Dr. Evan Bai is computational genomic team leader at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. There he leads collaborations across Research, Clinical, and Commercial. By designing and analyzing genomic studies across the drug discovery pipeline, ranging from target discovery to defining treatable patient population, he contributed to the advancement of one disease program from compound screening into Phase II clinical trials, and other disease programs from target discovery into lead optimization. Evan is...

Dr. Yaniv Erlich is the co-founder and CEO of Eleven Therapeutics. Prior, he was the CSO of MyHeritage, a consumer genomics company (acquired by Francisco Partners), an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and a Principal Investigator at the Whitehead Institute, MIT.  We talked with Yaniv about his unique career that led him to leave academia and focus his efforts on building exciting biotech companies. Yaniv shared his insights into academic and non academic career...

Gali Arad and Eran Seger from Protai had talked to us about moving from their previous life in tech and academia into the fast pace of illuminating the druggable Proteome for better cures. Eran Seger is the Co-Founder and CEO of Protai, a fast-growing biotech startup sitting on the intersection of proteomics and machine learning to develop novel therapeutics for a variety of complex diseases. Eran is an experienced technology executive and entrepreneur with a strong technical background and...

Dov Moran, Managing Partner of Grove Ventures, is one of the most prominent Israeli hi-tech leaders in the world. Dov is an investor, inventor, and entrepreneur, who is best known as the inventor of the USB flash drive. He founded M-Systems, acquired by SanDisk for $US 1.6 billion in 2006. He also served as the chairman of Tower Semiconductors, a developer and manufacturer of semiconductors and integrated circuits, in which he led a massive overhaul. Under Moran’s guidance, the company...

Over two years have past since we started this podcast. We learned a lot! We also applied some key take home messages to our own lives and careers. Today we share our progress with you!  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/macademia/message

Corrie Painter is the Deputy Director of Count Me In and is a research scientist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.  A trained cancer researcher with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, she completed her postdoctoral work in cancer immunology, focusing on melanoma. In 2010, Painter was diagnosed with angiosarcoma. She has combined her cancer advocacy and scientific background to engage with patients in order to build and carry out patient-partnered genomics studies. She is also the co-founder of...

Running a team of diverse skills, and having them talk, learn, innovate and grow together while driving scientific breakthroughs? This is exactly what happens at the Satchi-Fainaro laboratory.  Ronit Satchi-Fainaro is a full Professor at Tel Aviv University, where she is head of the Cancer Research & Nanomedicine Laboratory, Director of Tel Aviv University Cancer Biology Research Center, Director of the TAU Kahn 3D BioPrinting Initiative, and holds the Kurt and Herman Lion Chair in...

Joe Brew is a data scientist with a background in public health. Joe has worked in infectious disease control surveillance, monitoring, and case-finding in places ranging from Nepal to Mozambique to Florida, USA (where he is from). He now focuses on building Hyfe, an artificial intelligence company which aims to improve respiratory health, remote patient monitoring, and diagnostics by detecting and quantifying cough from ambient noise. We talked about transdisciplinary research,  science...

Dr. Gil Blander is internationally recognized for his research in the basic biology of aging and translating research discoveries into new ways of detecting and preventing age-related conditions. He leads a team of biology, nutrition & exercise physiology experts, and data scientists at InsideTracker, and has been featured in CNN Money, The New York Times, Forbes, Financial Times, The Boston Globe to name a few. Dr. Gil Blander received a Ph.D. in biology from the Weizmann Institute of...

Or Ordentlich, PhD is an associate professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also an Algorithms Architect at Weka.io. His research is mostly focused on information theory, and its applications to modern problems in communication, compression and data science. Omri Palmon, PhD is the founder and COO of Weka.io, with a PhD in computer science from Stanford. We talked about innovation, product development, the difference between...

Ori Zelichov M.D. is the VP Clinical Development of Nucleai, a startup company developing image analysis technologies for precision oncology. Dr. Zelichov leads the medical strategy and clinical development for the company. Prior to joining Nucleai, Ori was the Medical Director for Novellus, where he led to the development of a novel targeted treatments for cancer, now being tested in clinical trials.   We talked about product development, the company evolution to match market needs, the...

Yulie Klerman solves puzzles of the complex healthcare ecosystem, helping health tech companies crystalize product/market fit and develop a go-to-market strategy for their innovative solutions. Yulie is a VP of Business Development at Rhino Health, an end-to-end Federated Learning and Privacy Preservation platform facilitating privacy-centric data collaboration. In her previous role, she launched a Health Data Connectivity Platform for the safe and effective incorporation of health, consumer,...

Gavi Feuer’s life pursuit is to incorporate new and developing technologies into medical devices. As Engineering Director and Co-founder of Rafael Medical Devices, he takes surgical procedures to the next level in order to improve safety, efficacy, cost, and efficiency. After receiving his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Cooper Union, Gavi earned his Ph.D. from SUNY Downstate studying bone tissue and the human skeleton as mechanical systems. With his knowledge in both engineering...

Dr. Assaf Zemach spent seven years as a professor at Tel Aviv university before he moved back to the US and joined Rinati skin as Head of Metabolic Engineering. We talked about Assaf's career as both a PI and scientist in industry, about the difficult task of navigating two careers and raising children abroad, about the differences and similarities of leading research in academia and industry, and much more. Music credits: Funkorama Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative...

Rachel Diamant co-founded Emendo Biotherapeutics in 2016 with a group of friends. Emendo is a next generation gene editing company developing genetic medicines for severe genetic diseases. Rachel completed biotech engineering studies from the Technion (Israel) in 2000 and MSc in Neuroscience from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2004. She is a serial entrepreneur in biotech and has been working in the field of IP strategy for over a decade.  We talked about the role IP has in building a...

Prof. Karen B. Avraham, professor at the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University in Israel. She and her team lead the effort in the discovery of disease genes and the use of models for therapy, with an emphasis on precision medicine. Her laboratory of neural and sensory genomics focuses on deafness and developmental epileptic encephalopathies. Karen takes great pride in the 135 undergraduate,...

Dov Shamir, Ph.D. fell in love with science but not the way it was done in an academic lab, he wanted to be closer to the point of impact, where basic science developments meet the real world needs. His multidisciplinary background extends to the creation of his own startups and products, therapeutic development, engineering, finance, and investing. Dov is the Senior Manager of Entrepreneurship at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP), the commercialization office of the Mount Sinai Health...

Ohad was trained as a computational scientist and is grateful to be able to apply these skills to improve patients' lives and outcomes. He lives in Seattle with his wife and two kids. Ohad is the Head of Computational Biology and Data Science at Century Tx and a Scientific Advisor for Drop Bio. When he's not working or thinking about science and data, he likes to spend time with his family enjoying what Seattle and the PNW has to offer, or zone out with some yoga or rock climbing for a...

Dr. Fried has created a unique initiative to bring high-level science to kids, especially those in elementary school. The program, called Biochemistry Literacy for Kids, uses molecular modeling tools and a unique philosophy of teaching to exceed typical expectations for learning. Elementary school students in the program learn in-depth about topics like protein folding and organic chemistry mechanisms. Several schools around the US have begun using the curriculum as a part of their standard...

Summertime ... a short break this week, and we had decided to bring you a rebroadcast of one of our favorite episodes - Joanne Kamens, PhD, former CEO of Addgene, and an experienced researcher and leader in biotech and pharma. Take the time to re-listen and rethink the point Joanne make all through the interview  Enjoy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/macademia/message

Dr. Gily Meir is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP), and the Research Director for the Sport Psychology Department at JFK School of Psychology at National University. Gily studies the connection between cognitions, emotions, and performance in an effort to learn and enhance individual's ability to self-regulate. Gily, an advocate of the researcher-practitioner approach, consults athletes and coaches of different levels,...

Katie Langin, PhD, is the associate editor for the Careers section of Science. Her professional roots are in academia, as she holds a Ph.D. in ecology and spent years as a grad student and postdoc, studying the ecology and evolution of birds. Her first taste of journalism was at National Geographic, where she joined the daily news team as an AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow—an experience that widened her view of possible career options in front of her. She served as a news...

Elina gives a panoramic view on career trajectories in the pharma and biotech industries. We focus on possible entry level positions and how to develop your career.  Elina is an experienced biomed Leader with 17+ years of increasing responsibility and accountability in strategic roles. Elina worked in various therapeutic areas and has experience in Pharmaceutical development from research to global commercialization; Digital Health, Diagnostics, project and product manager - and more! To...

Omri had a successful Ph.D. in biochemistry at Tel-Aviv University, followed by ... naturally ... a postdoc. During his postdoc in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at Stanford University school of medicine, he realized, ACADEMIA IS NOT FOR ME. He followed this lead, founded a company in the realm of tech-bio, sold a company, and hadn't stopped getting involved and leading idea-into-success stories on the investment side. Omri believes in the Scientist - CEO / Scientist - Entrepreneur, and...