Robert Schickel, Chief Executive Officer at NUAgo Therapeutics, is developing a cancer therapy using short RNAs to target and disrupt interconnected survival genes in cancer cells. The therapy has been shown to be non-toxic to healthy cells, which have high levels of microRNAs, whereas cancer cells downregulate microRNAs to become metastatic. This is a systems-biology therapeutic approach that targets the entire survival network of a cell, making it independent of specific mutations or pathways and potentially applicable to the vast majority of solid tumors.

Robert explains, "NUAgo is a technology company. We are developing what we define as short RNAs, and these are going to be cancer therapies that really target the survival system of a cancer. This survival system keeps the cancer alive. And instead of going after single components, pathways, or mutations as targeted therapies do, we're using short RNAs to reduce the expression of multiple essential survival genes. And when you get enough of these genes disrupted, the cancer cells can no longer maintain the system that keeps them alive. And at that point, the cell will activate a death response that eliminates the cancer cell by activating several cell death pathways simultaneously. So this is really a unique area in science, and we're developing this. It's a new modality. You see a lot of promise of this in the solid tumor patients."

"The platform that we're building has the potential to go across solid tumor markets. The recent IP that we're filing is for the 11 largest tumor markets from breast and lung, kidney, liver, and all the way down to the smaller, more lethal cancers in pancreas, ovarian, and other small cancers as well. So right now we think we can apply this to about 85% or 90% of the market."

"What we're doing is we take a step back. We're in fundamental biology. So this mechanism really goes back almost a billion years. I mean, fungi have the same mechanism. And so when we go after what are called survival genes, and they are essential for the survival of a cell, they deal with all kinds of cellular functions."

#NUAgoTherapeutics #CancerResearch #Oncology #Biotechnology #PrecisionMedicine #RNATherapeutics #SystemsBiology #MedicalInnovation #HealthcareBreakthrough #CancerTreatment #SurvivalGenes #BiopharmaDevelopment

NUAgotherapeutics.com

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Dr. Babak Saboury, Chief Scientific and Innovation Officer and Physician Founder of United Theranostics, discusses the emergence of nuclear oncology as the fourth pillar of cancer care. United Theranostics is combining advanced molecular imaging and radiopharmaceutical therapies to identify a cancer cell's unique fingerprint and then delivering targeted radiation, reducing side effects by sparing healthy cells. Molecular imaging can serve as a unifying map for guiding a collaborative, multimodal approach to treating a range of cancers.

Babak explains, "I can just very quickly tell you that there are four pillars of treating cancer. Traditionally, when we approached cancer, we wanted to cut it out. That was surgical oncology. Whatever could not be cut out was treated by giving a medication. That was medical oncology. After a while, there was just a modality to the things that were difficult to cut out, but that was a localized hit from outside. That was the radiation oncology. And right now, we are at the beginning of a new horizon. You treat patients systemically, which means all the lesions everywhere. However, you are really there, a magical radiopharmaceutical that goes to find the cell and kills it by radiation. That's a nuclear oncology. So nuclear oncology is the fourth pillar of cancer care."

"So you can imagine that in the past we tried to attack cancer cells. We didn't know what shape they had, which proteins were expressed, or what their characteristics were. So we kind of went blindly and tried to attack them. Imagine that we have a way to find a fingerprint of those cells and go there first to find that fingerprint. And if the fingerprint exists, then go after those cells as a targeted attack. That is where molecular imaging and radiopharmaceutical therapy come into play. So molecular imaging profiles the cancer cells to see what their fingerprint is and whether a certain fingerprint exists. Radiopharmaceutical therapy uses this information to target just those cells and not other cells. And that is the principle of Theranostics, which is a combination of diagnostics and therapeutics, finding and then destroying in a very precise manner."

#UnitedTheranostics #NuclearOncology #PrecisionMedicine #Radiopharmaceuticals #CancerCare #MolecularImaging #Theranostics #OncologyInnovation #PatientCare #HealthcareInnovation #CancerTreatment

Unitedtheranostics.com

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Shaun Bagai, CEO of RenovoRx, has designed a drug-delivery platform to treat hard-to-reach chemo-resistant tumors such as pancreatic cancer by delivering chemotherapy directly to the tumor site. The RenovoCath device increases the drug concentration in the tumor while significantly reducing systemic toxicities and side effects. The technology is not intended to replace the traditional approach using systemic chemotherapy and radiation, but to achieve better results in tumors with low blood supply that prevent drugs from reaching their target in sufficient concentrations.

Shaun explains, "Generally, when we think about oncology therapies, it's really trying to balance the detriment to the patients with the toxicities and hopefully keep the tumor at bay or kill the tumor such that patients live longer. And unfortunately, we often forget about the patient and hyper-focus on the disease. And the challenge we've taken on is, can we take both into account and actually treat both the patient and the disease by limiting systemic toxicities and effects, and then trying to improve survival by keeping the tumors at bay."

"So, when we look at certain tumors in the body, like pancreatic tumors, for example, they don't have a high level of blood supply. Generally, when we think about tumors, we think of balls of blood vessels with tumor cells, and of tumors such as pancreatic tumors. They don't have large tumor feeder vessels that end in a tumor. And what this does is create a level of chemo resistance because the blood can't carry the chemotherapy forward. And what we've developed with TAMP is a mechanism where we push the drug across the wall of a blood vessel to saturate and bathe the tumor in chemotherapy, such that we get almost a hundredfold increase in tissue concentration compared to if you just gave it systemically throughout the entire body."

#RenovoRx #OncologyInnovation #DrugDelivery #CancerCare #MedicalDevices #PancreaticCancer #ClinicalTrials #PatientCare #Interventionalradiology #Oncology #MedicalTechnology #TAMP #Chemotherapy #CancerTreatment #HealthcareInnovatio#TargetedOncology #InnovativeCancerTherapies #PancreaticCancerAwareness #PrecisionOncology

RenovoRx.com

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Suzy Jackson, a digital health specialist focusing on Patient Tech, highlights the shift in the pharmaceutical industry from a provider-focused model to direct engagement with patients. Using AI to create a more consumer-like, personalized healthcare experience will benefit patients and inform researchers and providers about adherence to care and drug side effects. Patient Tech helps reach underserved populations and moves from providing information to a proactive environment, enabling action and more informed discussions with healthcare providers.

Suzy explains, "So everything for me in the Patient Tech space is anything that helps a patient find care, navigate care options, or indeed stay on care, including anything to do with lifestyle interventions and preventative care as well. So I think the category is expanding very, very rapidly, and I'm excited to see what will go on in the next few years."

"Well, I think it's pretty safe to say that this is a new venture for the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. I think traditionally, a lot of time has been spent on ACP education and thinking about how we make HCPs aware of all the choices and therapeutic interventions that are available for their patients. But in the last couple of years, we've really seen a shift, and I think that's caused by a multitude of different factors I'm sure we can speak about, but there's really been a shift to standing on the frontline with patients for pharma and making sure that they're providing patients with care that otherwise patients are going to find in other spaces."

#PatientTech #DigitalHealth #AI #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCenteredCare #HealthEquity #PharmaTech #HealthTech #PatientExperience #WomenInHealth #HealthInnovation #AIinHealthcare #HealthcareLeadership #FutureOfHealth #Lifesciences #PharmaDTP

suzy-jackson.com

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Dr. Robert Rifkin, medical oncologist and hematologist at the University of Colorado in Steamboat Springs. He was also a clinical investigator in the trial that led to the approval of BLENREP, a multiple myeloma drug from GSK. Multiple myeloma is the second most common blood cancer, and while the prognosis has dramatically improved, BLENREP is a novel treatment for patients whose disease has relapsed after other therapies. It is the first drug antibody conjugate approved for relapsed multiple myeloma, targeting the BCMA antigen, which is present on nearly all myeloma cells.

Robert explains, "This is a condition that is really what I would call a disease of the Medicare population. So the median age of diagnosis is often early 60s, but occasionally you do see the younger patients with more aggressive disease. It's thought that African Americans who contract myeloma also may have a more virulent form of the disease."

"Right now we live in a great day and age where we have a tremendous number of good treatments, both upfront, which we really won't be discussing today. And then in patients that have unfortunately relapsed and failed other lines of therapy, that's where the exciting new drug BLENREP comes into play. It's going to have a very specific slot in the myeloma armamentarium."

"So BLENREP is unique in that it targets something on the myeloma cells called the BCMA target or B-cell maturation antigen target. That's expressed in 98% of patients with myeloma. So it provides a really great target to shoot at, if you will. Right now, we really have sort of three main classes of therapy to go after it: CAR T-cells and bispecific antibodies that your audience will likely be familiar with. This one is unique in that it's the first drug antibody conjugate approved to treat myeloma. So it's not a cellular therapy, but instead it's a molecule that has the BCMA that binds to the myeloma cells, and then it unloads a payload to kill the myeloma cells. So that's nice. You don't have to go to a huge center with experience in cellular therapies. It can be done readily in the community."

#MultipleMyeloma #Oncology #BLENREP #BloodCancer #Belamaf #CancerResearch #Hematology #ClinicalTrials #PrecisionMedicine #CancerTreatment #MedicalAdvancement

blenrephcp.com

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Haresh Patel, Founder of Diagnostic MD AI, discusses the transformative potential of AI in healthcare diagnostics, particularly for patients with chronic or complex issues. Based on his own struggle to get an accurate diagnosis of an autoimmune condition, Haresh has developed a patient-centric platform where individuals can build their complete health story, integrating modern and functional medicine with a more holistic approach, which AI analyzes to help doctors connect disparate symptoms, ask the right questions, identify patterns, and reach the correct diagnosis faster while reducing human bias. Haresh talks about his own journey in his book The Ghost in My Body, where he emphasizes the need to identify the root cause of disease and to understand the patient narrative over time.

Haresh explains, "Sometimes that story has to come together in different ways because sometimes the patient doesn't want to share it or doesn't remember. But if we can get the whole story, then we're going to have a much better chance. AI is going to open up the world of possibilities. And I immediately went into high gear because that's exactly what I did with the prior company that I sold to State Street Bank. It was a FinTech platform, but we had FinTech investors put together all of their fragmented data, create a visualization so they could actually see patterns."

"In the medical world, we're a machine too, but the difference is we had a symptom, which is a scenario. And so I all of a sudden thought, wow, I can solve this problem with AI, and if I can help solve one person's problem, my 12 years of suffering while I was building this company will all be worth it. So that's kind of a quick overview about how this all came together. Had I not had any of the experiences of my medical journey or my own journey in the FinTech world, and how I connected the dots, maybe this idea might not have sparked with me. Maybe somebody else would've gotten that spark."

#EmpoweredPatient #HealthcareInnovation #AutoimmuneAwareness #PatientAdvocacy #HealthTech #ChronicIllnessJourney #MedicalMystery #PatientEmpowerment #TechForGood#HolisticHealth#AIDiagnostics #DigitalHealth #PatientCare #MedicalInnovation #HealthcareAI #IntegrativeMedicine #HealthTechnology #MedicalDiagnostics

Hareshpatel.ai

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Ben Scharfe, Executive VP of AI at Altera Digital Health, addresses the evolving regulatory landscape for AI in healthcare, emphasizing AI developers' primary responsibility to ensure transparency so clinicians can understand and verify AI-generated outputs. AI is positioned to be a supportive tool for providers, not as an autonomous decision-maker, with emerging regulations beginning to codify the human-in-the-loop requirement. Ben warns of setting higher standards for AI than physicians and automation complacency, in which clinicians might over-rely on AI.

Ben explains, "Altera provides electronic health records predominantly as well as interoperability solutions for hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory systems. We predominantly serve the US, but we're also present in Canada, in Europe, and in the Asia Pacific region. So we have a global presence, but we do a lot of our work in the US."

"I think the regulatory landscape around the division of responsibilities is really something that is evolving. And so last year, at one point, there was a proposed federal moratorium on state-level legislation, with little, I would say, federal regulation to counterbalance."

"Maybe fortunately, it didn't pass, but since then, there's been a patchwork of state regulation. So I'd say the responsibilities are not entirely defined because they vary by state, and some of those regulations are somewhat contradictory. But recently, the FDA did put out some new guidance and essentially where the responsibility lies for builders. I'd say the primary responsibility is around transparency and enabling clinicians and care providers to understand the reasoning behind any output from an AI system. To be able to review the citations, the evidence used, and the data points the AI may have ingested or consulted in creating some sort of output, so the provider can still have ownership of the care. And essentially, I'd say the core theme there is not having AI that is really acting autonomously on a patient, but rather AI that supports providers who know what they're doing and are licensed."

#AlteraDigitalHealth #HealthcareAI #ClinicalAI #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #AIRegulation #PatientSafety #HealthcareInnovation #MedicalTechnology #AIInMedicine #HealthcareLeadership

Alterahealth.com

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Dr. John Birkmeyer, President of the medical group at Sound Physicians, defines value-based care as an evolution from older managed care models, with closer alignment of incentives for quality of care and cost-effectiveness. Working within the hospital environment, this approach emphasizes standardizing patient-centered care and communication across multiple hospital departments, reducing redundant tests and improving patient outcomes. The use of AI is one way to reduce the administrative burden on physicians, freeing up more time for patient care, a departure from earlier technologies that added to clinicians' workload.

John explains, "Sound Physicians is a multi-specialty medical group. It's distinguished in a couple of ways from a lot of the physician groups that your listeners and patients are used to. Number one, it focuses exclusively on specialties that are practiced inside the hospital. So in that context, we work in anesthesia, in the ICU, in hospital medicine, and in the emergency department. And we're different to the extent that we're a very large group. So we're in our 25th year of operations, but we currently run over 400 practices in about the same number of hospitals across most of the states of the US. So in that context, we've learned a lot about what care looks like in different parts of the United States, what things are similar, what things are different, and most importantly, what things work."

"Some of the most important strategies for succeeding with value-based care are things that are very aligned with ensuring not just high quality, but high empathy care to patients. And most importantly, making sure that clinical decisions physicians make in partnership with their patients account for not just scientific evidence but also the values and preferences of patients and their families. More often than not, there's no single right answer for what that patient needs in terms of tests or procedures or other types of care that occur in the hospital. And many of them involve trade-offs between quality of life and length of life, how patients feel about being in the hospital and for how long, how they feel about risk, and what they want to do when they're ultimately discharged from the hospital."

#SoundPhysicians #ValueBasedCare #HospitalMedicine #HealthcareInnovation #PatientCare #HealthTech #MedicalGroup #QualityImprovement #HealthcareleaderShip #PhysicianLife #HospitalAdministration

soundphysicians.com

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