CABTalks by Synthace

Gintarė Bučaitė is a Senior Scientist at Benevolent AI, and she’s carved out her career working in academia, big pharma and small biotech doing what she does best - enabling scientists to do the science they want to do.

But it’s not always been easy. In this podcast, she talks about her journey of actively shaping her career and the science she wants to achieve. From the uncertainty of her post-doc career to her forays in data science to enable scientists to do the science they want, Gintarė shares her journey with the hope that others learn from her successes and challenges.

Phil Kay is a Learning Manager at JMP with over 16 years of practical experience working with a multitude of companies across industries championing Design of Experiments (DOE) and the marvels of this transformational methodology.

In this podcast, he talks about how DOE in life sciences has been a fascinating evolution to watch. How it’s transformed the way biopharma companies get drugs to market faster, how it’s helped improve the productivity and predictability of R&D teams, and how it has impacted a person’s career. Design of Experiments is the future, the future is already here with scientists and automation at the heart of this.

Christa Short, VP for Process Sciences at Wheeler Bio, is a master in navigating bioprocessing. She’s spent over 20 years working with biopharma companies to develop their drugs as quickly and as scalably as possible.

In this podcast, Christa shares her experiences and deep insights on her life as a bioprocess expert. She’s spent her career navigating the tricky challenges you need to overcome in order to thrive in a fast-paced CDMO environment. She discusses what the grand vision is for biopharmas working with CDMOs and some of the ways that they're addressing pain points, like finding expertise in niche cell lines and structuring data from experimental runs.

With advancements in artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies, there are a growing number of solutions in Computer-Aided Biology. But what exactly are the problems? We speak with Dr Mike Fero, the former CEO and current COO of TeselaGen - one of the first big AI companies in the Computer-Aided Biology, on the problems facing scientists and how CAB companies should be articulating that problem. We also chat about Mike's journey from Physics into Computer-Aided Biology, the challenges facing CAB companies and CEOs today, as well as his personal challenge of balancing work with life and providing "wraparound care" for his grandchild.

Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines! That is all we hear about these days. But how do they work in the body? And how is the world of vaccine development changing with new Computer-Aided Biology tools? We talk to Assistant Professor Bruno Correia at EPFL in Switzerland about the challenges facing vaccines and his research on protein engineering and design. 

Intellectual Property has a funny relationship with research and innovation. Sara Holland is a patent attorney at Potter Clarkson and expert in Synthetic Biology IP. She talks us through the steps in identifying if your research could be protected, what goes into making a patent, and dispels the rumors around publishing vs patenting - you can have it all!

Getting started in a career is hard and for the field of Computer-Aided Biology, it can be extra difficult. A multitude of skills are often sought after by employers, and everybody wants someone with experience. Where do you start in CAB? How does the hiring process work and what are employers really looking for? And what can I expect to earn? In this episode we speak to Tom Agg of Vivid Technology who explains it all!

We never thought it would happen but we have finally reached the end of 2020! What better way to honor the year of hindsight than by looking back and catching up with our guests from earlier in the series (and the pandemic) to see how 2020 played out for them and what their thoughts are on the future.

Starring: Keltoum Boukra of LabGenius, Joby Jenkins of SPT Labtech, Marilene Pavan of LanzaTech, James Reading of University College London, Tess Korthout of The Hyve, and Davide Danovi of Kings College London.

It's Industry vs Academia on the podcast this month! We’ve got Exscientia’s Dan Crowther and PhD Student Chloe Hsu discussing Machine Learning and Drug Discovery – don’t miss out on our exciting chat about what makes a good drug target and how do you tackle reproducibility issues in software.

Chloe and Dan also chat about the differences between academia and industry, and how they need each other to work. Both our guests get to ask each other a burning question - great insight into how the other side works!

Labs are trending towards more integration of machines and software - electronic lab notebooks, integrated devices and cloud-based systems makes up key elements of cutting edge research environments. However, scientists need to interact seamlessly with these devices and what better way to communicate our experimental intentions than by speaking. This month, we talk to LabVoice's Dan DeAlmeida to chat about development in the lab and his company's exciting technology that is revolutionizing how researchers behave in the lab.

Conferences, webinars, and online demos are the new normal but the buzz of seeing things live and up close as well as meeting new people has changed the way we learn, network and even simply pay attention to developments in our field. 

This month, Fane and Dave talk about conferences they've participated in, before and during COVID, and the lessons we could learn from attending vritual events. 

In this special episode of CAB Talk, Fane and Dave discuss going back to work during the COVID-19 crisis with leaders in the field of Automation and Software. These tools can help researchers catch up on time lost to lockdown and do more effective science going forward. Listen in as we join Joby Jenkins of SPT Labtech (our guest on Episode 2 of CAB Talk!), Emilie Fritsch of Synthace, Daniel Thomas of Arctoris, and David Dambman of Biosero as we talk automation strategy, software integration and the importance of data.

In this episode of CAB Talk we chat computer-aided biology with Gemma Milne and discuss hype in science, how to communicate between fields, her amazing career and - of course - her excellent new book 'Smoke & Mirrors'! 

This week we talk to Dr James Reading, an immunologist and researcher based at University College London specializing in immune regulation and cell therapy. In this episode we talk T Cells, automation and data, and how this benefits researchers and patients.

Disclaimer: The ideas, views and opinions expressed are solely those of James Reading as an individual and not representative of his employers UCL or Achilles therapeutics limited

In the first of our series of CAB Talk Roundtables, we discuss Computer-Aided Biology in the face of COVID-19. We talk to Tess Korthout from The Hyve, Alexandre Super from UCB, and Davide Danovi of Kings College London about what CAB can do in the COVID-19 crisis.

Our third episode of CAB Talk is now available!

During isolation, Fane and Dave are joined via Zoom by LanzaTech scientist Marilene Pavan. Marilene shares the story of her journey from Brazil to the US, and from industry to academia and back again. We also talk about the importance of role models and diversity, and how communication between experts and integration of technology is driving computer-aided biology forward. Tune in now!

Our second episode of CAB Talk is now available!

Fane and Dave visited liquid handling vendor SPT Labtech, where they spoke with their Director of Product Strategy Joby Jenkins about low volume liquid handling, his 20+ year journey at the company, his engineering take on computer-aided biology and much more! Tune in now!

The inaugural episode of CAB Talk, the Computer-Aided Biology podcast. This week, Fane Mensah of the Computer-Aided Biology Community is joined by Keltoum Boukra, Automation Team Lead at LabGenius to talk about what CAB is and how it is shaping biological research.