BioTalk with Rich Bendis Podcast

Pete Briskman, an Executive Managing Director with JLL, leads the Tenant Advisory and brokerage business for JLL in Maryland, sits down with BioTalk Host Rich Bendis to talk his role with JLL, his focus on Life Sciences, and vision of the BioHealth Capital Region

Pete Briskman works with many of the regions' most exciting and fastest growing Life Science Companies assisting them with their real estate and site selection strategies for Headquarter transactions, relocations, build-to-suits, renewals, expansions, and consolidations. Pete and his team bring proprietary tools to help organizations make informed decisions around the size and scale of their operation, assessment of labor, modeling and programming of occupancy, approach to optimizing business and economic incentives, and very unique real estate market intelligence that can be communicated via our proprietary geo-spatial market intelligence platform.  He is the recipient of GWCAR's Commercial Leasing Broker of the Year and has been recognized with GWCAR Office Leasing Transactions of the Year for multiple clients.

Chuck Morton, Partner, Venable, LLP, joins BioTalk host Rich Bendis to discuss the local entrepreneurial and business ecosystem, regionalism, and the BioHealth Capital Region

Listen now on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/2QwoEIl, Google Podcasts http://bit.ly/33sWjJc, and TuneIn http://bit.ly/2M60Wmx

Chuck Morton is co-chair of Venable's Corporate Group. Chuck is recognized for his abilities in guiding financing, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and other transactions involving middle-market companies. Chuck assists lenders, investors, and entrepreneurs as they create, build, and buy or sell businesses, primarily in the healthcare, technology, and consumer products industries. He regularly acts on behalf of private equity groups and banks. Chuck currently serves as the Secretary on the BioHealth Innovation Board of Directors.

The first BioTalk of 2020 kicks off with Andrea Alms, MS, MBA, Co-Fund Manager of BioHealth Capital Fund as she discusses her background, the world of Angel Investment, and her vision for the Fund

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and TuneIn.

Andrea Alms is the co-fund manager of BioHealth Capital Fund.  The BioHealth Capital Fund is a venture capital early stage investment fund created by the BioHealth Innovation (“BHI”), located in Rockville, MD, the center of the BioHealth Capital Region. BHI manages a for profit subsidiary BioHealth Innovation Management (BHIM) which owns equity in 27 of the 108 client companies of BHI and has had 3 exits. Our lead investor is Alexandria Real Estate Equities; and, our reference is Joel Marcus.  Andrea is recognized for her abilities in guiding venture capital, private equity, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and other transactions involving early stage companies. Andrea assists limited partners, general partners, investors, and entrepreneurs as they create, build, and buy or sell businesses, primarily in BioHealth, healthcare, technology, and digital health products industries.

Click here to read a transcript of the podcast

Michael Lenardo, M.D., Chief, Molecular Development of the Immune System Section NIAID/DIR, joins Rich Bendis on BioTalk to discuss his work at NIH, his recent election to the National Academy of Medicine, and advice for fellow scientists

Listen now on Google Podcasts http://bit.ly/2Ws6L0v, Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/2WupsAq, and TuneIn http://bit.ly/2Pve2ex

Michael Lenardo attended the Johns Hopkins University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Natural Sciences in 1977. He then attended Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. and obtained his Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) in 1981. He carried out clinical and research training at the University of Iowa from 1981-1985. He was then a Research Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an adjunct appointment at Harvard Medical School. During this time, he carried out molecular biology research under the mentorship of Nobel laureates David Baltimore and Philip Sharp. He was then appointed Section Chief in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health from 1989 to the present, directing research on T-lymphocyte regulation, HIV-1, and genetic diseases of the immune system. He has served on the editorial boards for the European Journal of Immunology, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Science magazine, and Biology Direct. He is an Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. He has founded or co-founded several joint research programs including the NIH-Oxford-Cambridge Biomedical Research Scholars, the NIH-University of Pennsylvania Immunology Program, the NIH-Marshall Scholars, the NIH-Rhodes Scholars, the National M.D./Ph.D. partnership program, and the NIH-Institut Pasteur Infectious Disease and Immunology Program.

Dr. Lenardo has published over 200 scholarly works and holds a number of medical patents. He discovered the propriocidal mechanism of immune regulation and his work has defined several genetic diseases of the immune system including the Autoimmune Lymphoproliferative Syndrome, Caspase-8 deficiency syndrome, and X-linked magnesium deficiency with EBV and neoplasia (XMEN) disease. He is currently the Director of the Clinical Genomics Program and Chief of the Molecular Development of the Immune System Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Among his honors and awards, he is Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.), conferred by Queen Elizabeth II, March, 2006 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Medicine.

He is married to Lesley-Anne Furlong, M.D. and has two sons, Brian and Timothy.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's mission is to conduct basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases.

NIAID has "intramural" (in-house) laboratories in Maryland and Montana, and funds research conducted by scientists at institutions in the United States and throughout the world. NIAID also works closely with partners in academia, industry, government, and non-governmental organizations in multifaceted and multidisciplinary efforts to address emerging health challenges such as the pandemic H1N1/09 virus.

Super Angel Investor, Faz Bashi, MD, guests on BioTalk from the BioHealth Capital Region Investor Conference to talk about his background in Immunology/Virology, Venture Investing, and coming to the BioHealth Capital Region.

Listen on Google Podcasts bit.ly/2qR2cRE, Apple Podcasts apple.co/32Ta8A3, and TuneIn bit.ly/2Nip5VJ.

Dr. Faz Bashi, M.D., has a background in Immunology and Virology from UCSF. Faz is the Chair of the Medical Device Screening Committee of Life Science Angels and is an active member of the LSA screening committee for Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals. He is also the Chair of the Angel Capital Association’s Life Sciences Syndication Group, is a member of the Berkeley Angel Network, and was one of the founding members of Healthtech Capital, where he served two years on the Board of Directors.

He is an adjunct professor in the Integrative Health Studies program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Faz is an active advisor to the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He had worked previously at San Mateo Medical Center developing and implementing special clinical projects targeted towards helping those who are under-served, which included projects focused on TeleDermatology, Diabetic Retinopathy, Screening, and advancements in electronic medical records. Faz is an active consultant to Coleman Associates as a Deep Dive expert, and he coaches public health clinics and safety net organizations on improving their workflow processes. He currently serves as an External Advisory Board Member at The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design.

Cartesian Therapeutics’ President & CEO Murat Kalayoglu, MD, Ph.D., guests on BioTalk from the BioHealth Capital Region Investor Conference to talk about developing novel cell and gene therapies, building his company in the region, and also being an investor.

Listen now on Apple Podcasts https://apple.co/2pNSKhr, Google Podcasts http://bit.ly/2qCatIU, and TuneIn http://bit.ly/2Wb14DP

Dr. Kalayoglu is co-founder and CEO of Cartesian Therapeutics, a fully-integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel cell and gene therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. Before Cartesian, he was co-founder and CEO of Topokine, which he led from concept to late-stage clinical trials, followed by a successful sale to Allergan (NYSE:AGN). Prior to Topokine, he was co-founder and COO of HealthHonors Corporation, which he led from concept to commercialization, followed by a successful sale to Healthways (NASDAQ:HWAY). Dr. Kalayoglu is a board-certified ophthalmologist who completed his residency and research fellowship at Harvard, MD/Ph.D. in immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Founded in 2016, Cartesian is a fully-integrated, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel cell and gene therapies to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. All of the company’s products are manufactured internally at the company’s wholly-owned cGMP manufacturing facility in Gaithersburg, MD. Cartesian has three programs in clinical development. The lead product, Descartes-08, is a CD8+ CAR T-cell therapy with a defined and predictable half-life, enabling repeat dosing to maximize potency while minimizing risk of toxicity. Descartes-08 is currently in Phase I/II clinical trials to treat patients with multiple myeloma.

New Enterprise Associates Partner, Sara Nayeem, M.D., Joins Host Rich Bendis to Discuss Her Career, Venture Capital, and BioPharma

Sara Nayeem, M.D., is a Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Sara joined NEA's healthcare team in 2009 and focuses on investments in biopharmaceutical companies. She serves on the boards of Centrexion, Complexa, Cydan, Imara, and Tiburio. She previously served on the boards of Vtesse (acquired by Sucampo), Mersana (MRSN) and Therachon and as a board observer for Loxo Oncology (LOXO, acquired by Lilly), Tesaro (TSRO, acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), Clementia (CMTA, acquired by Ipsen), Nightstar (NITE, acquired by Biogen), Ziarco (acquired by Novartis), Omthera (OMTH, acquired by AstraZeneca), Epizyme (EPZM), Millendo (MLND) and Zyngenia. She has also been involved in other NEA investments such as Prosensa (RNA, acquired by BioMarin), Metacrine, and 3-V Biosciences. She also serves on the board of BioHealth Innovation Management. Prior to joining NEA, Sara was an Associate with Merrill Lynch’s Global Healthcare Group, where she advised biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies on numerous mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions. Previously, she worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley. She has conducted basic science research in mammalian cardiac development and clinical research in age-related macular degeneration. Sara concurrently earned her MD (cum laude) and MBA from Yale University, where she was a Yale MBA Scholar. She received her AB (magna cum laude) in Biology from Harvard University.

Listen now on iTunes (https://apple.co/2o1V6Il), Google Podcasts (http://bit.ly/2oGqQ6h), and TuneIn (http://bit.ly/2ndZGmO).

Dr. Zan Fleming, M.D. and Thomas Seoh of Kinexum join Biotalk host Rich Bendis to discuss the company, Metabesity, and their upcoming 2019 Conference in Washington, DC

Listen now on Google Podcasts http://bit.ly/2kaI8Xt, iTunes https://apple.co/2kc7jsG, and TuneIn http://bit.ly/2lMk79l

Dr. Alexander Fleming is Founder and Executive Chairman of Kinexum, a company with diverse expertise in developing drugs, biotech products, medical devices and digital health technologies. He is also Executive Vice-President of Tolerion, a biotechnology company developing disease-modifying treatments for type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases. Dr. Fleming received his M.D. and internal medicine training from Emory, fellowship training in endocrinology at Vanderbilt and metabolism at National Institutes of Health, where he was a senior fellow. 

At the US Food and Drug Administration from 1986-98, Dr. Fleming was responsible for the therapeutic areas of diabetes, other metabolic and endocrine disorders, growth and development, nutrition, lipid-lowering compounds, and reproductive indications.  He led reviews of landmark approvals including metformin and the first statin, insulin analog, PPAR-agonist, and growth hormone for non-GH deficiency indications. He conceived and directed the first FDA pilot project to utilize the internet for regulatory communication and represented FDA on the expert working groups for Good Clinical Practices and General Considerations for Clinical Trials of the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) and participated on other ICH committees including the Common Technical Document working group.  

Dr. Fleming remains active in supporting the development of diabetes-related preventions, treatments, devices, and digital technologies.  He serves on the joint technology working groups of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and American Diabetes Association. 
  

Thomas Seoh is President and CEO of Kinexum, a strategic advisory firm that provides regulatory, clinical, CMC and other translational guidance for life science product development.  He is an entrepreneur/executive who has held senior leadership positions in public and private pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies for over 25 years. 

Mr. Seoh began his career as a corporate attorney in New York and London, then assumed legal management positions with the Consolidated Press group in Livonia, MI, then the ICN Pharmaceuticals group in Costa Mesa, CA.  He next became VP, General Counsel and Secretary, and later, SVP Corporate and Commercial Development, of Guilford Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed company in Baltimore which commercialized GLIADEL® wafer for glioblastoma multiforme and developed the propofol pro-drug LUSEDRA® and small molecules for Parkinson’s disease.  He then became CEO of venture-backed Faust Pharmaceuticals in Strasbourg, France, with a repurposed compound in Phase II for Parkinson’s patients, a re-positioned molecule for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and a GPCR drug discovery platform. 

Mr. Seoh subsequently served in leadership positions of medical device startups developing an ex vivo liver dialysis device, a novel mechanical thrombectomy device for Deep Vein Thrombosis and stroke and a state-of-the-art neurocatheter, and a plant-based skin substitute wound dressing.  He has served on industry-university advisory boards at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  He holds an AB in Philosophy and History and a JD from Harvard University.

Bob Kramer joins BioTalk to discuss his history with Emergent, his vision for the company, and Emergent’s commitment to the BioHealth Capital Region.

Mr. Kramer serves as president and CEO and as a member of the Board of Directors. He was appointed as CEO and as director effective April 2019 and has served as president since March 2018. Mr. Kramer also served as chief operating officer from March 2018 to March 2019. Prior to this, Mr. Kramer served as executive vice president and chief financial officer from September 2012. Mr. Kramer first joined Emergent in 1999 as its CFO. From 1999 until his retirement in 2010, he held various executive positions with the last being president of Emergent Biodefense Operations Lansing. Mr. Kramer returned to the company in 2011 as the interim head of the biosciences division, and then as interim executive vice president, corporate services division. Prior to joining Emergent in 1999, Mr. Kramer held various financial management positions at Pharmacia Corporation, which subsequently merged with the Upjohn Company in 1995 and eventually became part of Pfizer Inc. Mr. Kramer serves on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Kramer received an M.B.A. from Western Kentucky University and a B.S. in industrial management from Clemson University.

Listen now on iTunes (https://apple.co/2P2fYfO), Google (http://bit.ly/2KKg47H), and TuneIn (http://bit.ly/2LPtYab).

For the first time, a BioTalk look inside BioHealth Innovation, Inc. (BHI) with Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR) Dr. Ethel Rubin

Dr. Ethel Rubin leads a venture team that helps prepare and connect lifescience companies with capital, ensuring strategies that hit valuation inflection points, achieve strategic goals, and prepare for a product launch. She has previously held corporate leadership roles in global clinical strategy and medical affairs at Medtronic, plc, was Chief Scientific Officer of BioFortis, Inc. (acquired by Quintiles-Quest JV) and CSA Medical, Inc., is President of life sciences business development advisory firm Innovative BioStrategies, LLC, and a venture partner at various funds. She has over 25 products in the marketplace garnering 9 figure sales revenue, was instrumental in multiple M&As, partnerships & collaborations, and advises hundreds of CEOs in preparation for seed to series B financing each year. Ethel has held board seats at tech incubators and numerous business and clinical Advisory boards.  Dr. Rubin earned a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry and a certificate in corporate governance for Board of Directors service from The George Washington University School of Business.

Listen now on iTunes (https://apple.co/318CzZv), Google (http://bit.ly/30WiQfg), and TuneIn (http://bit.ly/2LPtYab).