Advertise on podcast: Behind the Breakthroughs

What began as a search for plant-friendly CRISPR tools led Matt Begemann, PhD, and colleagues to Cas12a2, or CasCLEAR, an unusual system that can trigger broad nucleic acid damage after recognizing an RNA target, creating potential applications in cancer therapy, diagnostics, and antimicrobials. With early studies showing promise against cancer-causing mutations, Begemann’s story highlights both the challenges of translating Cas12a2 into therapies and the value of pursuing unexpected scientific discoveries. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Human Longevity executive chairman Wei-Wu He discusses how the integration of genomics, advanced imaging, and artificial intelligence could transform disease prediction and personalized preventive medicine. Reflecting on Craig Venter’s legacy, he explores the challenges of democratizing precision medicine and the quest to extend human healthspan by identifying and intervening in disease before symptoms emerge. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roche’s AXELIOS sequencer, Alzheimer’s blood test, and push to automate mass spectrometry point to a broader strategy of making advanced diagnostics routine. Whether AXELIOS can meaningfully challenge Illumina’s sequencing dominance, however, remains an open question. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gene therapy’s biggest bottleneck remains delivery: getting increasingly sophisticated genetic medicines safely into the right cells. SonoThera is taking a radically different approach, using ultrasound and microbubbles instead of viral vectors and nanoparticles, which could allow for larger payloads, repeat dosing, and precise tissue targeting. The key question is whether this seemingly too-good-to-be-true approach can work in humans after promising results across multiple organs in animals. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Biocatalysis has evolved from a scientific curiosity into a powerful manufacturing platform, culminating in enlicitide, the first oral macrocyclic peptide PCSK9 inhibitor. Merck’s David Thaisrivongs explains how enzyme engineering helped create this “Goldilocks” class of medicines—and could open previously inaccessible drug targets to oral therapies. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) isn't going to be solved by new antibiotics alone—it also requires identifying resistant infections quickly enough to guide treatment and prevent transmission. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Anne Beaubrun, PhD, of Cepheid and Amish Acharya, PhD, of the Fleming Initiative, discuss how rapid molecular diagnostics, including the TRACE-CPE study, could bring precision medicine to infectious disease by enabling earlier detection of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE)—dangerous, last-resort antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are spreading rapidly in hospitals. They also explore the scientific, clinical, and policy challenges of making rapid diagnostics a routine part of healthcare worldwide. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For decades, psychiatry has relied on symptom-based diagnosis and trial-and-error treatment, but precision medicine is set to transform mental health care by using objective biological measures—such as EEG, sleep and circadian rhythm data, and cognitive testing—with AI-driven analysis to match patients with the therapies most likely to work for them. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Alto Neuroscience founder and CEO Amit Etkin explains how biomarker-guided drug development and biologically defined patient populations could make precision psychiatry routine, improving outcomes and changing how psychiatric disorders are diagnosed and treated. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI is transforming biomedical research, but meaningful advances in drug discovery require more than just increasingly powerful algorithms—they depend on combining machine learning with physics-based simulations, mechanistic models, and rigorous experimental validation. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Michael Antonov, co-founder of Oculus and computational drug discovery company Deep Origin, shares a pragmatic perspective on AI's opportunities and limitations in medicine, explaining where it is accelerating innovation and why human expertise and experimental science remain indispensable. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Philippe Pouletty, MD, is one of Europe’s most successful life sciences entrepreneurs, having spent more than 30 years building category-leading biotechnology and medical technology companies from breakthrough scientific innovations. His most notable achievement is Abivax, which he founded and chaired for a decade, transforming it into a global biotechnology leader that reached an approximately $10 billion market capitalization following positive Phase 3 results in 2025. Today, he is applying the same proven strategy to Carvolix, combining breakthrough implants, AI-powered software, and autonomous mini-robotics to create a next-generation cardiovascular MedTech company focused on improving outcomes for patients with heart valve disease and stroke. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While growing up during the polio era, Arthur Caplan, PhD, saw doctors hide painful truths from families and children, which sparked his lifelong questions about power, protection, and inequality in medicine. In this episode, Caplan claims that bioethics has changed from marginalizing or abandoning disabled people to genetic testing, parental perfectionism, and personal autonomy over collective responsibility. Caplan predicts that extreme individualism will endanger public health and that the next ethical frontier will be the brain and how far humans should alter identity. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brain-computer interfaces have gained widespread attention largely for assistive applications, but Carolina Aguilar sees their greatest potential in directly treating neurological disease. Through INBRAIN Neuroelectronics, she is developing graphene-based implants designed to read and stimulate neural activity with far greater precision than conventional devices, building on insights from her 13 years at Medtronic and earlier neuroscience research. In this conversation, Aguilar explains why INBRAIN prioritizes therapeutic BCIs, how graphene could advance personalized neurotechnology and AI-driven therapies, and why conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and cardiometabolic disorders are central to the company’s long-term vision. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew Rabinowitz, PhD, moved from engineering to medicine after his Human Genome Project work, motivated by both scientific insight and personal loss that exposed the limits of existing genetic diagnostics. He founded Natera and later Myome, building genomic and AI-driven tools to improve disease detection, risk assessment, and prevention. In the episode, he highlights challenges. such as regulatory barriers, fragmented data, and translating genetics into clinical decisions, while aiming to develop predictive blood tests that enable proactive care. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Precision medicine promises individualized care through data, but progress remains fragmented. Clinical, genomic, and imaging data are siloed, limiting real-world use. Jurgi Camblong, PhD, founded SOPHiA Genetics to integrate multimodal data into actionable insights, yet variability in technologies and evolving biology complicate standardization. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Camblong discusses how effective solutions require combining diverse AI methods grounded in context and longitudinal feedback loops. To Camblong, the challenge is not data quantity but making existing information usable in patient care. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As an Origination Partner at Flagship Pioneering, Molly Gibson, PhD, co-founded her first company, Generate:Biomedicines, in 2018, where she made her mark by developing models that design novel proteins—work that has already led to a Phase 3 asthma drug. Since then, she has gone on to co-found two additional companies: Expedition Medicines and Lila Biosciences. In this episode, Molly explains why the anticipated boom in AI-guided drug development hasn’t fully materialized and how she’s tackling the challenge by modeling complex chemistry to synthesize novel small molecules at Expedition Medicines. She also discusses building "superintelligence" and closed-loop systems in which AI can autonomously generate, test, and refine scientific ideas at Lila Biosciences. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Xenotransplantation has long been a scientifically promising but ethically complex field, overshadowed by its limited practicality despite the growing shortage of transplantable organs and the urgent needs of patients. Recent breakthroughs, including genetically modified pig heart transplants in 2022 and 2023, have demonstrated its feasibility, marking a turning point even though long-term survival has not yet been achieved. In this episode of Behind the Breakthroughs, Mike Curtis, PhD, President and CEO of eGenesis, explains how the company is building on this success to advance xenotransplantation as a scalable clinical strategy, emphasizing that even temporary extensions of life—such as a recent nine-month kidney transplant case—can provide meaningful outcomes and bridge patients to future treatments. Produced and hosted by Jonathan D. Grinstein, PhD Audio mixed and mastered by Erick Ziegler Brought to you by Inside Precision Medicine (SAGE Publishing) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.