Prof. Yaniv Erlich received his bachelor’s degree from Tel-Aviv University, Israel in 2006 and a PhD from the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2010. Yaniv Erlich was an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and was a PI at the Whitehead Institute, MIT.    His research interests are computational human genetics. Yaniv has been an advisor for multiple companies in the area of genomics and bioinformatics. He authored over 40 peer-reviewed scientific studies, including multiple papers in Science, Nature Genetics, and Nature Methods. He holds five patents and has experience in both B2C and B2B in the area of genomics.   Prof. Yaniv Erlich was the CSO of MyHeritage and currently he is the CEO of Eleven Therapeutics, a company that he co-founded in 2020. Eleven Therapeutics is a biotech company focused on development of groundbreaking RNA therapeutics. 

Kiyoshi Takayama has received a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical science from the University of Tokyo. After his PhD he worked for more than 12 years as a research scientist at Taisho Pharmaceutical, Japan, where he was involved in the development of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) assay and the conducting of various drug discovery programs for chronic inflammation and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In 2006, Kiyoshi left Taisho and founded NB Health Laboratory, a technology platform company for the generation of functional mAbs targeting GPCRs. NB Health Laboratory is pioneering a new field in GPCR-targeted drug discovery by targeting GPCRs for lipid mediator ligands using monoclonal antibodies.

David Younger is a bioengineer and started his biotech journey directly after his PhD. David’s scientific research was focused on the application of synthetic biology techniques for high-throughput screening of protein-protein interactions. In 2017 David co-founded A-Alpha Bio as a spin-out from the University of Washington. A-Alpha Bio applies synthetic biology to reprogram yeast mating and generate high quality protein interaction data at scale. Its AlphaSeq technology enables high-throughput, quantitative characterization of protein–protein binding interactions without requiring purified recombinant proteins to identify molecular glues.   

The path from the lab bench to market in biotech has many hurdles and lots of opportunities. Sometimes too many. Elaine Hamm has experienced all stages of bringing innovation from academia to a successful company and products. She shares a valuable framework on how to overcome the “shiny object syndrome” in biotech. Elaine did her graduate and post-graduate studies in biochemistry and microbiology. Early on she took the role of technology development at the University of Oklahoma, where she built skills in assessing and spinning out new technologies. After several years at the venture capital company i2E, Elaine became the COO at Accele Biopharma. Elaine is also founder of Ascend BioVentures - pharmaceutical accelerator company. She founded Kirrhos Pharamceuticals and is currently President of Otologic Pharmaceutics, a clinical-stage company developing new treatments for hearing-loss and hearing-related diseases.

Targeted protein degradation, TPD, is a new and disruptive therapeutic approach for development of medicines. TPD opened doors to develop small molecules to drug the ‘undruggable’.  Instead of blocking the function of a protein, small molecules can lead to the degradation of the disease causing protein. Small molecules that have these properties are called proteolysis targeting chimeras, PROTACs. In this episode with Alessio Ciulli, we take a deep dive into the transformative potential PROTACs. Alessio co-founded the biotech company Amphista Therapeutics. The company is focused on developing therapeutics leading targeted protein degradation.

Targeted protein degradation, or TPD, is a new and disruptive therapeutic approach for development of medicines. TPD utilizes the design of small molecules that can address disease-causing proteins that are highly challenging to drug. We discuss with @Alessio Ciulli about his exceptional career path as well as about the transformative potential of so-called PROTACs for TPD. Alessio Ciulli studied chemistry at the University of Florence in Italy and completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK. Early on Alessio worked with biophysical and structural analysis of protein-ligand interactions as well as fragment-based drug discovery. Alessio collaborated during his career with Chris Abell, Tom Blundell, and Craig Crews. Today, Alessio Ciulli is a full professor at the @University of Dundee as well as the Director of the new Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation Alessio co-founded the biotech company @Amphista Therapeutics. The company is focused on developing therapeutics leading targeted protein degradation.

Mark Tebbe started his career as an organic chemist and later had senior positions at Lilly. After 16 years of a successful career in pharma, Mark started his biotech journey. He has been leading drug discovery at multiple biotech companies including Forma Therapeutics, Quatet Medicine, and Quench Bio. Mark is also the co-inventor of Telaprevir. Telaprevir is an inhibitor of the serine protease NS3/4A of the hepatitis C virus. Mark is currently the CTO at Matchpoint Therapeutics, a company focused on development of precision covalent medicines.

Carlo started his biotech journey as a founder and G7 Therapeutics as a spin-off from the University of Zurich. The company developed a technology for stabilization of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a superfamily of receptors linked to a wide range of human diseases. G7 therapeutics was acquired by Sosei Heptares in 2016. But Carlo didn’t rest. He co-founded Acthera Therapeutics in 2019 and is active as a mentor. He also co-founded inCephalo, where he is currently active as CEO. With inCephalo the team is driven to change the landscape of therapeutic options for brain tumours.

As a founder, Serghei experienced the challenges of building a company in the fragmented biotech ecosystem. Giving back and connecting the biotech ecosystem has become his mission.