I AM BIO Biotechnology Innovation Organization

The first clinical study dedicated to preventing Alzheimer’s disease is now in its late stages. The participants are 300 members of the same Colombian family with a rare gene mutation that gives them a 100 percent chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Armed with this new data, could neuroscientists be closing in on an elusive breakthrough to defeat neurodegeneration?

As the pandemic lays bare the links between human and environmental health, neuroscience leader Biogen lays out the most aggressive fossil fuel elimination plan of any Fortune 500 company while doubling down on efforts to lead on clinical trial diversity and racial equity.

Biotechnology investors, armed with troves of data and “misfit” minds, have become key-decision makers in everything from when to open up the states to which medicines can turn the tide in this pandemic the quickest. As the BIO Investor Forum kicks off virtually today, a biomedical renaissance has Wall Street bullish on biotech’s future.

Overcrowded hospitals during the pandemic can pose treatment challenges for patients with other serious illnesses. As Kite Pharma CEO Christi Shaw says, “Cancer doesn’t stop in a crisis.” Neither do her company’s employees, who go to extraordinary lengths to get personalized CAR-T treatments to patients around the world.

Hosted by Jim Greenwood.

The I AM BIO podcast with host Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath explores the search for biotechnology breakthroughs and our progress in ending the pandemic, helping patients and carrying the mantle for science and sustainability.

The ability to produce COVID vaccines in record time only scratches the surface of what synthetic biology can do. Gingko Bioworks out of Boston is now 3-D printing millions of letters of DNA code and then using CRISPR to insert them into living cells, transforming what’s scientifically possible.