Podcast: The Long Run

The Long Run by Luke Timmerman podcast is for, and about, scientific adventurers. I listened to Luke and Amy DuRoss (co-founder and CEO of Vineti) talk about software and logistics for cell and gene therapy. I had never really thought about the behind the scenes power and organizational processes needed to back up the therapies, it was eye-opening! And even better, the industry is realizing that standardization could help let the scientists do science, and help Vineti do what it does best, and with that partnership, patients would benefit.  A win-win! I got to hear how Amy went from a child in Washington DC in a family of lawyers to a student at Stanford to an entrepreneurial woman who is building an entirely new “smart plumbing.” Vineti is a new set of solutions for a new set of problems—the problem of individualized treatments that must be handled in a standardized way across multiple locations, with multiple busy and over-burdened practioners playing a crucial role in the process. The chain of identity for a treatment is crucial to make sure the right treatment gets to the right patient, because a mistake would likely be deadly. Amazingly, the FDA is requiring that a system like Vineti is in place before they will look at a Biologics License Application, because they realize how important the chain of identity is for safety. And in a broader sense, Amy touches on the fact that the pharma supply chain has had a real work out with the stresses of the past year, and the members of the industry are realizing that increased true industrialization is a better and safer way to go for all of us. I look forward to listening to more adventurers soon!

And--if you finish all of those, or want a change of pace, take a look at InnovATEBIO's blog: Podcasts on Science for more listening fun.