First Rounders

Brady Huggett signs off.

Jay Keasling is a professor in the College of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley, where he runs the Keasling lab. He’s also the CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute, and has been involved in several startups. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers growing up on the family farm in Nebraska, how Genentech led him into biotech, and the future of biofuels.

Ingmar Hoerr is a co-founder and former CEO of CureVac. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers his initial discovery with RNA while in his PhD program, the struggle to find venture financing for CureVac, and how a brain aneurysm changed his view on life. 

Lita Nelsen is the former long-time director of the Technology Licensing Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her talk with Nature Biotechnology covers her father’s life designing television antennas, what drove her to the chemical engineering program at MIT, and the ingredients required to create an entrepreneurial environment on campus (and beyond).

Anthony Atala is the director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University. He is also a co-founder of Precise Bio. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers implanting the first tissue-engineered bladder into a patient, Wake Forest’s plans for fostering entrepreneurship, and how he was coerced into a research career by a mentor.

Nancy Simonian is president and CEO of Syros Pharmaceuticals. Her conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers going against the advice of her mentor to take a job at Biogen; the long, winding path to approval for the multiple myeloma drug Velcade; and assisting her father in the operating room as a girl.

Carl June is a co-founder of Tmunity Therapeutics, and a professor in immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also runs the June Lab. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology includes how a boyhood fractured arm led him to his first scientific experiment, his years of service with the Navy, and his groundbreaking work with CAR T-cells.

Craig Mello is co-founder of Atalanta Therapeutics and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he runs the Mello Lab. He is also a Nobel Laureate. His conversation with Nature Biotechnology covers the lure of conspiracy theorists, the state of RNA therapeutics, and getting that call from the Nobel committee.