Episodes
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Dr. Evan Bai is computational genomic team leader at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. There he leads collaborations across Research, Clinical, and Commercial. By designing and analyzing genomic studies across the drug discovery pipeline, ranging from target discovery to defining treatable patient population, he contributed to the advancement of one disease program from compound screening into Phase II clinical trials, and other disease programs from target discovery into lead optimization.
Evan is also the founder of Hanwen Interiors, an interior decorating firm specializing in modern, Asian-inspired homes. He helps homeowners find peace and retreat by creating functional and beautiful designs. Hanwen Interiors is also a proud member of the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce. To help support the LGBTQ+ community, I pledge to donate 10% of our design fees to local LGBTQ+ non-profit organizations.
Evan is also the volunteer leader and co-chair of Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ PRIDE Employee Resource Group (with over 400 members globally), where he leads and oversees company-wide programs that support the career advancement of LGBTQ+ employees and allies.
Elena talked with Evan about his career path to and at Vertex, his new role as interior designer and the parallels between the two. They also discussed how being part of the LGBTQ+ community has affected his career and how he is serving and supporting this community now.
You can find more about Evan:
Website: hanwen-interiors.com
Instagram handle: @hanwen.interiors
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-bai/
Music credits
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Dr. Yaniv Erlich is the co-founder and CEO of Eleven Therapeutics. Prior, he was the CSO of MyHeritage, a consumer genomics company (acquired by Francisco Partners), an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and a Principal Investigator at the Whitehead Institute, MIT.
We talked with Yaniv about his unique career that led him to leave academia and focus his efforts on building exciting biotech companies. Yaniv shared his insights into academic and non academic career development pathways for scientists, delved into the advantages of building a company in the UK as well as shed some light on how research is done at Eleven Therapeutics.
Tune in and join the discussion in our 'mAcademia podcast' group on Facebook.
Music
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Missing episodes?
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Gali Arad and Eran Seger from Protai had talked to us about moving from their previous life in tech and academia into the fast pace of illuminating the druggable Proteome for better cures.
Eran Seger is the Co-Founder and CEO of Protai, a fast-growing biotech startup sitting on the intersection of proteomics and machine learning to develop novel therapeutics for a variety of complex diseases. Eran is an experienced technology executive and entrepreneur with a strong technical background and over 15 years of tech leadership positions at the Israeli Intelligence forces and HighTech.
Gali Arad, PhD is a Computational Biologist and the first employee of Protai, a drug discovery startup combining AI and proteomics to create intelligence-driven pharma. She is an end-to-end computational biology scientist, with broad experience in systems biology, data analysis, hands-on technological practice, and clinical samples handling. In her current role, Gali leads the scientific research, focused on target discovery and prioritization, and the collection and curation of Protai’s data warehouse. She holds a Ph.D from Tel Aviv University, applying mass-spectrometry-based proteomics to study cancer heterogeneity. Her findings were published in top-tier scientific journals and emphasized the added value of clinical proteomics in the study of cancer.
Music:
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Dov Moran, Managing Partner of Grove Ventures, is one of the most prominent Israeli hi-tech leaders in the world. Dov is an investor, inventor, and entrepreneur, who is best known as the inventor of the USB flash drive. He founded M-Systems, acquired by SanDisk for $US 1.6 billion in 2006. He also served as the chairman of Tower Semiconductors, a developer and manufacturer of semiconductors and integrated circuits, in which he led a massive overhaul. Under Moran’s guidance, the company achieved a notable turnaround and became an enormous success. It was acquired by Intel in 2022 for 5.4 billion.
We talked about innovation, entrepreneurship, out of the box thinking and much more. We also mentioned Dov's first book ‘100 Doors - An Introduction to Entrepreneurship’ that was published in 2016 and included insights from his untraditional path.
Music:
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Corrie Painter is the Deputy Director of Count Me In and is a research scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. A trained cancer researcher with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, she completed her postdoctoral work in cancer immunology, focusing on melanoma. In 2010, Painter was diagnosed with angiosarcoma. She has combined her cancer advocacy and scientific background to engage with patients in order to build and carry out patient-partnered genomics studies. She is also the co-founder of Angiosarcoma Awareness Inc.
We talked with Corrie about her brave and determined journey, about how scientists can lead work of impact and change, about personal strengths, determination and appreciation of life. This is an inspirational conversation, demonstrating how much good can come out of adversity, how much impact can be achieved, when nothing else seems acceptable. Don't miss this conversation.
Music:
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Running a team of diverse skills, and having them talk, learn, innovate and grow together while driving scientific breakthroughs? This is exactly what happens at the Satchi-Fainaro laboratory.
Ronit Satchi-Fainaro is a full Professor at Tel Aviv University, where she is head of the Cancer Research & Nanomedicine Laboratory, Director of Tel Aviv University Cancer Biology Research Center, Director of the TAU Kahn 3D BioPrinting Initiative, and holds the Kurt and Herman Lion Chair in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies. She serves on the Board of Directors of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and the Board of Governors of Tel Aviv University, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Blavatnik Center for Drug Discovery, the Israel Cancer Association, the University of Lisbon, the Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron - Institut de Recerca (VHIR), The Rothschild and Fulbright Fellowships Committees, several VCs, and editorial boards of scientific journals.
Her multidisciplinary research laboratory focuses on basic research elucidating the mechanisms underlying the switch from cancer dormancy leading to the discovery of new molecular targets to interrupt tumor-host interactions. Her approach is followed by the design of highly selective targeting molecules integrating biology, chemistry, medicine, data science, engineering and nanotechnology to selectively guide drugs into pathological sites. Throughout, she has maintained an interest in understanding the biological rationale for the design of nanomedicines suitable for transfer into clinical testing. She has published more than 150 manuscripts, 13 book chapters, edited two books, is named inventor on 60 patents, some of which were licensed to Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies, and has delivered over 500 lectures worldwide. She founded three spin-off companies and is actively engaged in translational research with several industry partners and in science outreach.
Music - Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Joe Brew is a data scientist with a background in public health. Joe has worked in infectious disease control surveillance, monitoring, and case-finding in places ranging from Nepal to Mozambique to Florida, USA (where he is from).
He now focuses on building Hyfe, an artificial intelligence company which aims to improve respiratory health, remote patient monitoring, and diagnostics by detecting and quantifying cough from ambient noise.
We talked about transdisciplinary research, science entrepreneurship, dedication and enthusiasm, impact and goals. Don't miss this!
Hyfe - Hyfe Cough Tracker | Stay on top of your health by tracking your cough (hyfeapp.com)
Music credits:
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Dr. Gil Blander is internationally recognized for his research in the basic biology of aging and translating research discoveries into new ways of detecting and preventing age-related conditions. He leads a team of biology, nutrition & exercise physiology experts, and data scientists at InsideTracker, and has been featured in CNN Money, The New York Times, Forbes, Financial Times, The Boston Globe to name a few.
Dr. Gil Blander received a Ph.D. in biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science and completed his Post Doctoral fellowship at MIT, before going on to found InsideTracker. InsideTracker was founded in 2009 by top scientists from acclaimed universities in the fields of aging, genetics, and biology, InsideTracker is a truly personalized nutrition and performance system. Our mission is to help people add years to their lives and life to their years by optimizing their bodies from the inside out. By analyzing your body’s data, we can give you a crystal clear picture of what's going on inside you along with a science-backed action plan for improving your health and becoming your best self.We talked about how he founded InsideTracker, who helped him along the way, how to innovate, why he founded ScienceAbroad and much more.
InsideTracker - Optimize wellness and performance through blood tests, nutrition and science. (insidetracker.com)
Music credits:
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Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Or Ordentlich, PhD is an associate professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also an Algorithms Architect at Weka.io. His research is mostly focused on information theory, and its applications to modern problems in communication, compression and data science. Omri Palmon, PhD is the founder and COO of Weka.io, with a PhD in computer science from Stanford.
We talked about innovation, product development, the difference between solving problems for research and product development and so much more!
Want to continue the conversation? Join our mAcademia Group on facebook. Music credits: Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Ori Zelichov M.D. is the VP Clinical Development of Nucleai, a startup company developing image analysis technologies for precision oncology. Dr. Zelichov leads the medical strategy and clinical development for the company. Prior to joining Nucleai, Ori was the Medical Director for Novellus, where he led to the development of a novel targeted treatments for cancer, now being tested in clinical trials.
We talked about product development, the company evolution to match market needs, the 'mom' dilemma and so much more.
Want to continue the conversation? Join our mAcademia Group on facebook.
Music credits: Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Yulie Klerman solves puzzles of the complex healthcare ecosystem, helping health tech companies crystalize product/market fit and develop a go-to-market strategy for their innovative solutions. Yulie is a VP of Business Development at Rhino Health, an end-to-end Federated Learning and Privacy Preservation platform facilitating privacy-centric data collaboration. In her previous role, she launched a Health Data Connectivity Platform for the safe and effective incorporation of health, consumer, and digital data at Liveramp. Yulie is obsessed with data democratization, interoperability, and privacy.
We talked about how to develop a career starting with a science degree and get proficient in business, how to start in one country and move to a different one, how to start in one area and move to a different one. We talked about passion, curiosity and passion to what you do.
Want to continue the conversation? Join our mAcademia Group on facebook.
Music:
Music credits: Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Gavi Feuer’s life pursuit is to incorporate new and developing technologies into medical devices. As Engineering Director and Co-founder of Rafael Medical Devices, he takes surgical procedures to the next level in order to improve safety, efficacy, cost, and efficiency.
After receiving his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Cooper Union, Gavi earned his Ph.D. from SUNY Downstate studying bone tissue and the human skeleton as mechanical systems.
With his knowledge in both engineering and biomechanical systems, he spent the next years in the orthopedic device industry, first working with Monogram Orthopedics, a startup focused on surgical robotics and additively manufactured implants, then AM Surgical, a manufacturer of endoscopic surgical equipment. He currently leads engineering and product development efforts at Rafael Medical Devices, a new venture in the surgical device industry.Music:
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Dr. Assaf Zemach spent seven years as a professor at Tel Aviv university before he moved back to the US and joined Rinati skin as Head of Metabolic Engineering. We talked about Assaf's career as both a PI and scientist in industry, about the difficult task of navigating two careers and raising children abroad, about the differences and similarities of leading research in academia and industry, and much more.
Music credits: Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Rachel Diamant co-founded Emendo Biotherapeutics in 2016 with a group of friends. Emendo is a next generation gene editing company developing genetic medicines for severe genetic diseases. Rachel completed biotech engineering studies from the Technion (Israel) in 2000 and MSc in Neuroscience from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2004. She is a serial entrepreneur in biotech and has been working in the field of IP strategy for over a decade.
We talked about the role IP has in building a company and how it can be used to develop interesting products. We talked about the culture at Emendo and how career development based on skills can be extended throughout the years.
Music:
Music credits: Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Prof. Karen B. Avraham, professor at the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University in Israel. She and her team lead the effort in the discovery of disease genes and the use of models for therapy, with an emphasis on precision medicine. Her laboratory of neural and sensory genomics focuses on deafness and developmental epileptic encephalopathies.
Karen takes great pride in the 135 undergraduate, MSc, PhD, MD-PhD students and post-docs she has mentored, both from Israel and abroad, and 60 junior faculty she has helped recruit to the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. She also works as a coordinator in research efforts for neurological diseases, as co-director of the Aufzien Family Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease and of the Taube-Koret Global Collaboration in Neurodegenerative Diseases. She founded and directs the Biomed@TAU Research Hubs, whose mission is to gather together scientists and foster collaboration from across Tel Aviv University and affiliated hospitals who share overlapping research interests (https://en-biomed.tau.ac.il/)
Music:
Music credits: Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Dov Shamir, Ph.D. fell in love with science but not the way it was done in an academic lab, he wanted to be closer to the point of impact, where basic science developments meet the real world needs. His multidisciplinary background extends to the creation of his own startups and products, therapeutic development, engineering, finance, and investing.
Dov is the Senior Manager of Entrepreneurship at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP), the commercialization office of the Mount Sinai Health System. He leads MSIP’s newly established Elementa Labs, an incubator program that strategically positions external health care and biotechnology startup companies for the next stage in their development.
As an experienced scientist and entrepreneur, Dov supports founders by providing mentorship and guidance to develop their platforms and helps position their companies to the ecosystem for future growth and success.
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this episode reflect those of the speaker, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Mount Sinai Health System.
Music credits:
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Ohad was trained as a computational scientist and is grateful to be able to apply these skills to improve patients' lives and outcomes. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two kids. Ohad is the Head of Computational Biology and Data Science at Century Tx and a Scientific Advisor for Drop Bio. When he's not working or thinking about science and data, he likes to spend time with his family enjoying what Seattle and the PNW has to offer, or zone out with some yoga or rock climbing for a mind-body workout.
Home | Century Therapeutics (centurytx.com)
(26) Ohad Manor, PhD | LinkedIn
Music credit:
Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Dr. Fried has created a unique initiative to bring high-level science to kids, especially those in elementary school. The program, called Biochemistry Literacy for Kids, uses molecular modeling tools and a unique philosophy of teaching to exceed typical expectations for learning. Elementary school students in the program learn in-depth about topics like protein folding and organic chemistry mechanisms. Several schools around the US have begun using the curriculum as a part of their standard courses, including elementary, junior high, and high schools. Around 500 homeschool families from around the world also use the curriculum as a part of their studies.
We talked about his journey to established this platform, the challenges and pitfalls as well as the strengths and promises. Thinking about making a project come true? This episode is for you!
Daniel Fried is an assistant professor of chemistry at Saint Peter's University in Jersey City. Dr. Fried grew up in New York's Hudson valley and attended SUNY Binghamton. In 2011, he completed a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Yale University in the laboratory of Alanna Schepartz. He then worked as a postdoc at the Weizmann Institute of Science in the laboratory of Ed Bayer.
Website: https://biochemistryliteracyforkids.com/
Music credit:
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Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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Summertime ... a short break this week, and we had decided to bring you a rebroadcast of one of our favorite episodes - Joanne Kamens, PhD, former CEO of Addgene, and an experienced researcher and leader in biotech and pharma.
Take the time to re-listen and rethink the point Joanne make all through the interviewEnjoy
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