BioBoss: Recent Episodes
John Simboli
BioBoss is a podcast about leadership in the biopharma community. Hear directly from the founders and CEOs of today's most innovative companies. Listen each month as Wyant Simboli Principal and branding veteran John Simboli poses the questions "What drives you? How do you make change? Why should I care?" to a new biopharma executive and hear insights on this rapidly changing field.
Lance Baldo, CEO of Beacon Therapeutics, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Beacon is working to save and restore sight for people living with rare and prevalent ocular diseases.
Shaun Bagai, CEO of RenovoRX, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how RenovoRX is working to develop targeted oncology therapies and commercialize its FDA cleared drug delivery device.
Hyung Heon Kim, CEO of MetaVia, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how MetaVia is working to transform cardiometabolic disease.
David Southwell, CEO of Volastra Therapeutics, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Volastra is working to discover and develop oncology therapeutics targeting chromosomal instability, a vulnerability of cancers.
Stacy Lindborg, CEO of Imunon, shares her insights about leadership in biopharma and how Imunon is working to develop medicines that harness the building blocks of life to work in harmony with the body's immune system.
BioBoss podcast host John Simboli reflects on Seasons 1-6 and invites listeners to Season 7 starting in January 2026
Michael Cloonan, CEO of Sionna Therapeutics, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Sionna is working to restore the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator for people living with cystic fibrosis.
Erik van den Berg, CEO of Memo Therapeutics, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Memo is working to develop antibodies to transform the lives of patients with viral infections and cancer.
Bruce Leuchter, CEO of Neurvati Neurosciences, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Neurvati is working to advance drugs with the potential to improve the health and lives of people living with neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Todd Harris, CEO of Tyra Biosciences, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Tyra is working to develop precision medicines that target large fibroblast growth factor receptor biology.
Eduardo Bravo, CEO of Citryll, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Citryll is working to transform the approach to treating immune mediated inflammatory diseases.
Abbas Kazimi, CEO of Nimbus Therapeutics, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Nimbus is working to design and develop small molecule medicines capable of improving patients' lives.
Derek Adams, CEO of Stellular Bio, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Stellular Bio is working to expand the reach of regenerative medicine.
Geoffrey Dow, CEO of 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals is working to develop vital medicines to treat and prevent infectious diseases.
Jorge Santos da Silva, co-founder and CEO of MoonLake Immunotherapeutics, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how MoonLake Immunotherapeutics is working to develop life changing therapies for people living with serious inflammatory diseases.
Vlad Vitoc, founder and CEO of MAIA Biotechnology, shares his insights with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how MAIA is working to develop and deliver innovative medicines to improve and extend the lives of people living with cancer.
“What leads a leader?”
As you listen to clips from BioBoss podcasts, you may hear remarkably consistent ideas about leadership, as shared by BioBoss guests, who reflect on their younger years and how those experiences shaped their desire, and ability to lead.
BioBoss podcast host John Simboli reflects on Seasons 1-6 and invites listeners to Season 7 starting in January 2025
Sam Clark, founder and CEO of Terran Biosciences, shares his insights with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Terran is working to develop therapeutics and technologies for patients with neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Iain Kilty, CEO of Sitryx, shares his insights about leadership in biopharma and how Sitryx is working to alter immune cell metabolism to resolve disease
Erik Buntinx, founder and CEO of ANeuroTech, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how ANeurotech is working to develop effective treatments, with minimal or no side-effects, for patients who suffer with depression
Helen Torley, CEO of Halozyme Therapeutics, shares her thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Halozyme is working to reinvent the patient experience by easing the burden of treatment and improving patient outcomes.
James Graham, CEO of Recce Pharmaceuticals, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Recce is working to develop a new class of synthetic anti-infectives designed to address the threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
Mike Gaffney, CEO of Cellphire Therapeutics, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Cellphire is working to save lives by bringing novel hemostatic products to patients in need.
David Barmam, founder and CEO of Emendio Biotherapeutics, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Emendo is working to evolve traditional CRISPR tools and create new nucleases customized to any genetic disease.
BioBoss podcast host John Simboli reflects on Seasons 1-5 and invites listeners to Season 6 starting in January 2024
Anat Binur, co-founder and CEO of Ukko, shares her thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Ukko is working to improve the lives of people who suffer from food allergies.
Markku Jalkanen, founder and CEO of Faron Pharmaceuticals, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Faron is working to develop new immunotherapies to address unmet medical needs in cancer and improve patient lives.
Leonard Mazur, founder and CEO of Citius Pharmaceuticals, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Citius is working to unlock the potential of first-in-class critical care therapeutics, with a pipeline of anti-infectives in oncology, adjunct cancer care and stem cell therapy.
Dario Neri, co-founder and CEO of Philogen, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Philogen is working to discover and develop targeted therapies to treat cancer and chronic inflammation.
Naseem Amin, CEO of Orphalan, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Orphalan is working to transform rare disease treatment.
Hartmut Ehrlich, CEO of Abivax, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Abivax is working to develop treatments modulating the body’s natural immune system to treat patients with chronic inflammatory diseases, viral infections and cancer.
Ivo Timmermans, co-founder and CEO of Pleco
Therapeutics, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Pleco is working to develop breakthrough therapies that change the balance in the treatment of cancer.
Philipp Spycher, co-founder and CEO of Araris Biotech, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Araris is working to develop a linker technology for antibody-drug conjugates that enables attachment of any payload to ‘off the shelf’ antibodies without the need of prior antibody engineering.
Pat Arensdorf, founder and CEO of Exai Bio, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Exai is working to develop a next-generation RNA-based platform to deliver actionable insight into cancer biology from a simple blood draw.
Josh Geballe, Managing Director of Yale Ventures, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and community building in biopharma. Yale Ventures is a new initiative created by Yale University to support and expand innovation and entrepreneurship across Yale university and throughout the greater New Haven region with the goal of helping to develop innovations that impact the world's greatest challenges.
BioBoss podcast host John Simboli reflects on the success of seasons 1, 2 ,3 and 4 and welcomes listeners to listen in on his conversations about leadership with biopharma founders and CEOs in BioBoss season 5.
John is delighted to open BioBoss season 5 with his conversation with Josh Geballe, Managing Director of Yale Ventures, who shares his thoughts about leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and community building in biopharma and biotech. Yale Ventures is a new initiative created by Yale University to support and expand innovation and entrepreneurship across Yale university and throughout the greater New Haven region with the goal of helping to develop innovations that impact the world's greatest challenges.
Luca Benatti, CEO of EryDel, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how EryDel is working to develop specialized therapies for the treatment of rare diseases by using the patient’s own blood.
Elisabet de los Pinos, founder and CEO of Aura Biosciences, shares her thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Aura is working to envision new ways to treat cancer.
Paul Radspinner, founder and CEO of Flugen, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Flugen is working to develop a more effective vaccine in the fight against influenza and respiratory disease.
Jesús Martin-Garcia, CEO of GeNeuro, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Geneuro is working to develop treatments against neurological disorders and autoimmune diseases by neutralizing causal factors encoded by Human Endogenous Retroviruses.
Cliff Stocks, founder and CEO of OncoResponse speaks with BioBoss host John Simboli. Hear Cliff’s insights about leadership in biopharma and how OncoResponse is working to identify fully human monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.
Brian Finrow, Co-founder and CEO of Lumen Bioscience, speaks with BioBoss host and biopharma branding veteran John Simboli. Hear Brian’s thoughts about leadership and how Lumen Biosciences is working to unlock the full potential of biologic drugs, whose promise has been held back by the lack of scalable technology.
Kevin Lee, CEO of Bicycle Therapeutics, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Bicycle Therapeutics is working on developing a new class of medicines, called Bicycles, for diseases that are underserved by existing therapeutics.
BioBoss host John Simboli speaks with Reenie McCarthy, CEO of Stealth BioTherapeutics, headquartered in Needham, MA.. Hear Reenie's thoughts about leadership in biopharma and how Stealth Biotherapeutics is working on developing therapies to treat the mitochondrial dysfunction associated with genetic mitochondrial diseases and many common age-related diseases.
BioBoss host John Simboli speaks with Yochi Slonim, founder and CEO of Anima Biotech, headquartered in Boston with R&D in Tel Aviv.. Hear Yochi's thoughts about leadership in biopharma and how Anima Biotech is working on a novel approach for the discovery of small molecules that selectively control mRNA translation as a new strategy against undruggable proteins.
BioBoss host John Simboli speaks with Clive Richardson, CEO of Akari Therapeutics, headquartered in London with offices in New York. Hear Clive's thoughts about leadership in biopharma and how Akari Therapeutics is working to develop life-transforming treatments for autoinflammatory diseases involving the complement and leukotriene pathways
BioBoss podcast host John Simboli reflects on the success of seasons 1, 2 and 3 and welcomes listeners to listen in on his conversations about leadership with biopharma founders and CEOs in BioBoss season 4.
BioBoss host John Simboli speaks with Stefan König , CEO of George Medicines, headquartered in London. Hear Stefan’s thoughts about leadership in biopharma and how George Medicines is working to extend and improve the lives of people suffering from the world’s leading causes of death and disability—including hypertension, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes
Derek Maetzold, CEO of Castle Biosciences shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how Castle is leveraging its expertise in cancer genomics and the use of artificial intelligence to improve patient outcomes.
Bob Cobuzzi, Chief Executive Officer of Diffusion Pharmaceuticals,speaks with BioBoss John Simboli about leadership and how Diffusion Pharmaceuticals is working to develop novel therapies that enhance the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to the areas where it is needed most.
Panna Sharma, CEO of Lantern Pharma, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how Lantern is working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, genomics and machine learning to advance precision oncology therapies.
Nandan Padukone, CEO of IM Therapeutics, headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how IM Therapeutics is targeting the root cause of autoimmunity with therapeutic design directed at human leukocyte antigens.
Koen De Witte, managing director of reMYND NV, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how reMYND is advancing treatments for Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other diseases caused by cellular dysfunction.
Lanny Sun, co-founder of Silicon Therapeutics, recently acquired by Roivant Sciences. speaks with corporate branding veteran John Simboli about leadership in biopharma. Lanny also discusses how Silicon Therapeutics, now part of Roivant Drug Discovery, is advancing its chip-to-clinic, computational quantum physics-based approach to pioneer a new path for drug design of medicines to improve the lives of patients
Joan Perelló, co-founder and CEO of Sanifit, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how Sanifit is pursuing the development of treatments for progressive vascular calcification disorders.
Saiid Zarrabian, President and CEO of Kintara Therapeutics, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how Kintara is pursuing the development of new cancer therapies for patients with rare unmet medical needs.
John Temperato, President and Chief Executive Officer of 9 Meters Biopharma, speaks with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biopharma and how 9 Meters is advancing drug candidates for patients with rare and unmet gastrointestinal disorders including short bowel syndrome and celiac disease.
Shawn Singh, CEO of VistaGen, speaks with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and VistaGen's working to develop a new generation of medications for anxiety, depression and other central nervous system disorders.
BioBoss podcast host John Simboli reflects on the success of seasons 1 and 2 and welcomes listeners to listen in on his conversations about leadership with biopharma founders and CEOs in BioBoss season 3.
Bobby Gaspar, founder and CEO of Orchard Therapeutics, speaks with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how Orchard Therapeutics is pursuing the opportunity to change medicine and change the lives of people with severe genetic diseases.
Itamar Kandel, CEO of HeartVista, speaks with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how HeartVista leverages machine learning to simplify diagnostic imaging and help physicians more accurately diagnose cardiovascular disease.
Mark Altmeyer, founder and CEO of Arvelle Therapeutics, speaks with BioBoss host John Simboli. Hear Mark’s thoughts about leadership and how Arvelle is working to bring new solutions to people living with epilepsy and CNS disorders.
Jacob Becraft, co-founder & CEO of Strand Therapeutics shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and how Strand is working in synthetic biology and messenger RNA to target root causes of genetic disease, with the power to control editing at a single-cell level.
Eran Eden, co-founder and CEO of MeMed, shares his thoughts on leadership and how MeMed is working to translate signals from the immune system into diagnostic insights to treat infectious disease and inflammatory disorders.
Nikolaj Sørensen, CEO of Orexo Therapeutics, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership and, digital and bio-therapeutics, how the coronavirus is changing the landscape around mental health, depression, substance abuse and addiction,
Per Hellsund, co-founder and CEO of Cybrexa Therapeutics, shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership, building a culture of transparency, and Cybrexa's advances in treating the cancer tumor microenvironment.
CEO Clive Morris of Inivata, headquartered in Cambridge U.K., shares his thoughts with BioBoss host John Simboli about leadership in biotech and advances in non-invasive liquid biopsy to unlock genomic information and guide personalized cancer treatment.
Salubris Biotherapeutics Co-founder Samuel Murphy shares his thoughts about leadership in biopharma with BioBoss host John Simboli. Samuel also discusses Salubris Biotherapeutics advances in therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases.
Gemini Therapeutics CEO Jason Meyenburg share his thoughts about leadership in biopharma with BioBoss host John Simboli. Jason also discusses Gemini Therapeutics pioneering approach to developing precision medicines by leveraging genetics to work in diseases like dry AMD and linked diseases that have limited or no solutions.
I'm not afraid of the gray area or the darkness that surrounds a few inches in front of your face, which is really what this business is all about." - Constantine Theodorpulos, Founder and CEO of Go Therapeutics
"I really rely on the expertise of the team and I value input. I also value contradiction." - Ankit Mahadevia, founder and CEO of Spero Therapeutics
"It would have been a tremendous regret to have never tried—much worse than trying and failing. Much worse." - Lewis Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity Therapeutics,
"I will always ask myself, what can I do with my knowledge in science to be able to bridge that to patients?" - Michel Detheux, co-founder and CEO of iTeos Therapeutics
"Be very fair. You don't know it all. And be willing to actually listen to people. And when you're wrong, tell people you're wrong." - Nessan Bermingham: Founder, President and CEO of Triplet Therapeutics
"If you're a CEO, and you're doing things that are repetitive, then you're probably not doing your job." - Antony Mattessich, CEO of Ocular Therapeutix
"The most creative thing in the world for me is just how does an idea get transformed by the people who collect around it." - George Goldsmith, Co-Founder and CEO of Compass Pathways
“It's Biology that I love the most. It has a beauty in it that's actually quite hard to capture in numbers." - Yuval Cohen, CEO of Corbus Pharmaceuticals
"Originally, I really thought about hiring people to do a list of activities and now I try to really think about hiring people to develop that list of activities to solve a problem" - Sven Karlsson, Co-Founder of Platelet BioGenesis
"You just be yourself. That's the most effective way to lead. And on top of it, as a leader, you have to have vision." - Liang Schweizer, Co-founder, President, and CEO of HiFiBiO
"Very often, it's not about giving the right answer but asking the right question.” - Florian Wegener, CEO of Zageno.
"My job is to decide. If we can't get consensus, I decide, I call it. That's what I get paid for. That's how I do that, but l also say when you've got something wrong, fix it as quick as you can." – John Dawson, CEO of Oxford Biomedica
"We want to hear everybody's voice. It's all well saying that you believe in diversity and then only listen to yourself." - Martin Mackay, Co-founder of Rallybio
"I'm helping build a technology and I'm helping lead an organization and I actually prefer putting founder on things than chief executive officer."
- Ashley Kalinauskas, Founder and CEO of Torigen Pharma
"What we do in small pharma is very much like movie making, in a way, because you have the story that you want to flesh out and you bring together the team that you need for the movie." - Doug Manion, CEO of Kleo Pharmaceuticals
"In any venture, you need to have courage. Courage is the thing that I think is most characteristic of any leader." - Bijan Almassian, President and CEO of CaroGen Corporation
"My thing was never to be in one box for seven years; right? It was—What's the goals; How do I get them accomplished; How do we drive the science forward?" – Mark Day, President and CEO of Bioasis Technologies
"You have to be an eternal optimist because it's a tough business and, by nature, I'm somebody who always thinks we can get through this." – Jennifer Good, CEO of Trevi Therapeutics.
"It's like an orchestra . . . I feel very much like a conductor." — Erika Smith, Chief Executive Officer of ReNetX Bio.
“I really wanted to be in a place where I could see if I could build something" —John Houston, President and Chief Executive Officer of Arvinas. John is the 2018 BioCT Entrepreneur of the Year.
Welcome to BioBoss.
Introducing BioBoss.
As a member of the biopharma community you know there aren't many places to hear first-hand from the corner office. BioBoss changes that.
BioBoss is a window into the thinking of founders, CEOs, and those who lead today's biopharma companies. Listen each month to a new conversation between branding veteran John Simboli and biopharma executives. Hear answers to the questions you'd ask – "What drives your vision? How do you make things happen? Why should I care?"
Welcome to BioBoss.