Dr Fabio D'Agostino’s Post

Just back from Fierce Biotech JPM Virtual Week, and my mind is buzzing with the future of biotech! From AI's revolutionary touch to cutting-edge cancer treatments, this event was a powerhouse of insights and connections. Key Takeaways: 1) AI is redefining drug discovery and clinical trials: Experts like Johanna Mercier (Gilead Sciences) and Juergen Eckhardt (Bayer) highlighted the immense potential of AI to accelerate innovation and improve patient outcomes. 🖥 2) Oncology's next frontier is exhilarating: Discussions on ADCs, Radio-pharma, and cell & gene therapies showcased the promise of personalized, targeted cancer treatments. 3) Biopharma leaders like Marianne D. De Backer, MSc, PhD, MBA (Vir Biotechnology, Inc.) and Andrew Obenshain (bluebird bio) shared inspiring journeys and valuable insights on navigating market challenges and building successful startups. 🏢 4) Fierce conversations on topics like the Inflation Reduction Act and pharmacy benefit managers sparked thoughtful debates about the future of healthcare policy. ⚖️ This was just a glimpse into the wealth of knowledge and connections I gained at Fierce JPM Week. Much more to come 🔥 !! #FierceJPMWeek #biotech #AI #Healthcare #Innovation #Leadership #biopharma #cancerresearch

One week left! Join us for an exciting day of life science innovation, networking and opportunity. ⏰ When: May 21, 2024, 9 AM - 3 PM. 📍 Where: Mansfield Bio-Incubator, 241 Francis Ave Mansfield, MA 02048 🌟 Featured: 13 handpicked #startups representing therapeutics (#oncology, #diabetes, #Parkinson's), #medicaldevices (#womenshealth, smudge-proof #glasses, #opioid detection), #diagnostics (cervical cancer) and #biotechnology (bio tools, genetic diseases, tissue engineering). In addition, there will be a graduation ceremony for the Spring 2024 #Mentoring Program cohort consisting of three presenting startups. 👥 Attending: Investors, entrepreneurs, mentors, life science professionals, business development experts, sponsors 🔍 Why attend: § Learn about innovations that will revolutionize healthcare § Explore investment opportunities § Network with industry veterans and the new generation shaping the future of life sciences § Showcase your products and services to a targeted audience of professionals and stakeholders The Prizes Are: $20,000 for first place; $12,000 for second place; $8,000 for third place. We look forward to seeing you in Mansfield. Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues. https://lnkd.in/eGyFAxXG

After attending the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (#jpm2024 ) in San Francisco, I want to share some of my key takeaways: - Despite economic headwinds, companies continued to drive innovation in gene therapy, oncology, and other promising areas. - M&A activity may have slowed, but strategic partnerships and collaborations are becoming more important for sharing costs and risks. - Drug pricing and healthcare policy remain top of mind. Companies are working to find the balance between innovation and affordability. - The rise of digital therapeutics, multi-modal 'omics' and the integration of AI into drug discovery show that digital health is here to stay. - The emphasis on patient-centricity highlights the importance of including patient perspectives in drug development and care. Patients continue to be the stewards of their health data. What are other takeaways? It was energizing to see the future of healthcare innovation unfold at #jpm2024. Excited to see how these trends will shape the industry in the year ahead! And a big thank you to everyone who braved the rain and wind of SF to make this conference a success. See you next year! I leave you with a photo of how beautiful the area looked one of the evenings. Google Cloud

✨ ✨ ✨ I'd like to kick off a new series highlighting some of the best and brightest across the Life Science space ✨ ✨ ✨   My first instalment of this kicks off with a company doing incredible work in the Drug Design space... 🥁 🥁   Exscientia   🔎 They utilise precision information derived from patient tissues alongside sophisticated AI technology to source optimised drug profiles for research. This integrated system has been the first to demonstrate improved clinical outcomes in oncology, and I believe that is just the beginning in their revolution.   📈 They currently have four targets at pre clinical, and phase 1-2, across Haematology, Oncology, and Inflammatory Diseases. With 40% of total clinical growth within Biotech/ Pharmaceuticals sitting within Oncology in 2023, Exscientia should be on your radar!   🗞 With the recent appointment of Marie-Louise Fjaellskog, and promotion of John Overington, I can't wait to see the continued success of this truly pioneer company. #Biotech #innovation #AI #DrugDesign

Do you know who is pioneering a revolution in the UK's Healthcare Industry? You won't believe it but it's right here, nestled within the innovative hotbed of Cambridge! But wait, we've done more than just tell you that. We've put together a comprehensive article feature on the phenomenal startups that are enacting this change. Keen to know more? Dive into it here: (https://lnkd.in/dBwZbxRH) Featuring: NextPoint Therapeutics, Inc., leading innovation in immunotherapies, founded by Gordon Freeman and Xingxing Zang. ROME Therapeutics, transforming healthcare with cutting-edge therapies, steered by Rosana Kapeller. Vigil Neuroscience, focusing on advancing revolutionary medications. Clade Therapeutics, pushing the boundaries of stem-cell-based therapies, helmed by Chad Cowan, Jim Glasheen, and Leandro Vetcher. Transition Bio, Inc., applying condensate technology for diagnostics, spearheaded by David Weitz, Peter St George-Hyslop, Sarah Teichmann, and Tuomas Knowles. Catamaran Bio, specialized in allogeneic immune cell therapies, led by Branden S. Moriarity and Kevin Pojasek. AavantiBio, Inc., creating breakthroughs in life sciences led by Barry Byrne and Manuela Corti. Proof Diagnostics, Inc., revolutionising COVID-19 testing, founded by Feng Zhang, Jonathan Gootenberg, Omar Abudayyeh, and Siddharth Shenai. Bicara Therapeutics, bringing cutting-edge therapies to cancer patients. NextRNA Therapeutics, pushing innovative therapeutics, founded by Dominique Verhelle, Julia Novina, Leon Wert-Lamas, and Marc Cohen. Kojin Therapeutics, helmed by Stuart Schreiber, Benjamin Cravatt, Stephanie Dougan, and Vasanthi Viswanathan, accelerating innovative therapies for hard-to-treat diseases. Dive into the #healthcare revolution happening right at our doorstep! #startups #innovation #Cambridge #healthtech #biotech #lifesciences #therapeutics

Excited to share that Waypoint Bio has emerged from stealth to turbocharge drug discovery using *in vivo* spatial pooled screening tech with $14.5 million in financing, led by Hummingbird Ventures, with participation from other investors, including Recode Ventures and pre-seed lead Fifty Years. Pooled screening is an incredibly powerful technology for drug discovery, but it’s historically been limited to measuring simple cell phenotypes, such as growth or drug resistance. This limits the technology’s value in more complex diseases where interactions between cells and their environment are key, including T cell interactions with solid tumor cancers, such as pancreatic and gastric cancer. Our platform turbocharges traditional pooled screening by leveraging #spatialbiology to generate complex, multivariate and spatial readouts for every perturbation, and quickly generate novel drug candidates with a greater probability of clinical success. We will use the financing toward first designing CAR T-cell therapies with superior efficacy against the tumor microenvironment, and later, Treg therapies for autoimmune diseases, and advance them in partnership with biotech and pharma and on our own. Thanks to Ryan Cross for speaking with me and David Phizicky for Endpoints News about our platform, the first to combine pooled screening and spatial biology for drug discovery, and to our awesome investors for supporting our work to bring new therapies to the underserved! https://lnkd.in/eV_hc3Y9

𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐭 𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐨 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑! 🚀 Day One, Track 3 unfolds a captivating journey through 'IO Clinical Trials: Design, Data-Management & Case Studies.' Join us for an enriching experience as Sylwia Marshall, Kieran Whelton, Jens Kringelum, Andrew Pierce, and Barbara Losch share their expertise. 📚 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨: 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟏 - Clinical Trial Design & Data Management ✔️ Implementation of successful trial design strategies & new trends in trial design ✔️ Patient-specific immunotherapy using adaptive clinical study designs ✔️ Leveraging digital technologies & AI/ML in IO therapy development ✔️ Using & managing IO datasets 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟐 - Clinical Development Case Studies ✔️ Protein aggregations and preventions ✔️ Case Studies of IO Therapeutics in Clinical Stages: Multi-specific Immunotherapies, Checkpoint Inhibitors, Cell Therapies ➡️📖 Secure your spot and explore further details: https://hubs.la/Q02gVFqW0 #OGImmuno #Immuno24 #ClinicalTrials #Immunotherapy

This Week's Bay Area Life Science Notable News Hello, Bay Area life science community! Here's a roundup of the most exciting updates and breakthroughs from our vibrant ecosystem this week: 1.     NOETIK appoints Shafique Virani, MD FRCS as Chief Business Officer, bringing invaluable expertise to drive strategic growth and innovation. 2.     Slingshot Biosciences unveils a novel cell therapy-focused portfolio, promising to streamline development processes and enhance manufacturing and clinical trial capabilities, a significant step forward in advancing medical treatments. 3.     Synthego Corporation announces a CEO transition to Craig Christianson, signaling a renewed focus on enabling CRISPR therapeutics, highlighting the company's commitment to advancing gene editing technologies. 4.     Cerus celebrates FDA approval of extended shelf life for INTERCEPT Platelet Processing Sets, doubling the previous shelf life and enhancing blood safety protocols. 5.     Apogee Therapeutics marks a milestone as the first participants are dosed in the Phase 1 trial of APG808, its novel half-life extended IL-4Rα antibody, offering hope for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other inflammatory diseases. 6.     Verge Genomics and Ferrer join forces in an agreement to co-develop clinical-stage ALS therapy VRG50635, underscoring the collaborative spirit driving advancements in life-saving treatments. 7.     Real Estate Deals: Pliant Therapeutics lease triples the size of its South San Francisco base, reflecting the company's rapid growth and commitment to expanding its presence in the Bay Area life science hub. We're witnessing remarkable progress and collaboration within our community! Let's continue to push boundaries and drive positive change together. #BayAreaLifeScience #Innovation #Research #BayArea #KidderMathews #SanFranciscoBay #Labs #LifeScience

Did you ever hear about the MEGA system to increase the effectiveness of CAR-T therapies? I just read this article about a group of researchers at the Stanford University in California developing what is called 'multiplexed effector guide arrays' system. What I understood is that MEGA system is to T Cells what the morning coffee is to many people: a boost of energy. We still need to be cautious and check what effects MEGA can have, but this opens new avenues for those patients not reacting to standard therapies. It's comforting to wake up in the morning to news like this 😉. #celltherapy #cartcelltherapy #oncologyresearch #preclinicalresearch https://lnkd.in/dTu2cGJa

Happy #InternationalWomensDay to the women leading the Intelligent Bioscience revolution! As a women-founded and women-led firm, we are especially proud to celebrate the female founders who lead the Breakout Ventures portfolio companies: (𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘰𝘸) Etosha Cave, PhD is the CSO, and Kendra Kuhl, PhD is the CTO at Twelve, a DeepTech company on a mission to build a fossil-free future through the science of carbon transformation. Ivana Muncie-Vasic, PhD is the CEO at Vitra Labs, a biotech startup developing cell-based therapies that to make IVF safer and more accessible to all patients struggling with infertility. Jennifer Power is the CEO of TFC Therapeutics, a biotech startup blending early-stage research with innovative platform design to develop next-generation treatments to eliminate the most resilient cancers. (𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘰𝘸)  Jennifer Schneider, MD, is the President of Surf Bio, a preclinical biopharmaceutical company leveraging surfactants to develop therapeutic solutions for diabetes, oncology, infectious diseases, and gene therapy. Juliana L. Hilliard is the CSO of Parallel Bio, which is building a platform that replicates the human immune system in a dish across populations to discover cures at a pace never seen before. Wendye Robbins, MD is the CEO of Incendia Therapeutics, a precision oncology biotech company dedicated to reprogramming the tumor microenvironment. Women's leadership and insights are crucial to shaping the world's bio-based transformation. Integrating diverse perspectives fuels our mission of reaching a healthier, more sustainable future. 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐬! #IWD2024 #InternationalWomensDay2024 #WomenInScience #WomenFounders #WomenInLeadership #WomenInBiotech