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Cell & Gene: The Podcast
Cell & Gene: The Podcast
Author: Erin Harris
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© 2026 Cell & Gene: The Podcast
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Cell & Gene, the most valuable online resource for delivering in-depth content from authoritative authors and sources to professionals in the CGT sector, introduces Cell & Gene: The Podcast. In each episode, Cell & Gene Chief Editor, Erin Harris, will talk to industry and academic leaders about their current initiatives and how they are moving the sector forward.
130 Episodes
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We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On episode 124 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Aurora Therapeutics' CEO Dr. Edward Kaye discusses the company’s strategy for translating CRISPR gene editing into scalable, commercially viable medicines for rare diseases. Aurora is initially targeting phenylketonuria (PKU) using a platform approach that leverages shared components, such as lipid nanoparticles and base editors, while customizing guide RNAs for specific mutations. Dr. Kaye ...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In episode 123 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Dr. Panteli Theocharous, FIBMS, M.S., Ph.D., FRCPath, about the patient journey in cell therapy trials. They pinpoint key friction points, such as delayed referrals, unpredictable vein-to-vein timelines, and burdensome long-term follow-up, while sharing actionable strategies for simplification. These strategies range from upstream trial design and streamlined consen...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In episode 122 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Paul Romness, CEO of OS Therapies, to learn the company’s mission to address the severe unmet need in pulmonary metastatic osteosarcoma (PMO), a rare pediatric cancer with no established standard of care once it metastasizes. Romness explains how OS Therapies’ off-the-shelf HER2-targeted immunotherapy aims to significantly improve outcomes by stimulating a robust im...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In episode 121 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Scribe Therapeutics' CEO and Co-Founder Benjamin Oakes about building next‑generation CRISPR and epigenetic editing tools to move genetic medicine beyond rare disease into common cardiometabolic indications. Oakes shares Scribe’s engineered CasX platform and epigenetic silencers, preclinical data from its various programs, and why exquisite specificity and low-dose ...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. Welcome to episode 120 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast. Host Erin Harris is joined by Rachel Haurwitz, CEO of Caribou Biosciences, to discuss the company’s progress in developing CRISPR-edited, off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies for hematologic malignancies. Their conversation centers on Vispacell, Caribou’s allogeneic CD19 CAR-T for second-line large B-cell lymphoma. Haurwitz explains how Caribou has systematically optimized its allogeneic pl...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. We’re sharing this Better Biopharma episode on Cell & Gene: The Podcast because Better Biopharma is a sister show in the Life Science Connect family, and this conversation touches so many of the same challenges, pressures, and big-picture shifts our audience is thinking about right now. CGT doesn’t live in a bubble, and neither do the people building it. So we wanted to bring this wider, cross-industry conversation straight to you. Su...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In episode 119 of Cell & Gene The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Dr. Norman Putzki, Global Head Clinical Development, Novartis, about the FDA approval of Itvisma, now the only gene replacement therapy approved for children, adolescents, and adults with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Dr. Putzki walks us through the six-year development journey behind the STEER and STRENGTH Phase 3 programs. And we explore what the expanded age-rang...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In Episode 118, Host Erin Harris talks to Alexander Cryer, Ph.D., Instructor in Medicine at Mass General Brigham, about a proof of concept strategy that reprograms tumor cells with mRNA lipid nanoparticles to overactivate the cGAS-STING pathway, forcing cancer cells to produce and export large amounts of the innate immune agonist cGAMP to stimulate surrounding immune cells and drive anti-tumor immunity. Dr. Cryer explains the basic biolog...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On episode 117, Host Erin Harris welcomes Paul Perreault, Strategic Advisor, Board Member and former CEO of CSL, who shares insights from his decade leading the company through global expansion and the COVID-19 pandemic. Perreault highlights the importance of patient-centered culture, strategic focus, and adaptive leadership for cell and gene therapy innovators. He offers practical advice on building a values-driven culture that connects ...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In episode 116 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Dr. Arun Upadhyay, Chief Scientific officer, Head of Research and Development at Ocugen to discuss how the company’s modifier gene therapy platform is redefining treatment possibilities for inherited retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease, and geographic atrophy. Dr. Upadhyay explains how Ocugen’s gene-agnostic approach differs from traditi...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. Episode 115 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast features Host Erin Harris' talk with Aliya Omer, Vice President and Global Head of Hematology and Cell Therapy at AstraZeneca. Omer shares valuable insights from her rich experience leading cell therapy development across multiple top companies. She highlights the critical importance of collaboration by breaking down silos across research, manufacturing, regulatory, and commercial teams to deliv...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On episode 114 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Brian Culley, CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics, about advancing cell therapy beyond oncology and into transformative treatments for conditions such as spinal cord injury and blindness. Culley shares how Lineage’s allogeneic, off-the-shelf approach, anchored by its OPC1 program, aims to replace lost or damaged cells to restore function, starting with patients who hav...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. Welcome to Episode 113 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast. Host Erin Harris is joined by Thorsten Gorba, Ph.D., VP Process Development at Aspen Neuroscience to explore how the company is advancing the field of cell therapy manufacturing. Aspen Neuroscience stands at the forefront of integrating machine vision and AI/ML to assess induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) colony quality by offering a transformative approach to move beyond the subje...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On episode 112 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Michael Quigley, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer and Global Head of Research at Sanofi talks to Host Erin Harris about the establishment of Sanofi’s dedicated Genomic Medicine Unit (GMU). Dr. Quigley emphasizes in vivo delivery and process optimization to improve patient experience, scalability, and global access. They discuss the importance of partnerships with academia, industry, and regul...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. On episode 111 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Ernexa Therapeutics' President and CEO, Sanjeev Luther, about how the company is advancing cell therapy innovation for cancer and autoimmune disease through engineered induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stem cells (iMSCs). Luther shares how Ernexa’s synthetic, standardized, off-the-shelf iMSCs are designed to overcome historic hurdles in MSC therapy, ...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. This is Episode 4 of "FDA Fridays," a special series from Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Chief Editor Erin Harris speaks with regulatory affairs expert Daniela Drago, Partner, NDA Partners, about how shifting FDA and CBER priorities under the current administration could influence the trajectory of cell and gene therapy development. From the impact of leadership changes and evolving policy directives to the role of funding allocations and ...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In this episode of Cell & Gene Podcast episode, Host Erin Harris talks to Stanford School of Medicine Ph.D. student, Yuanhao Qu, about his work developing CRISPR-GPT, an AI-driven multi-agent system designed to automate genetic experimental design and data analysis, making CRISPR experiments more efficient and accessible, even for non-experts. Qu explains how CRISPR-GPT addresses key challenges such as guide design, delivery methods, ...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. This is Episode 3 of "FDA Fridays," a 4-week special series from Cell & Gene: The Podcast. Host Erin Harris talks to Bambi Grilley, Ph.D., Professor of Pediatrics and the Director of Clinical Research and Early Product Development for the Center of Cell and Gene Therapy (CAGT) at Baylor College of Medicine and Chief Regulatory Officer for ISCT, a leading expert at the forefront of pediatric cell and gene therapy. Dr. Grilley shares he...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. Episode 2 of FDA Fridays, the special series from Cell & Gene: The Podcast, features Host Erin Harris' discussion with regulatory expert Monika Swietlicka, Principal, Regulatory Strategy, Halloran Consulting Group about the key strategies and challenges in navigating FDA regulation for cell and gene therapies. Their conversation covers the importance of defining a therapy’s intended role (curative, chronic, or adjunctive) early in dev...
We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message. In Episode 109 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Will Chou, M.D., CEO of Passage Bio about the promise and challenges of developing gene therapies for frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a neurodegenerative disease with strong genetic underpinnings. Dr. Chou discusses the biological basis of FTD and the complex scientific, manufacturing, and regulatory hurdles that come with targeting the brain. They discuss the latest...



