Heath Fletcher (00:13.838)
Hello there, welcome to The Healthy Enterprise. Thank you for joining me. If this is your first time, welcome. And if you're a return listener, thank you for coming back. My guest today is Brian Newsom. He is a founder, a CEO, a cell and gene therapy veteran, a business leader, and a thought leader. Brian Newsom is the founding CEO of the Vector Technology Company Carrigent as well as the VP of business development for the cell therapy, CDMO. Thanks for joining us and let's get started.
Heath Fletcher (00:48.11)
Okay. Brian, thank you for joining me today for this episode. We've had a few tries at getting on here together and we finally did it. So thank you for joining me. And I just want to give you an opportunity now to just sort of introduce yourself for listeners and as to where you're working now with Carrigent and your role. yeah, just give us a little insight on Brian Newsome. Thanks.
Yeah, appreciate that. So as you said, Brian Newsome, CEO of Carrigent we're a small company in the cell and gene therapy space. Been around for a little over a year now, and we're developing a next generation payload delivery system. I know that's kind of a big mouthful, so what we're trying to do is deliver genetic payload, like DNA and RNA, as well as deliver proteins into specific cells in the body. A lot of things we can do with that, so we're exploring that now. Monogenic disease.
oncology, metabolic disease, neurodegenerative disease, a lot of areas we can go into now. So we're in the midst of proof of concept development and looking to raise around the funding so that we can carry this into the.
And you said it started how long ago? A year ago?
Just over a year, April 3.
Heath Fletcher (02:03.042)
Right. And you're also the founder of some of the technology. I think it was Vector or something that I was reading.
Yeah, so my co-founder is actually the scientific founder of the technology, Robert Liu, brilliant scientist, came out of academia mainly in the California area. He's been working on vector technologies for the last 25 years and several years ago came up with the concept of we're calling cargo, which is using allogeneic cells to deliver payload. He had been looking at ways to get directionality out of things like AAV and other vectors and finally kind of gave up on that, deciding that it wasn't going to work as well as other things might.
And so it came up with the idea of using CAR type of signaling in allogeneic cells, but instead of asking those cells to kill, ask them to deliver a payload. So we've been working out how make that work technically inside the cell. He's been doing a great job of moving through the modalities of delivering proteins, delivering DNA, moving onto others now, and getting good proof of concept data as well as starting to line up assets.
Wow. That was mouthful. And my head is spinning because I'm trying to catch up on a few words. so the word you use the word, the, for the phrase vector a few times, vector means a lot of things to a lot of different people. So how are, how in your world, how are you applying this word vector to what you're doing?
Yeah, vector is used in a lot of different ways, like you said, but for us, it's mainly a means of carrying payload, a means of carrying something. So people typically use viruses in this context where the virus is the vector. It's the main way you're carrying whatever information you have. We're using allogeneic cells as that. Now we are using viruses in our construction. So ex vivo outside the body, we make cells using viruses. using, we have different ways to do that too. Viruses are an easy way to do it.
Brian Newsom. (03:55.394)
So that's kind of the vector to get the information to the cell. And then the cell would be in this way kind of the vector of getting that information into the
Right. And you're using, using any particular therapies or diseases to in your initial development stages here, are you targeting a certain type of disease?
We're looking at what's the best for us right now, right? We have two options right now that seem to be low-hanging fruit for us. One is that we can enhance CAR T cells and we can make them better. So that's something we think is probably one of the easiest route to clinic. Just because CAR T's are already out there, we can use existing systems and just be additive to that. And we can enhance the killing. We can get lower dose of CAR T. We potentially could use, have better efficacy in cell with tumor, things like that.
The other area we think is the one that we'll be exploring most in monogenic disease. So being able to deliver DNA into cells where there's been a mutation, a lot of those out there, a lot of work going on in this area. Most people using AAV or various other vectors like that. So we'll be the first using cells for that. But looking at things like Duchenne's Lusca modistrophy, SMA, several of those that were out
And then the limit, there's no limit beyond that, right?
Brian Newsom. (05:15.95)
There's over 7,000 of these rare diseases like this. So there's a huge number. Most of them are very rare disease. Not a lot of patients have these, but all of them need to be looked at. So we have that area. like you said, we also think we can do things like metabolic disease and neurodegenerative disease. Alzheimer's is an option. Things that are really outside of the typical area for cell and gene therapy like vaccines as well. We can deliver material directly to dendritic cells, giving them potentially a wider...
boost for vaccines. I think we see a lot of potential in the therapy. again, we're trying to stick to it's realistic right now and say, you know, enhancing CAR-Ts and doing a couple of monogenic diseases seem to then reach.
And your education started in cell therapy, right? That's where you originated.
I've been in the industry a little over 30 years. I spent about 17 years at the bench. So pretty strong technical side, developing these therapies, mainly in the process development space, a little bit of quality control as well. But halfway through my career, flipped over to the business side and I've been working there since. So I've worked in tools and technology companies, manufacturing companies, kind of the gamut and been on kind of every side of cell to gene therapy you can think of so far.
And now you're back being in cell therapy too, right?
Brian Newsom. (06:38.272)
Yeah, I really never left cell therapy, had been like, I left biotech in some ways to go into the service side. Okay. So now I'm back on the developer side.
Okay.
Heath Fletcher (06:48.622)
So did you ever, what was the jump? Because you went, you started in science and then you went through to business and law. What was the shift for you? Did you go after business and law to better position yourself in that industry or were you looking at going into those industries and then it just brought you back?
Yeah, it's been an interesting story. So I had never planned to leave the lab, right? I was planning on being kind of a lifelong lab rep. I enjoyed it. I really liked being in the lab. What I was doing was pretty much an introvert. so business was the furthest thing from my mind. But I was working at a small company. have to thank David McWilliams, my CEO at the time, said, you know, while we're out looking for money, I was trying to help because I had been with the company quite a while. was somewhat of a pivotal role of understanding what the company had been doing.
current technology. He said, you should go get an MBA and get out there and maybe explore the business side of this. And thought, that's a challenge, right? I had been in the lab for a long time and like challenges, like new things. So I thought, let's see if this will work. Went and got an MBA, really enjoyed that, thoroughly enjoyed the process. But halfway through that was offered a role going into business development with Invitrogen at the time.
didn't like the idea of doing that because it was getting me out of lab, but wanted to try something new as well and see if I could do that. Again, it was a challenge. So took that opportunity to move out of the lab and into a role working with a very global purview, which I liked, being able to see what's going on in cell energy therapy across the globe in all the different areas. And for the first six months, thought I'd made a huge mistake, really wanted to go back, but started kind of getting used to it and started really understanding
that I had a lot of activity I could do on the business side and maybe have even more impact than I did in the lab, especially working with companies across the globe, companies and academic institutions, trying to spread the word about what's going on in cell therapy, what in vitrogen time and initially became Thermo Fisher was doing to help support that, but also educate some of those companies. Early on in vitrogen, part of that was educating in vitrogen as to what cell and gene therapy is, why it's a little different and what they need to do to cater to the industry more.
Brian Newsom. (09:08.75)
and hopefully made an impact there. We launched a brand, the CilRound, called Cell Therapy Systems with Thurma Fisher, and really enjoyed that time working with a lot of companies on what's next, what's new, how do we innovate in the space, and as a tools company, trying to leverage all the assets we have into the cell imaging therapy community. And so that's kind how I ended up in business. I've been in a number of companies since.
mainly, like I said, in the tools and the service side. But I'm glad to be back on the developer side. Love the challenge of development and I think we have a great tool here. looking forward to see what we do with
You think going back, going out and venturing into those other areas of learning and coming back gives you a really unique perspective in the industry you're in now in cell therapy, having brought back those business skills. it bit of a unicorn, do you think?
I don't know if I'm a unicorn, but I do think I've had the advantage of having a very diverse background that's hit. I've been in academia, I've been in biotech, I've been in the tools company, I've been in the service side. So I've seen it from a lot of different layers. So pretty much no matter who I've talked to out there, I've been in their shoes at one point, which I think is helpful. I know the challenges from each side. I know the benefits of being on each side. So I do think it makes unique backgrounds and I'm privileged to have gone through it.
So, you really have enjoyed all those and you you mentioned law and part of my career, had to go back to get some, just some law training because I was, you know, going through things where I was having to work a lot with negotiations that side, but didn't understand a lot of language, right? So even the MBA stuff that kind of worked with that left a lot of gaps. So decided I needed to basically shore up the skillset and went back to do that. And I think that's another, you know, kind of unique gig that I've written at the table.
Brian Newsom. (11:05.986)
you know, most people that are in my position don't have the ability of having that diverse background and having the ability to kind of have lived in a lot of experiences that way. So yeah, privilege to be around that.
Well, certainly being in a startup too, where everybody wears a lot of different hats, because you just don't have the bench strength. You don't have the finances to bring in all those brains to the table. So having that kind of diversity in your knowledge certainly is an asset in the startup environment.
Yeah, I think so. We're a team of five, right? So like you said, you have to be a jack of all trades to a certain extent. We do have some support staff we can utilize through our incubator that we're in, which is great. But we do have to be pretty self-sufficient with a very small team. So you have to play a lot of roles. And having that background has been useful in a lot of things we've
Do you have you ventured into fractional management at all at any in this during this?
At a previous company I did that, I hired a fractional CFO, which was very helpful. And we may do that again here. Right now, like I we do have support. So we have somebody that can kind of act in a fractional CFO part as part of our incubator. We also have somebody that can help us out on a of the basic legal stuff. So we do have some extra assets that are really nice. But yeah, think for small biotech, it's a great tool, right? Having those fractional players that can bring in a lot of expertise to fill in the gaps without all the expense.
Heath Fletcher (12:27.906)
Yeah. Or the commitment. don't have to, you're not committed to a long-term arrangement or relationship. So it gives you that flexibility. exactly. Exactly. What other kind of strategies do you kind of lean on at this stage in the business growth to maintain that trajectory? mean, you're kind of balancing between, you know, getting the information out there. So having
some sort of brand presence. have a website, you have all those things, but you're also trying to attract investors. So how do you balance all that?
Yeah, good question. I think one thing that I've been exploring a lot lately to help and which I will say I was not a big believer in AI through the end of last year. know, but I was one those people that said, I don't believe in it, but that's because I haven't tried it, right. And I don't believe in saying that I don't believe in it, but I haven't at given it a shot on my own. So I decided to test AI a little bit for its ability to create efficiencies in what we do in like in my role. So
Things like, when you're having a conversation like this, have AI that's no ticking and gives you something back, right? A lot of simple tools like that out there. And I will say, I've been enormously impressed by the talents out there now in AI. It's not foolproof, there's a lot of gaps still, but what it can do is it's getting better and better all the time. And it can really create a lot of deficiencies for a small team like us that really needs it.
So I will say I've been leveraging AI more and more all the time. I'm finding new tools and new bots that are helpful, especially in our space, looking at a lot of the technical things we're doing. As we look at asset management, as we look at going forward and developing a new asset, there's a lot of technical things we have to look at and limits of bandwidth, right? So can we use AI to help optimize strategies that we're looking at for target development or genetic sequences, those kinds of things.
Brian Newsom. (14:28.82)
And there's a lot of tools that have been built. So I think that's one thing I'm looking at is how can we do more with less, right? We only have five people. We're probably not going to grow that much over the next year, we may have two or three, but we're going to maintain a very lean team and small presence. So we've got to try to use all the tools at hand. And AI is one that's coming up quickly as something we're relying
Right. mean, there's a lot of administrative operational type tools for helping us, you know, do daily business activities, communicate, you know, type faster, all those kinds of things. But yeah, now there's a whole, there's an abundance of more data science based specifically targeted, AI that are doing very functional things in the science world, speeding up some of these,
data collections and data processing and, and it's changing the way people are doing business and, and, especially when you get to, to, stages like the regulatory process, and trials and, and you, do you think that that's where AI is, is particularly helpful or will, could be, or will be particularly
Yeah. We haven't explored out that far yet. We're really looking at a very basic lab functions now. But even in silico development of some of these assets just wasn't possible five or 10 years ago. There's so much work you can do on developing out the potential of assets early days and the computer, right? To see if you think these things really have legs. So I think we're exploring those tools now. But yeah, we're looking into what are the tools that can help us make more efficient.
clinical trials and all that.
Heath Fletcher (16:14.03)
What other technology are you leveraging right now? Is there anything new or interesting that you're even trying out that you've never used before and that maybe isn't AI, but something else that's as innovative but more niche to what you guys do?
I think we're constantly looking at it. just recently we started looking at in the lab, a new form of PCR. There's a new form of PCR. I'm not technical on this part of it. I don't understand some of the stuff here.
What's acronym PCR you said?
Yeah, PCR. PCR is a pretty standard tool. It's being used a lot. And one of the most modern modalities of that is what they call DDPCR, which is a very good way to look at things. But this new one that has come up is even more sensitive, even faster, costs less to do. So there's a lot of things it can do that gives us kind of another step ahead. So this is a brand new technology that's just been launched earlier this year.
We're looking at being partnered with them early on so we can get access to that kind technology. We're doing some service work, so it gives us kind of a leg up and a differentiator on the service side, but it also helps us enable better technology development for ourselves. So I think we're constantly looking for things like that. You can't bring everything in because you need some of the bandwidth for that, but tools like this that have a niche need for something we do a lot of, it makes sense to go out and look for something that's the next generation tool.
Heath Fletcher (17:41.752)
Well, and the cost of some of these tools too. mean, that's something that as a startup, you're super conscious of is like, where's the best bang for our buck? Where are we going to put our money? Where are we going to get that? Get what we need out of it, but without having to, you know, buy 10 of these things or have several subscriptions or whatever else that is that are available to you. that, yeah, the cost is always an issue, especially at that stage. So what is the,
Yeah, you're in the investment stage now looking for funders. What's your approach to that? How do you actually find and track them down and secure those relationships?
Yeah, it's a challenge right now. would say fundraising is as bad as it's been in over a decade right now. So it's challenging. I understand the concerns of the investors, right? They've been investing for a number of years. They've seen a lot of failures. They haven't seen the commercial success they would like to see. they're backing off a little bit, which is understandable. But at the same time, we think we have something here that has a lot of lake, but it needs funds. This is not a cheap business to be in. It takes quite a bit of money to move these things forward.
I think we're trying to show the value and show the differentiation we have. I think right now we've been trying to do a lot of work on platform development. And one thing that we're really transitioning to is looking to do asset development, because that's what think funders want to see. It's great to fund a platform, but they really want to fund assets. And they want something they can carry forward into the client. So we're kind of in that transition now. like I said, we're looking at these new assets we think we can move forward with. So the development on the CAR-T is already starting.
the development on some of these monogenic diseases will probably start to Q3 for us. So, you're right around the corner. So I think we're making that transition to make us more appetizing. Also looking at strategic partnerships. Can we develop more data through partnerships with other biotech, pharma, academia, wherever it's at? We want to get the technology out there and get exposure because we do think once people see it and see the power of it, then we can get the planning.
Heath Fletcher (19:45.742)
right. Where do you actually, where do you do spend most of your time? Is it speaking at conferences? Is it just networking one-on-one using LinkedIn? Like where do you find the most effective way of making those connections?
Yeah, right in front of the computer, just like this. I'm here all day, 10 hours a day or more. I will say some conferences are really good. We just had a couple of good conferences at ISCT and ASGCT. We did a poster at ASGCT. It was very well received, had a lot of traffic there. I think that was great. So think anytime we can expose the science through something like that, it's great. But you can't go to conferences all the time. They're expensive. They take a lot of time. There are a few investor conferences we're focusing on. We're going to RSI.
You
Brian Newsom. (20:30.03)
and in June, which is a very good one, very investor focused on the early stage of life sciences. So it's a great target for us. Most of the people there are looking for companies like us, right? That are seed stage series A, looking for small dollars to move their platform forward. And that's what we're doing. So we're speaking where we can, getting on the podium and telling people what we're doing, trying to make sure we're getting as much exposure we can online through LinkedIn and other social media.
So, but it's a challenge, right? We're out there and there's a lot of noise. There's a lot of other people doing the same thing. So it's hard to differentiate yourself. Doing what we can to get noticed.
So who is the end user of your product? Once you're up and you're in the market, who is it you're actually pitching this to?
Yeah, so for us, our customer, I guess you would say, would be pharma or biotech because we want to be the licensing technology behind this. So we want to be the technology, we kind of want to be the Intel chip inside, right? Because our goal is to use this as broadly as possible. So we think we need to be developing assets constantly and moving forward with this because every one of these different forms, whether it's delivering protein or DNA or RNA, it takes a lot of differences in the way you do.
Okay.
Brian Newsom. (21:43.342)
internal to the cell technology inside. If we're delivering big DNA versus small DNA, that's a difference. If we're going into certain cell types like neurons, we may need neural specific promoters. So there's always things we're going to have to be doing in the technology. So because of that, our goal is to take these into an IND stage and then partner them out to somebody with a therapeutic development. So that's our end user. Now the ultimate end user for them, like most therapeutics, is kind of the doctor or the patient.
depending on which one you see there, being the in-customer. But for us, it's definitely, know, farm-on-vac.
And does that, by building it that way, does that give you that sort long-term relationship? Because as time moves forward, data gets updated and information gets updated and you're creating that sort of ongoing relationship between you and the end user?
We certainly hope so. mean, if we get in with somebody that say they really like monogenic disease, or they really like a certain thing, you know, that could help influence where we develop to get there. they want to see a next generation product in another indication, you know, we're happy to kind of follow that trail, right? If we're working in oncology and work with somebody on a next generation CAR T for a certain solid tumor, and that's successful, they may want us to help them develop one for work and have another solid tumor, right? Go from pancreatic cancer to lung cancer or something.
So we do think there's definitely going to be longitudinal relationships that are beneficial to both sides. But again, we're very early, so we're just starting those discussions. it takes a while to get the data, right? You've got to people to talk to them about. So now that we have good proof of concept data, and now that we have something to share, we're going to get into having some discussions.
Heath Fletcher (23:27.726)
So maybe a little bit more personal on a leadership side of things. What do you feel like is one of your sort of, I don't know, special skills or talents around leadership and in working with an organization? I know there's only a small team, but what do you feel is kind of one of your sort of greatest assets as far as leadership goes?
I have to ask people to work with me, guess, to see. one of the challenges too is I live in Georgia, the company is headquartered in Los Angeles. I'm the only person remote. So I think part of it for me is I don't like to be micromanaged. I like people to kind of let me do what I do. And I think if you hire good people, then you can do that. And I think I allow people to do their job. I don't want to get into the weeds too much. I want to understand what's going on. want to understand.
Yeah.
Brian Newsom. (24:20.716)
what we're getting in data, because I've got to go present it, but I don't want to interfere, right? I want to be able to let them do their job. So I do think I've got all kinds of supervisors in the past, right? Some get in the weeds, some in good ways, some in bad. And I've tried to learn over the years that the way I like to be managed is, I guess, the way I manage as well. And I let people do their job. I let them go do it. I try to provide direction because I think that's important too. think people that are, you know, under the flounder might. So we have
We have guidance, have objectives where we want to go, and that's pretty specific. But how we get there and the exact course they're taking in their day to day job is really up to them if we hire right.
Right. And that's putting the trust in them to deliver what they were hired to do. if they are bought into the vision and the mission and the future goals of the company, then you just let them do their thing. That's right. You're doing, well, you kind of have a couple of different, well, you wear a few hats, but as one of the founders and as the CEO, you kind of have this
big picture vision, but also you're really sort of honed in on day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year business, you know, vision as well. How do you, know, founders are, a, there's a bit of a stereotype with founders that they have a hard time letting go because it's the, it's the baby. How, you know, and, and how are you, how do you, is it easy to separate that for you?
No, no, it's not. I think it's a founder of that just kind of part of it, right? It is your baby. You want it to go. I think it's having a co-founder that's so technically strong. I can't let go of that side some because I have complete faith in him to do what he needs to do. Right. And to understand he understands the depth that I don't as well. A lot of technologies. He's the one that created it and he's the one that really knows what we need to do to manipulate things to get where we want to go. Right. So I can kind of let go of that. The other side of it.
Brian Newsom. (26:30.19)
Like you said, kind of the strategy and the leadership and all that kind of stuff, that, no, that's hard to separate yourself from. It's because you get really tied in and you feel like it's, I don't know, I wouldn't say your legacy in some ways, but if you don't take ownership of it, you're not going to do a good job of it either, right? So I think you have to take full ownership and that, you know, there's accountability and responsibility for the people.
And, you know, take this seriously.
Right. And then even, as you go forward with investors, now you've got a few more other people in your ear giving you feedback and some, probably a lot of advice and where.
Yeah, well, if we can get some more investors, I'll welcome the advice, right? We need the investments. But yeah, I mean, you get a lot of stakeholders and the more you grow, the more stakeholders you get, right? And sometimes you have to be able to kind of decipher what's best for the company with all that, because you may not be getting the same advice from everybody. So I do think you have to be willing to take that advice, but you have to willing to sift it and understand what really is useful now, what's useful maybe later.
That's your job as CEO, Is to lead, but also the board of directors have a reason that they're there and they've got some say. So you have to be that of that conduit by which things flow both ways, right? From the board of directors into the companies.
Heath Fletcher (27:54.062)
I mean some say it's a lonely place sitting in that can be
I it can be. I'm fortunate that I think we're a pretty close team, especially for being as remote as we are.
And yeah, great. For sure.
I think CEO in most places can be a lonely person. You feel like you are a part of the company, but you have to stand apart a little bit too. You have kind of a unique role in the company and you're out on the level little bit. So I think it can be a bit of a, you feel like a bit of a loner times, even though you've got sometimes people all behind you.
Yep.
Heath Fletcher (28:32.334)
What do you access for inspiration, motivation, mentorship or anything like that to keep you through the hard times or the tough times?
Yeah, it's, you know, I use different things. So as a Christian, I try to really get a lot of the word of God and I try to, you know, spend a lot of time there. It's my morning routine to do that. And I think it's really instrumental for me. I think another thing I do is just read a lot. I read and I read a little bit of everything. I read, you know, leadership material, I read strategy material, I read academic papers, I read novels. just, because you can pull inspiration from lot of different places.
Sometimes you're reading just a novel about something and there's something in there that kind of strikes a chord, right? Something that makes sense or something that resonates with you. But also reading through leadership material about something that worked well for somebody else. get that, that fits my situation quite well, right? And sometimes it may not work all the time or may not work for you, but you can at least get some ideas of strategies to try and things that may work that you haven't tried before.
So, yeah, I do a lot of reading both, you know, kind of in the early morning and then usually.
I prefer reading in the morning. can't, I fall asleep if I try reading at night. I have to in the morning or else I don't ever absorb anything. So, uh, you a science fiction?
Brian Newsom. (29:59.192)
So yeah, I actually, I books on tape for my science fiction typically. And yeah, so I enjoy some of that again. That's kind of a getaway, right? It's kind of a way to have kind of the fun of science, the horror and the, know, the, I don't know, it's kind of freeing to listen to of the science fiction stuff. I've got to this.
It's kind of cool to think about the science fiction we used to watch or read as young people, to, know, what we were reading and watching, you know, 30 years ago, 40 years ago, whatever, you know, is actually the things that we're seeing today. They're actually, they've actually transpired. You're, living one right there. You know, you're talking about cell therapy and, and, working at a, at a molecular level and
You know, was, you know, the Star Trek and the days when, you know, we were just fantasizing about these things. And here we are today, you know? You know, do you feel like that kind of creative, creative thinking and creative outputting is a major part of what we're seeing now today in science?
Yeah, I think it's growing exponentially, right? mean, when you look at the rate of change these days, the rate of growth, it's really incredible. And like you said, the science fiction of 40 years ago is the science fact of today, right?
I like that. That's good. You might have to borrow that. The science fiction and the 40 years of science fact today. I love that.
Brian Newsom. (31:26.96)
Sure.
Brian Newsom. (31:33.329)
My grandson tells me all the time he wants to teleport. I'm like, you know, that's science fiction. But hey, who knows, right? That could be the science fact.
So there are many who believe it's already happening.
Who knows, right? So, but yeah, I'm inspired by the fact that things we didn't think possible just, you know, 10, 20 years ago, we're seeing happen today. Yeah. think some of the genetic medicine that we're doing now, you know, I don't know. I think a lot of people thought it would never happen, right? It's been in theory for probably 50 years, but we didn't think we would ever have the tools to work at that depth and at that scale of the human body, but we do. And we're getting there. And I think, you know, we're just tipping the iceberg. There's still a lot more.
can do here and we're learning all the time but with the advent of things like gene editing and others you know it's really moving things forward very very quickly. I think sometimes the technologies like that are outpacing the therapeutic drive we just can't keep up and up. There's certainly something to be said for making sure we have a really solid understanding of the science and that the basis is really strong before we move into patients. But at the same time it's exciting to be in things that
That's a good point.
Brian Newsom. (32:40.248)
forward so quickly and do give us the potential to create cure for things we didn't think was possible.
When you're at healthcare and maybe the near future or distant future, what do you see as being some of the one or a couple of the most critical and major changes in the industry? Looking ahead.
Well, I would say what I really hope, I hope that the drive for cures for some of these things really drives early diagnostics too. I think right now, one thing we're not doing is really good on like newborn screening, things like that. That gives us an idea of what's coming up and what we need to be treating very early on. A lot of these rare diseases are lethal within the first two years of life. So you have to be looking very early on and the screening I think is is somewhat falling behind in some ways what the therapeutic seems.
So I think we need to make sure we're shoring that up. And I do think that will happen. But there's again, there's a cost there and there's a lot of people that are pushing for it, but it's a challenge, right? Health economics right now is a big issue. So I think early screening is one that I'm really looking at. But the other thing, I think that we're seeing so many things that are going into what have been maintenance therapies for years and years and things like diabetes, right? You're on insulin, people, it works, right?
but they're on the stress of life. It's a quality of life issue. People still have issues, especially people that are riddled. But we have a chance to go from maintenance therapies to cures in some of these things. And I do think, right now it's in rare diseases, it's in some of these small indications. I do think over the next decade, we're gonna see this start creeping into areas like diabetes or areas where we have really high in the medical need. The other thing is as we age, we're starting to see a lot more things come out.
Brian Newsom. (34:29.454)
in like neurodegenerative space. Alzheimer's becoming a big thing, right? My dad has laid up Alzheimer's right now. you you see the decline and how rapid that is. it's because he's 86, right? And, you know, 50 years ago, people didn't get it because they were all dying in their sixties. So the advent of all these therapies and longer life means we have new challenges ahead of us too. And Alzheimer's is just one of many. So I think we're looking at the emergence of new things will come out with an aging population.
And we're going to have to come up with new therapies. But the tools we have now are going to help us generate those.
Yeah. Wow. That was great. Great response to that question, by the way. That was excellent. what have you got to any advice for someone maybe walking in your shoes, uh, 10 years earlier, or maybe venturing into, uh, out of university and, and looking ahead as far as getting into, uh, you know, something in the same field that you're in, any advice about what to, uh, how to approach their future or.
Even in the near future, someone making a career change or something like that.
Yeah, go into real estate instead. I will say it's a challenging field. So, go thick skin, be resilient. But it's a very rewarding field too. There's nothing better than knowing what you've done, the work you've done in the lab is helping patients, Especially treating children and seeing that happen. There's someone who I'm friends with on LinkedIn and their child was born with SMA.
Heath Fletcher (35:46.284)
Yeah
Brian Newsom. (36:07.438)
and they were fortunate to be in an area where they got early screening. This is normally a death sentence, right, for children about the age of two. And their child just turned six and a half. And they posted the video of them running back and forth for their testing. And it's amazing, this is a disease that normally at this age, if they were still alive, they be immobilized, would be in real trouble. So the power of some of these therapies has such huge potential. And I think that's what drives me and others every day, right, is seeing that.
is
Brian Newsom. (36:36.494)
If you're doing this, do it the right reason. Do it because you don't come into this business to make money. You don't come into this business for glory and success. You come into this business because you want to help patients. And there's real people at the other end of these diseases. And that's why I should be here. So if you want to do that, if you want to be in the lab doing fun stuff, at the same time, those things that can have real impact, Selma Gene Therapy is a great place to be.
Great advice. Awesome. Brian, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. you know, is there anything, any last thoughts or anything else you would like to talk about with the caragent or, or to anybody out there listening?
Yeah, we'll just say it's tough times right now, but I don't want people to lose heart, right? I'm writing an editorial right now around what the current economic situation is doing to our industry. And the fact is it's kind of bleak, right? It doesn't look really good. It's hard to raise funds. We're seeing things close up all the time, whether that's developer companies or service companies, whatever it is. But I do think that there's a lot of things you can take about bad times and coming out better on the other.
Right. So I do think that, you know, this is one of those things where iron sharpens iron. You really get to where you, get lean, you get, you know, gritty and you figure out how to get through it and you come out the other end better for it. And I do think that even though we're kind of in hard times now, you know, we'll see, I think, you know, they're probably going to have four or five gene therapies come out through VLA this year. So I think it's going to be a really good year for what we see as a result of all this work coming out and actually treating patients.
And those are the kind of things that I'm living for, right? To see that happen. So I encourage people to look at it as, you know, challenging time now, but look at the long run, right? That this is, we're here for a reason. We're here to treat patients and we think in the long run we will benefit.
Heath Fletcher (38:33.996)
Yeah, keeping your eye on why you're doing this in the first place, but also taking that 10,000 foot view and seeing the future and the present at the same time. think those are kind of, yeah, that's good advice. How do people reach you, Brian, if they want more information or, I mean, they give you some money, that would be great.
I'm to do that. yeah, our website is just kareagent.com. Take a look at that. There's an email there. can click info at kareagent.com. That'll come to us and you can talk there. But yeah, anybody wants to give us money, certainly we'll have a talk. But we're also looking for partnerships, collaborations, things like that. We want to get our technology out there and have people to see it. We want other people to pressure test what we're doing and make sure that we're not blinded by our own...
by what we want to see, right? We want to make sure we're not doing that. We want to people to give it a look too and kick some tires. So yeah, we'd love people to connect with us and talk.
That's great. We'll make sure their links are in there and below the podcast as well. So again, thank you so much for taking the time to spend with me today. And it was a really insightful conversation and yeah, appreciate you very much. And I look forward to seeing what Karen does in the future and I give you all the best luck in getting that funding.
Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me on.
Heath Fletcher (40:04.718)
Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks, Brian.
Heath Fletcher (40:11.01)
Okay, that was awesome meeting Brian. Great conversation. Vector, who knew there were so many definitions for the word vector? I found out there's about 11 variations of that word and how it's used. I knew of two, vector graphics and vector the serial, which I'm very fond of by the way. And now I know vector technologies are crucial for delivering genetic payloads. So how about that?
we talked about, that Brian's leadership style is about allowing people to do their job and provide direction and that that gives them the opportunity to take full ownership and accountability for their work. he is another one of these, leaders that wants to trust, people to, be their best, do their best and not micromanage. So love hearing that. That's a, that seems to be happening more and more.
He also gave some feedback that if this is, if what you want to do is help patients, this is the place to be for you. And he's referring to cell and gene therapy. We talked a little bit about his downtime. He reads a lot of books. He does like science fiction. And in fact, we talked about science fiction and how what science fiction looked like 40 years ago is, is actually coming to fruition today. And best quote ever, which I'm going to keep and use over and over again.
is that he said the science fiction of 40 years ago is the science fact of today. I'll end with that. Thank you for listening and I hope you come back soon. Bye bye.