#genetherapy

Rare Disease Day is February 29, 2024, and in honor of this important day, Cell & Gene: The Podcast Host Erin Harris sits down with Jackson Laboratory’s (JAX) Rare Disease Translational Center (RDTC)'s VP, Cat Lutz. They discuss RDTC's mission, the specific qualifications that make up a rare disease, how the study of rare diseases can potentially advance progress in common diseases, and much more. 

On this episode of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Christopher McDonald, Global Head of Technical Operations at Kite, a Gilead company, talks to Host Erin Harris about Kite's recent FDA approval of manufacturing process change resulting in reduced median turnaround time for Yescarta. They talk through the most significant steps Kite took to reach this approval, lessons learned from having worked with the FDA, scaling up technologies for cell therapy manufacturing, and more. 

The Dedham Group's Jennifer Klarer, M.Sc.Eng., Partner and Head of Cell & Gene Therapy, joins Erin Harris on this episode of Cell & Gene: The Podcast for a deep dive into pricing and value for CGTs. Klarer shares a detailed breakdown of the most misunderstood aspects of cell and gene therapy pricing, value, and affordability. She details how manufacturers can get ahead of addressing time to treatment issues typically experienced at launch. They cover obtaining adequate investment dollars, and much more. 

Paul Lammers, M.D., M.Sc., CEO of Triumvira Immunologics joins Cell & Gene: The Podcast to talk to Host Erin Harris about TAC, the company's proprietary T cell Antigen Coupler, which has both autologous and allogeneic approaches. They also discuss targeting relapsed or refractory HER2-positive solid tumors and CLDN18.2-positive solid tumors. And they cover a realistic outlook on the evolution of cancer treatment.

Kristin Yarema, Ph.D., CEO, Poseida Therapeutics sits down with Cell & Gene: The Podcast Host Erin Harris to discuss four of the biggest challenges the CGT sector faces when it comes to the development of off-the-shelf therapies. Kristin shares how 2024 might see some real progress in allogeneic therapies. 

For this third and final episode recorded at ARM's 2023 Meeting on the Mesa, Cell & Gene: The Podcast Host, Erin Harris, sat down with Greg Kunst, president, CEO, and Board member at Aurion Biotech. Listen in as they discuss the cell therapy used to treat corneal endothelial disease and how Greg navigated the event as a first-timer attending Meeting on the Mesa.

Vittoria Biotherapeutics’ CEO, Nick Siciliano, joins Erin Harris on this episode of Cell & Gene: The Podcast to discuss the company's mission to expand the applications for CAR-based therapeutics by employing novel cell engineering and gene editing technologies.

Richard Wilson, Senior Vice President, Primary Focus Lead, Genetic Regulation at Astellas sat down with Cell & Gene: The Podcast's Erin Harris at ARM's 2023 Meeting on the Mesa to discuss the gene therapy deal making landscape as well as Astellas' recent deals and collaborations. They also discussed Astellas' strategic approach since having acquired Audentes back in 2020.

Ken Mills, CEO, President, and Director at REGENXBIO joins Erin Harris for this episode of Cell & Gene: The Podcast to discuss the company's progress with its Phase I/II Affinity Duchenne trial of RGX-202 for the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. They discuss the future of AAV gene therapy as well as achieving scalability with consistent yield and product purity in gene therapy manufacturing.

Alliance for Regenerative Medicine's COO, Rita Johnson-Greene, joined Cell & Gene: The Podcast host, Erin Harris, in person at the 2023 Meeting on the Mesa to discuss this year's event. Johnson-Greene also shared what's ahead for 2024 as the event heads to a new location. They discussed major topics and trends at the event as well as ARM's GROW internship program.

A pioneer and an icon in diabetes research, Camillo Ricordi, M.D., is the Professor of Surgery, Director of Cell Transplant Center and Director Emeritus of the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Florida (UM-DRI). He joins Cell & Gene: The Podcast's Erin Harris to discuss the biggest and most troubling challenges facing the treatment of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). They also discuss the future of cell and organ transplantation in treating T1D as well as the latest innovations in biopreservation. 

Umoja Biopharma's CEO, Andy Scharenberg, M.D., joins Cell & Gene: The Podcast's Erin Harris to discuss the evolution of allogeneic, in vivo CAR-T cell therapeutics. They discuss The Climb, or The Colorado Laboratory and Innovation Manufacturing Building, which is Umoja’s lentiviral vector development and manufacturing facility. They also cover recent progress in lentiviral vector manufacturing.

The FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER)'s Dr. Peter Marks makes his second appearance on Cell & Gene: The Podcast. This time Dr. Marks talks to Host, Erin Harris, about base editing and prime editing and their potential to meet unmet medical need. They discuss what clinical holds say about the FDA’s views on gene editing. They also discuss heritable genome editing.

As SVP Cell Therapy Franchise Lead at Bristol Myers Squibb, Lynelle Hoch leads her team to bring more curative cell-based therapies to patients. She joins Cell & Gene: The Podcast's Host, Erin Harris, to discuss the near-term future of CAR-T. They also take a deep dive into the various innovations and patient access progress being made in both solid tumors and hematologic malignancies in the CGT sector at large as well as at Bristol Myers Squibb.

On this episode of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Rachel Haurwitz, Ph.D., CEO at Caribou Biosciences joins Host Erin Harris to discuss the evolution of genome editing, its present state, as well as its undeniable potential. They also discuss Caribou's chRDNA genome editing technology and how it differs from CRISPR-Cas9.

In June 2023, PDA held its Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products Conference in Baltimore, MD. At the conference, Stephan Krause, Ph.D., Executive Director, AS&T, CT Global Quality at Bristol Myers Squibb, sat down with Cell & Gene: The Podcast Host Erin Harris to discuss the event's major themes and topics as well his focus areas for cell therapy in 2023 and beyond.

Dr. Francois Vigneault, Co-Founder, President, and CEO at Shape Therapeutics joins Cell & Gene: The Podcast's Erin Harris to discuss how RNA technologies are shaping the future of gene therapy. They also discuss AI's role in gene therapy as well as the how the CGT sector is benefiting from RNA, AI, and synthetic biology.

Dr. Andrew Anzalone, Head of the Prime Editing Platform and Scientific Co-Founder of Prime Medicine joins Cell & Gene: The Podcast to talk with Host Erin Harris about prime editing - what it is and why it is a major technological advancement in gene editing. Anzalone explains why prime editing has a broad applicability for different tissue and cell types to be used in different therapeutic applications.

Glenn Wright, President and CEO of Parenteral Drug Association (PDA), sat down with Cell & Gene: The Podcast's Erin Harris at the 2023 PDA ATMP conference to discuss not only the conference's theme, “Navigating Through CMC Challenges,” but also Wright's take on CGT manufacturing strategy based on his years in industry. Wright shares his insight on the past, present, and future of the cell and gene therapy space.