What does coding a computer and coding a human cell have in common? Jeff Galvin, CEO at American Gene Technologies International Inc. (AGT), explains to Legal Drugs Podcast host, Angela Stoyanovitch, during the week of JP Morgan/Biotech Showcase conference in downtown San Francisco, CA. 

Check out Episode 14 “Funding the Future of Legal Drugs from the Streets of San Francisco; A Recap of The Biotech Showcase by Angela Stoyanovitch,” for more background content on the setting of this recorded interview. You will hear Angela describe the new surge of focus on gene and cell therapies which are a more targetd way of developing legal drugs, today. AGT has a mission to leverage the power of gene and cell therapy to reduce human suffering from serious human disease.  So, how do they do this and what does it have to do with technology? 

Thanks to Jeff’s background as a Computer Scientist and Technologists, the most complex of ideas is made simple in this episode of the podcast.  You will learn what the human body or human cell have in common with the computer which uses zeros and ones to operate it’s systems and software.  Jeff explains that your cell is the ultimate, sophisticated organic computer. He breaks down letters such as ACTG which are the DNA nucleotides and draws a parallel to how cells can be hacked just like a computer.  

What does this mean for the future of legal drugs? Gone are the days where chemists and drug developers mix together chemotherapies that simply aren’t working to cure disease. Now, with AGT’s new platform, using the fundamentals of software development, for finding new drug candidates and discovering new drugs, Jeff boasts that legal drugs can be developed more specifically and more profitably.  AGT is now a machine for cell and gene therapies. Jeff and the team at AGT are awaiting news from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to head to the clinic to test a new HIV cure (pending FDA approval after filing an IND – Investigational New Drug program for permission to start a human clinical trial.) 

This episode of Legal Drugs Podcast was edited and produced by Margaret Beveridge.