - https://irp.nih.gov/pi/francis-collins ).

Dr. Collins is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the international Human Genome Project, which culminated in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. He served as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the NIH from 1993-2008.

Dr. Collins' research laboratory has discovered a number of important genes, including those responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's disease, a familial endocrine cancer syndrome, and most recently, genes for type 2 diabetes, and the gene that causes Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a rare condition that causes premature aging.

Dr. Collins received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Yale University, and an M.D. with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to the NIH in 1993, he spent nine years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Collins was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007 and the National Medal of Science in 2009.

Dr. Collins also founded and served as President of The BioLogos Foundation ( https://biologos.org/ ), which promotes discourse on the relationship between science and religion.

Dr. Collins is also an accomplished author with many available titles including The Language of Life: DNA and the Revolution in Personalized Medicine, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, and a new book coming out The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust - Sep 17, 2024 ( https://www.amazon.com/Road-Wisdom-Truth-Science-Faith/dp/0316576301 ).

#FrancisCollins #NationalInstitutesOfHealth #HumanGenomeProject #NIH #Progeria #Cancer #Diabetes #Repurposing #Wisdom #Faith #Truth #Trust #BioLogosFoundation #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Support the show

Send us a text

Dr. Benjamin L. Oakes, Ph.D., is Co-Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Scribe Therapeutics ( https://www.scribetx.com/ ), a molecular engineering company focused on creating best-in-class CRISPR-based therapies that permanently treat the underlying cause of disease. Previously, as an Innovative Genomics Institute Entrepreneurial Fellow, Dr. Oakes focused on the holistic engineering of genome editing technologies to build novel genome editing molecules.

Dr. Oakes has contributed to over 35 publications and patent applications across synthetic biology, molecular engineering, CRISPR, and zinc finger-based genetic modification.

Dr. Oakes has been named to the MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators Under 35, 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 Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2017, where he worked in the Doudna Lab and Savage Lab developing CRISPR-Cas9 molecules with enhanced characteristics. Two such projects resulted in distinct versions of synthetic sensing systems that can modify nucleic acids only when triggered by external stimuli, and have found use in both research and pragmatically applied technologies.

Prior to his Ph.D., Dr. Oakes received his B.A. in the fields of Philosophy and Neurobiology and worked as a researcher applying unbiased, combinatorial evolution methods to build tens of thousands of “version one” genome editing tools, providing an open source framework for scientists and medical professionals to modify the genome before the discovery of CRISPR technology.

#BenjaminOakes #ScribeTherapeutics #MolecularEngineering #CRISPR #InnovativeGenomicsInstitute #JenniferDoudna #MolecularBiology #UniversityOfCalifornia #Berkeley #SyntheticBiology #ZincFingerNucleases #Optogenetics #EmmanuelleCharpentier #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Support the show

Send us a text

Ben Zimmer is CEO of Priovant Therapeutics ( https://www.priovanttx.com/ ), a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on delivering novel therapies for autoimmune diseases associated with the greatest morbidity and mortality. Priovant is developing oral brepocitinib, a potential first-in-class dual inhibitor of TYK2 and JAK1, across multiple severe autoimmune indications, unlocking new treatment options for patients who are underserved by existing therapies.

Ben joined Priovant from Roivant, where he was a member of the founding team in early 2015 and held multiple leadership roles across the organization, including President, Roivant Health, Chief Operating Officer, and Head, Public Affairs. As President, Roivant Health, Ben led and oversaw the launch of Roivant's Chinese biopharmaceutical subsidiaries, healthcare technology companies (including Datavant), and computationally powered drug discovery platform (including VantAI).

Earlier in his career, Ben was a consultant at McKinsey & Co and co-founded and led a public policy non-profit. He holds a BA magna cum laude from Harvard College and a JD from Yale Law School.

#BenZimmer #PriovantTherapeutics #AutoimmuneDiseases #Brepocitinib #TYK2 #JAK1 #Dermatomyositis #NonInfectiousUveitis #Pfizer #Roivant #VivekRamaswamy #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #Research

Support the show