Empowered Patient Podcast

James Brown DVM, CEO, DURECT Corporation talks about how DURECT is advancing epigenetic therapies to treat alcoholic hepatitis and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).  The company's lead asset, DUR-928 has demonstrated promising therapeutic potential treating patients with alcoholic hepatitis, a life-threatening acute liver disease caused by chronic alcohol abuse with no approved drugs for treatment.  Dr. Brown also talks about his background as a doctor of veterinary medicine and his goal to continue developing medicines that improve the lives of others. #AlcoholicHepatits #Epigenetic #NASH #LiverDisease DURECT.com Download the transcript here

Maria Picone, co-founder TREND.Community and Antonio Maltese, student with Huntington's Disease talk about the challenges of finding valid information about rare diseases, the value of community support in discovering novel approaches to treatments, providing evidence to pharmaceutical companies about little understood symptoms, and advocating for awareness about rare diseases particularly during Rare Disease week and Rare Disease Day February 29. #rarediseases #huntingtonsdisease HopeForHuntingtons.com TREND.Community Download the transcript here  

Brad Margus, CEO, Cerevance talks about discovering and developing novel therapies for central nervous system diseases using the Cerevance powerful NETSseq target discovery platform and their large collection of human brain tissue samples.  Brad explains why the brain is such a challenging organ to study and their efforts to understand brain cell loss in such diseases as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. #brain #CNSdisorders #Parkinsons #Alzheimers #NETSseq Cevevance.com Download the transcript here

Brad Robinson, CEO, Predictive Technology Group talks about the company's work focusing on women's health and why they decided to focus on this neglected field that has significant unmet medical needs.  Brad discusses the importance of genetics in informing a woman's course of care.  Brad also talks about the company's subsidiaries Predictive Analytics, Predictive Laboratories, and Predictive Biotech and how the synergy between these entities is instrumental in helping women and their clinicians address endometriosis and other reproductive health concerns. #womenshealth #endometriosis #infertility #fertility #genetics #pregnancy #preeclampsia PredTechGroup.com Download the transcript here

Ulf Jungnelius MD, CEO, Isofol Medical discusses the increasing incidence of colorectal cancer as a global issue and the current challenges in treating this devastating disease.  Dr. Jungnelius also talks about the company's drug candidate, arfolitixorin, currently being studied in a global Phase 3 clinical trial with the aim to improve the efficacy of standard of care chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer. #colorectalcancer #CRC #ColonCancer #MetastaticColorectalCancer #chemotherapy #FirstLineTreatment Isofolmedical.com Download the transcript here

Purnanand Sarma, CEO, Immunome discusses why a lot of cancers still remain untreatable today and the company's new approach to fight cancer by tapping into the body's natural immune response against disease.  Sarma further talks about why Immunome chose to look at cancer through the lens of the B-cell in order to identify novel antibody-target pairs. #BCell #Antibody #ImmuneResponse #cancer Immunome.com Download the transcript here  

Filippo Petti, CEO, Celyad discusses how the company is broadening precision medicine by developing CAR-T immunotherapies to express a natural killer receptor that can recognize and target multiple ligands expressed in up to 80% of all cancers.  Filippo talks about the value to cancer patients of both personalized (autologous) and off the shelf (allogeneic) CAR-T therapies and CYAD-101, Celyad's allogeneic CAR-T therapy, that demonstrated for the first time ever, clinical effectiveness in solid tumors. @CelyadSA #CAR_T #NKCells #cancer #immunotherapy #CellTherapy #solidtumors #Tcell #CYAD101 #allogeneic $CYAD Celyad.com Download the transcript here

Nevan Elam, J.D. CEO and co-founder Rezolute, Inc. talks about their work developing therapeutics for congenital hyperinsulinism, a rare pediatric disease and for diabetic macular edema, a vision-related complication of diabetes.  With a background of working with technology businesses, Nevan reflects on lessons learned and differences in drivers of innovation in the computer and biotech worlds. @rezolutebio #RareDisease #PediatricDisease #DME #DiabeticMacularEdema #Diabetes #hyperinsulinism RezoluteBio.com Download the transcript here

Anat Cohen-Dayag PhD chief executive officer, Compugen discusses the current immune-oncology treatment landscape, with only 20-30% of patients responding to currently available treatments, and the missing link that she believes her company may have found to improve the success rate.  Anat talks about how Compugen's computational discovery platform works to discover new drug targets for treating solid tumors and how lead candidate COM701 has shown encouraging early stage results to date. #immuno-oncology  #cancer. #colorectalcancer Compugen Download the transcript here  

Ronnie Andrews, CEO, Oncocyte discusses the company's mission to answer critical questions along the cancer care continuum through the use of their molecular tests for diagnosis and treatment of early stage lung cancer.  Ronnie also talks about the changes in cancer care over the past 20 years and the potential these tests have to positively impact patients in the future. @oncocyteLBX #moleculardiagnostics  #lungcancer  #liquidbiopsy  #earlydetection Oncocyte.com Download the transcript here

Brad Younggren MD, Chief Medical Officer, 98point6 talks about what happens when a company fundamentally changes the way patients interact with doctors by providing 24/7 on-line access to medical professionals aided by the camera and attachments on mobile devices to further inform the diagnosis and treatment plan.  With enthusiastic support from traditional primary care doctors, this new model of on-demand care is showing effectiveness for addressing emergency as well as chronic conditions. @98point6inc 98point6.com Download the transcript here

Usama Malik, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer, Immunomedics discusses the challenges of developing effective medicines for people with triple negative breast cancer as well as Immunomedics' development of antibody-drug conjugates, directed therapies which have potential to provide new options for those with hard to treat cancers. @immunomedicsinc #breastcancer  #TNBC  #HER2  #TripleNegative  #bladdercancer  #urothelial Immunomedics.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Asher Nathan, CEO of NeoTX talks about the company's work developing immunotherapies for a wide range of solid tumors using their proprietary Selective T Cell Redirection (STR) platform.  This technology enables therapies that bind a genetically engineered super antigen to the tumor surface which trigger a native, controlled immune response that can kill the cancer with potentially fewer side effects than currently available therapies.  Asher discusses the company's lead STR molecule, NAP, which is being developed to treat advanced cancers.  NAP, which has potential as both a monotherapy and in combination with checkpoint inhibitors, is currently in a Phase 1B clinical trial in collaboration with AstraZeneca. #immunotherapy  #immunotherapies  #AntiCancer  #SolidTumors  #Tcell  #Antigen  #Cancer  #Monotherapy  #Checkpointinhibitors  #Immunomodulators  NeoTX.com Download the transcript here

Dr. Nader Pourhassan, is Director, President, and CEO, CytoDyn, a late-stage biotechnology company developing leronlimab (PRO 140), a targeted therapy with the potential to treat multiple diseases.  Nader highlights CytoDyn's ongoing clinical trial evaluating leronlimab for metastatic triple negative breast cancer (mTNBC) and the company's plans to submit a Biologics License Agreement (BLA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for leronlimab in combination with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) to treat patients suffering from HIV. @CytoDyn #HIV  #mTNBC  #TNBC  #Leronlimab CytoDyn.com Download the transcript here  

Janet Lee is a patient advocate for those suffering from Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS) and is on a mission to educate healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers about the delayed manifestations of this disease.  This is also a story about a mother who was not vaccinated for Rubella and who gave birth to Janet who was born with extreme hearing loss and suffers from other complications from CRS.  Thanks to her mother's intensive training and love, Janet learned to read lips was able to communicate with me on Skype to allow us to record this podcast. Search on Facebook for CRS (Congenital Rubella Syndrome) for an invitation to join Janet's private group. Read the transcript here  

Dr. Rob Mordkin is Chief Medical Officer for LetsGetChecked.com and Chief of Urology at the Virginia Hospital Center.  We talk about his strong belief in giving individuals access to in-home health testing to allow them to check on warning signs, confirm findings of other lab tests, and provide on-going monitoring of chronic conditions.  With or without a primary care doctor, patients can order tests, have results reviewed by a physician, discuss findings with a nurse, and if necessary, receive a prescription. @LetsGetChecked LetsGetChecked.com Read the transcript here

Mike Wenger, Vice President of Patient Engagement, TrialScope is thinking about ways to improve the clinical trials process by focusing more on the patients that are being recruited, tracked and retained.  We talk about the need to overcome challenges of enrollment, helping patients find the right clinical trial, and reducing the costs related to the time-consuming process of conducting clinical trials. @TrialScope TrialScope.com Read the transcript here

Anish Suri, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Cue Biopharma discusses their proprietary Immuno-STAT(tm)  platform. Cue Biopharma is engineering a novel class of injectable biologics to selectively engage and modulate targeted T cells within the body to transform the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.  The company's proprietary platform Immuno-STAT(tm) (Selective Targeting and Alteration of T cells) is designed to harness the body's intrinsic immune system without the need for ex vivo manipulation.  The company is currently conducting a Phase 1 study in HPV16-driven head and neck cancer and partnering with Merck to develop treatments for autoimmune diseases. @CueBiopharma #immunooncology  #HNSCC  #TCells CueBiopharma.com Download the transcript here  

Dr. Igor Grant, Director, Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California San Diego talks about the need for basic science studies on new indications and promises of cannabinoids, potential medical effects of both THC and CBD, the uptick in funding for clinical studies, relative safety of cannabis compared to other drugs, and which diseases and chronic conditions are currently being effectively treated with some form of cannabis. CMCR.UCSD.edu Download the transcript here

Dr. Mark Scholz, author and medical oncologist specializes in prostate cancer and he is determined to change the way the most common cancer in men is being diagnosed and treated.  Currently, prostate cancer is the only cancer treatment managed by a surgeon and not an oncologist, reflecting the days when the only answer was for the urologist to operate.  Publishing a self-administered test and providing information about alternative treatments and side-effects, Mark is eager to change the way patients and doctors attack this disease. #prostatecancer  #cancer  #oncology ProstateOncology.com PCRI.org Download the transcript here