Personalized Medicine Podcast

In this episode we are returning to a very exciting topic of immunooncology and we will talk in detail about novel approaches to treat cancer, based on CAR-T cell technology.
Please welcome Dr. Eric von Hofe, the Senior Advisor and former President of Affyimmune Therapeutics. Eric’s story is a showcase of a remarkable career in the biotech industry. Eric studied Biology at UC Berkeley and received his PhD from the University of Southern California. HEric continued his career in cancer research doing two PostDocs at ETH Zurich and Harvard and then taking a position of Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In 1992 Eric made a transition to the biopharmaceutical industry leading the development of antisense oligonucleotide therapies at Hybridon. Eric subsequently led multidisciplinary drug development programs at Millennium Pharmaceuticals as a Director of Drug Discovery Research. Eric has been fundamental for two prominent immuno-oncology companies: Antigen Express, a company focusing on peptide-based cancer vaccines; and Affyimmune Therapeutics, a biotech startup developing novel approaches for CAR-T cell based therapies. With about 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals and four patents Eric is a true expert in the field of oncology
Together with Eric we discussed:
Differences between career in academia and industry
Evolution of therapeutic landscape in oncology over the last 30 years
Role of immunology in development of novel cancer therapies
CAR-T cells and their role in combating cancer
Affinity tuning of CAR-T cells as mechanism to decrease off-target effect
Cancer vaccines: peptide vs mRNA
The future of immunooncology
Get in touch with Eric:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericvonhofe/
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://affyimmune.com/
Make sure to download the full show notes with our guest's bio, links to their most notable work, and our recommendations for further reads on the topic of the episode at pmedcast.com

Welcome to the first episode of the Personalized Medicine Podcast in 2021. And what a guest do we have to kick-off this year!
In this episode, we dive deep into the world of stem cells with one of the most influential scientists in the field, Professor Jeanne Loring. Jeanne is a Professor Emeritus and a Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Scripps Research. She made pivotal contributions to the field of stem cell research publishing 120+ papers on the topic. Jeanne is also a true veteran of the biotech industry working for some of the most important companies in the domain of stem cell therapeutics. Jeanne’s most recent venture is Aspen Neuroscience, a pharmaceutical company that develops cell replacement therapies for Parkinson’s disease based on a patient’s own induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
This episode is full of inspirational moments from Jeanne as she shares her experiences differentiating her own cells into beating cardiomyocytes and witnessing the delivery of organoids prepared in her lab to the International Space Station.
Together with Jeanne we discussed:
° Application of iPSCs in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease
° The founding story of Aspen Neuroscience
° Unexpected cost advantage of autologous vs allogeneic iPSCs
° Delivery systems for stem cell therapies
° Use of next-generation sequencing in quality control of stem cell therapies
° Logistics challenges in making iPSC-based therapies available
° Growing organoids at the International Space Station
° Future applications of iPSCs in drug screening and cell-replacement therapies
Make sure to listen until the very end of the episode, when Jeanne shares some very practical advice for aspiring young scientists.
Get in touch with Jeanne:
° LinkedIn: Jeanne Loring
° Twitter: @jeannefrances, @AspenNeuro
° Web: https://www.aspenneuroscience.com/
Make sure to download the full show notes with our guest's bio, links to their most notable work, and our recommendations for further reads on the topic of the episode at pmedcast.com

In episode 9 we dive deep into the topic that could not be more relevant today - diagnosis of infectious diseases. Our guest on this episode is Tim Blauwkamp, the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Karius, a company that leverages genomics and AI to develop highly-accurate diagnostic tests based on cell-free DNA sequencing. Karius has recently raised a stunning Series B round of $165 million to further the transition of their test to clinic.
Tim did his PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Michigan, where he studied genes involved in nitrogen assimilation in bacteria. He then continued as a PostDoc first in Michigan and then at Stanford researching the mechanisms behind WNT signaling and its role in cell differentiation. He then joined Moleculo as a Head of Molecular biology. Moleculo was acquired by Illumina and Tim was responsible for bringing to life the technologies that made it possible to generate long and accurate sequencing reads. About six years ago, Tim co-founded Karius together with Mickey Kertesz. Tim and his team have achieved enormous progress during the last years, bringing the diagnostic tests to clinics that are already changing the lives of patients.
Together with Tim, we have talked about::
◦ The story behind Karius
◦ Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) as a blood biomarker of infection
◦ Why DNA sequencing has an edge over classical microbiology methods
◦ The challenge of isolating microbial cfDNA from blood
◦ Untangling cfDNA sequencing data with AI
◦ Why Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is hard to detect using NGS
◦ Diagnosing sepsis based on microbial cfDNA
◦ Clinical evidence as a key to healthcare innovation
◦ Working with payers to spread the use of innovative diagnostic tests
◦ How cfDNA screening can become a cornerstone of next-generation medicine
Get in touch with Tim:
◦ LinkedIn: Tim Blauwkamp
◦ Twitter: @timblauwkamp
◦ Web (Karius): http://kariusdx.com/
◦ Email: [email protected]
Make sure to download the full show notes with our guest's bio, links to their most notable work and our recommendations for further reads on the topic of the episode at pmedcast.com

This Podcast episode cannot get any closer to what personalized medicine is really about. Welcome Dr. Dan Rhodes, the founder and CEO of Strata Oncology, a leading precision oncology company leveraging state-of-the art genomics tools for more efficient cancer diagnostics and treatment. Dan is a bioinformatician by training and spent his entire career applying genomics to solving complex problems in oncology. Dan founded two very successful startups in this field and also has gathered vast experience working as a VP of Oncology Strategy at large corporations (Life Technologies and Thermo Fisher). This interview is full of deep insights on the state of genomic testing in cancer treatment and reflections on the future of precision oncology.
◦ Tune into this episode to learn more about:
◦ Dan’s journey from a PhD student to a serial biotech entrepreneur
◦ Differences between working in a small start-up vs large organizations
◦ Strata’s mission to determine best possible treatment for each cancer patient
◦ Role of RNAseq in precision oncology
◦ Approaches for highly-sensitive NGS of solid tumors
◦ Paradigm shift in clinical trials for personalized therapeutics
◦ Reimbursement landscape in cancer genomics
◦ Potential of asymptomatic NGS screening in oncology
◦ Dan’s vision for the future of precision oncology
Make sure to download the full show notes with our guest's bio, links to their most notable work, and our recommendations for further reads on the topic of the episode at pmedcast.com