Synopsis: 

Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of LifeMine Therapeutics and FogPharma. LifeMine Therapeutics is reinventing drug discovery by mining genetically-encoded small molecules (GEMs) from the biosphere. FogPharma is developing a new class of drugs to address the limitations of today’s precision medicines and achieve universal druggability. In this episode, Greg discusses his unique journey from starting as an academic scientist to transitioning to an investor, and how that exposure to the venture world rounds out his approach to how he now runs biotechs. He talks about what it’s been like running two companies for six years and how he structures his time so he can successfully operate between the two. He also discusses fundraising in a challenging environment and the importance of being part of a team in biotech.

Biography: 

Greg Verdine is a leader in the discovery, development and commercialization of new drug modalities. A passionate and accomplished inventor of novel approaches and drug classes to engage targets widely believed intractable, Greg coined the phrase “drugging the undruggable” to describe his life’s mission. Greg is the co-founder of FogPharma, which has its roots in the scientific work of Greg and his academic team at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, a hotbed of innovation and invention in the new modality therapeutics space. Greg is also the co-founder and CEO of LifeMine Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company refashioning drug discovery by mining genetically-encoded small molecules from the biosphere. Together with co-founder WeiQing Zhou, he developed the scientific and business concept for FogPharma and LifeMine and co-led the companys’ initial capitalization and operationalization in mid-2016 and 2017, respectively.

Greg is highly regarded for having moved seamlessly between roles as an academic scientist, biotech entrepreneur, investor and company executive. As Erving Professor at Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, he founded the burgeoning field of hyperstabilized alpha-helical peptides, starting with the first-generation all-hydrocarbon stapled peptide technology, and invented not only the modality but also the direct precursor to the Phase 2 stapled peptide ALRN 6924. The greatly improved second-generation Helicon technology was developed in the Verdine Lab at Harvard and licensed exclusively to FogPharma, and subsequently developed by FogPharma into the third-generation approach that is so impactful today. The Verdine Lab at Harvard also made seminal contributions to understanding fundamental mechanisms of DNA repair and epigenetic DNA methylation. As an entrepreneur, Dr. Verdine has founded multiple public biotech companies including Variagenics, Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Eleven Bio, Tokai Pharmaceuticals, Wave Life Sciences and Aileron Therapeutics, and a private company, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Celgene. These companies have succeeded in achieving FDA approval for three marketed drugs.

Greg has served on the board of directors of Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Wave Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio and LifeMine Therapeutics. Having led the formation and financing of Wave Life Sciences, Warp Drive Bio and LifeMine Therapeutics, Greg took a role in managing these companies as their president, chief executive officer and chief scientific officer. Greg also conceived of, co-founded and served as the founding president and chairman of the tandem non-profits Gloucester Biotechnology Academy, which trains high school graduates for technical careers in biotech, and Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, which is supporting fisheries science and economic development on Cape Ann.

Greg earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Columbia University and served as an NIH postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology at MIT and Harvard Medical School. He also holds an honorary Ph.D. degree from Clarkson University.

Drugging the undruggable with Gregory Verdine, Co-Founder, President & CEO, Lifemine Tx & FogPharma

Synopsis: 

Gary Lee, Ph.D. is the CSO of Lyell Immunopharma, a T-cell reprogramming company dedicated to developing cell therapies for patients with solid tumors. A chemical engineer by training, Gary has been working in the gene therapy field for 20+ years. He discusses how he’s observed the cell therapy space evolve over the last couple of decades. He talks about the work his team is doing to develop effective cell-based therapies for solid tumor cancers and where they are from a development and team-building perspective. He also provides his perspective on opportunities he sees for future technology across the cell therapy landscape.

Biography: 

Gary Lee, Ph.D., has served as our Chief Scientific Officer since January 2022. Dr. Lee is a veteran biotech executive with over a decade of experience leading cell and gene therapy programs for human applications. From October 2018 to January 2022, Dr. Lee was the Chief Scientific Officer at Senti Bio. From August 2005 to October 2018, Dr. Lee held positions of increasing scientific and leadership responsibility at Sangamo Therapeutics, including last as the Vice President of Cell Therapy. Dr. Lee earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Revolutionizing T-cells for solid tumor cell therapies, Gary Lee, CSO, Lyell Immunopharma

What if we could train AI to understand how stem cells become any cell type in the human body? In this episode of the In Vivo Podcast, host David Wild sits down with Micha Breakstone (CEO & Co-founder) and Samantha Dale Strasser (VP of Strategy) from Somite.AI to explore how their company is using foundation models to revolutionize cell therapy development.
 
Somite has pioneered a breakthrough approach that generates cell differentiation data at 1000x the efficiency of traditional methods using proprietary hydrogel capsule technology. By capturing millions of trajectories showing how cells respond to signals over time, they're building DeltaStem—a foundation model that could do for developmental biology what AlphaFold did for protein structure prediction.
 
Topics covered:
 
- How bringing cells to signals (rather than signals to cells) unlocks exponential scale
- Why wet lab innovation is just as critical as AI models
- Manufacturing optimization: improving purity, reducing variability, and cutting costs
- From beta cells for diabetes to brown fat for metabolic disease—the therapeutic pipeline
- Why even AI experts underestimate what's coming in the next decade
- Lessons from building biotech companies from academic concepts to commercial ventures
 
Whether you're in pharma, biotech, AI or just fascinated by the intersection of technology and human biology, this conversation offers a grounded look at how foundation models are moving from hype to real therapeutic impact.

Decoding Cell Differentiation: How AI Foundation Models Are Reshaping Regenerative Medicine

What if the next advance in vaccination didn’t come from a chemical lab — but from a living cell? This episode explores how scientists in Wrocław turned Escherichia coli into a microscopic factory capable of producing a vaccine candidate against Porphyromonas gingivalis, the stealthy bacterium behind gum disease and systemic inflammation.

We explore:
🔹 Why traditional vaccine strategies failed to stop P. gingivalis after decades of research
🔹 How engineered E. coli cells can fuse proteins and sugars into a single, precisely designed antigen
🔹 The promise of biological synthesis — safer, faster, and more reproducible than chemical methods
🔹 What this innovation could mean for the future of vaccines against other Gram-negative pathogens

Beyond the microscope lies a quiet revolution in immunology — where biology itself becomes the tool of protection.


This content was developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) tools: DeepDive (Notebook LM, Google).

Fighting Periodontal Diseases. An E. coli-based vaccine against a dangerous pathogen

Citeline places biopharma and medical device professionals, and those who focus on these industries, at the forefront of knowledge and insight, by providing the perfect combination of news and information together with penetrating insight and analysis. Citeline is a leader in the field of healthcare industry information.

Leading in medical research and education, Wrocław Medical University drives innovation in health sciences and clinical advancements. Based in Wrocław, Poland.

Biotech2050 Podcast is a think tank chronicling the disruptions changing the biotech industry over the next 50 years.

New tracks tagged #SyntheticBiology