Dr. Carolin Bender, Chief Medical Officer for BC Platforms speaks with On Air Media Group about the groundbreaking ONCOVALUE project in collaboration with Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) and other European institutions, that seeks to explore and leverage real-world data (RWD) in the context of cancer research and treatment, and it's dedication to developing an AI-based framework that assesses the real-time, real-life effectiveness of novel cancer therapies.

Today's episode will focus on the topic of using genomics to accelerate drug development. 

Our host is Tõnu Esko, BC Platforms SAB Chairman and Vice Director of the Institute of Genomics University of Tartu, where he also holds a Professor of Human Genomics position. He is head of the Estonian Biobank Innovation Center and focuses on public private partnerships and innovation transfer. Dr. Esko is also a research scientist at the Broad Institute of Harvard at MIT. He acts as one of the senior leaders for Estonian personalized medicine programs and serves as a scientific advisor for several companies. 

Our guest today is Iris Grossman, on the leading edge of Personalized Medicine, Big Data Analytics and Biotech R&D for 20 years. She is Acting CSO of Amide and advises other biotech in her field of expertise. She has held leadership positions and or consulted for top big pharma GSK, Eli Lilly, Takeda and Teva, where she was VP Head of early stage development, startup and consultancies. She specializes in leveraging high dimensional genomic insights and E-health as engines of therapeutic discovery, development and Lifecycle Management across a wide range of modalities and therapeutic areas. Iris also serves as SAB member of BC platforms, Tipa Biobank, Eleven Therapeutics and CGRP Diagnostics. She earned her B.Sc. in Medicine at the Technion, and a PhD in Medicine, Population Genomics and Pharmacogenomics for the Technion, co-mentored with the Weitzman Institute. Next, she was a postdoc fellow in Personalized Medicine and Population Genomics at Duke University.

What is covered:

- The benefits of using big data in drug discovery

- Specific examples of how the genetics could be helpful in the drug discovery, such as the contribution of human genetics and genomics to fighting COVID

- The recommendations to stakeholders for collaborating within the industry for the sake of innovation 

- How biobanks can potentially act as middlemen for this new type of collaboration

Resources:

- The Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu https://genomics.ut.ee/en

- The Estonian Biobank https://genomics.ut.ee/en 

- Amide Technologies https://www.amidetech.com/

- GSK https://www.gsk.com/

- Eli Lilly https://www.lilly.com/

- Takeda https://www.takeda.com/

- Teva Pharmaceutical https://www.tevapharm.com/

- Tipa Biobank https://www.ksminnovation.com/biobank

- Eleven Therapeutics https://eleventx.com/

- CGRP Diagnostics http://cgrpdiagnostics.com/

Connect with Iris Grossman:

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/irisgrossman/

Connect with Dr. Tõnu Esko: 

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tõnu-esko-24511524/ 

Connect with BC Platforms: 

- https://www.bcplatforms.com 

- https://www.linkedin.com/company/bc-platforms/ 

- sales@bcplatforms.com 

Today's podcast will focus on the topic of accelerated insights from data for preventative health innovation. The podcast sheds light on industry challenges and expectations as well as innovative approaches to collaboration. 

This discussion is led by Tõnu Esko, BC Platforms SAB Chairman and Vice Director of the Institute of Genomics University of Tartu, where he also holds a Professor of Human Genomics position. He is head of the Estonian Biobank Innovation Center and focuses on public private partnerships and innovation transfer. Dr. Esko is also a research scientist at the Broad Institute of Harvard at MIT. He acts as one of the senior leaders for Estonian personalized medicine programs and serves as a scientific advisor for several companies. 

Our speaker today is Michael Geer, the co-founder of Humanity along with Peter Ward. Humanity is a health tech startup that enables you to find your rate of aging, and do what you can do to slow your aging down. Michael Geer is a serial tech entrepreneur, having amassed over a billion users with Badoo, AnchorFree, and even more revenue over his years building meaningful consumer focused technology. He wakes up every day working on how to best enable people with superpowers. 

What is Covered:

- What are the main obstacles to innovation in healthcare

- How to open the access to different data types, and leverage this knowledge in order to build a complex health guide

- The importance of democratization of data, federated access, and differential privacy in making data readily usable by other people

- What scientific insights Humanity uses to build their products

- How Humanity manages the complexity of its data model, and the feedback it provides to their customers

Resources:

- The Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu https://genomics.ut.ee/en

- The Estonian Biobank https://genomics.ut.ee/en 

- Humanity https://www.humanity.health/

- OpenMind https://openmindplatform.org/

- BioAge Labs https://bioagelabs.com/

Connect with Michael Geer:

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgeer

Connect with Dr. Tõnu Esko: 

- https://www.linkedin.com/in/tõnu-esko-24511524/ 

Connect with BC Platforms: 

- https://www.bcplatforms.com 

- https://www.linkedin.com/company/bc-platforms/ 

- sales@bcplatforms.com