Base to Base Biotech – Détails, épisodes et analyse

This week, we have a conversation with Lisa Guerrettaz, executive director, Pharmacology and Translational Science at Artiva Biotherapeutics; and Avacta Therapeutics’ CEO Christina Coughlin.

Times:

04:12 Artiva Biotherapeutics

21:30 Avacta Therapeutics

Artiva Biotherapeutics

Artiva Biotherapeutics is a clinical‑stage cell therapy company developing off‑the‑shelf (allogeneic) natural killer (NK) cell therapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer. Headquartered in San Diego and founded in 2019, the company was created as a spin‑out from GC Cell (formerly GC Lab Cell) in South Korea, alongside a strategic partnership granting Artiva exclusive rights (outside Asia, Australia and New Zealand) to GC Cell’s NK manufacturing technology and associated programmes.​

Artiva’s lead programme is AlloNK, a non‑genetically modified, cryopreserved NK cell therapy designed to enhance antibody‑dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) when paired with monoclonal antibodies. The company positions this approach to achieve deep B‑cell depletion in outpatient settings without the complexity and cost associated with bespoke autologous cell therapies.​

In terms of clinical activity, AlloNK is being evaluated across three ongoing trials in B‑cell‑driven autoimmune diseases, including company‑sponsored and investigator‑initiated basket studies covering indications such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, lupus nephritis and Sjögren’s disease. Artiva has treated more than 100 patients with AlloNK across oncology and autoimmune disease and is planning FDA interactions in the first half of 2026 aimed at enabling a pivotal trial pathway in rheumatoid arthritis.

Avacta Therapeutics

Avacta is a life sciences company best known for its Affimer platform—engineered binding proteins positioned as an alternative to antibodies for use in diagnostics, reagents and therapeutics. ​ The company’s activities span both life science reagents/diagnostics and oncology therapeutics, with the latter centred on its pre|CISION technology, which is designed to activate drugs selectively in the tumour microenvironment. ​

In therapeutics, Avacta’s most advanced programme is faridoxorubicin (AVA6000), which uses a fibroblast activation protein (FAP)‑targeted mechanism intended to release an active form of doxorubicin preferentially at tumour sites. The programme has moved into phase 1b expansion cohorts to assess efficacy in more homogeneous patient populations and help guide expectations for later‑stage studies.​

Earlier this month, the company announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance of the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its FAP-Exd programme, the first pre|CISION peptide drug conjugate based on the highly potent topoisomerase I inhibitor, exatecan.

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This week, three interviews, and five guests. We have conversations with Ulrik Tirsted Zeuthen, CEO, and Katarina Cantell, founder/CSO of Adalyon; Nisit Khandelwal, co-founder/CEO, Cycuria Therapeutics; and Craig Ritchie, founder/CEO of Scottish Brain Sciences and Deborah O’Neil, CEO/CSO of NovaBiotics as well as chair of the Life Sciences board of Opportunity Northeast, which runs ONE BioHub, and BioAberdeen.

Times:

02:38 Adalyon

32:44 Cycuria Therapeutics

53:43 Scottish Brain Sciences/One BioHub

Cycuria Therapeutics

Cycuria Therapeutics is a preclinical oncology company based in Graz, Austria, which is developing first‑in‑class protein therapeutics for hard‑to‑treat blood cancers. Its lead programme, CUR‑101, is designed to target both acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) tumour cells and the tumour stem cells thought to drive relapse, while sparing healthy blood formation.

The company combines cytokine biology with protein engineering to deliver durable efficacy alongside a better safety profile in preclinical models.

Cycuria recently announced significant public grant funding to support the translation of CUR‑101 and follow‑on assets into the clinic.

Scottish Brain Sciences

Scottish Brain Sciences runs brain health research centres that specialise in clinical trials for early detection and treatment of neurodegenerative disease, with a particular focus on Alzheimer’s.

Scottish Brain Sciences is building one of the world’s largest biobanks of genetic, blood and imaging data in neurodegenerative conditions. It has helped more than 100 people with Alzheimer’s enrol into drug trials, and is leading the IONA longitudinal cohort study to characterise very early disease changes and prevent progression to dementia.

The company recently opened a new office at ONE BioHub in Aberdeen.

One BioHub

ONE BioHub is a £40m life sciences innovation hub on Aberdeen’s Foresterhill Health Campus, created for high‑growth life science ventures in the north‑east of Scotland. The facility brings together start‑ups, spin‑outs and scaling companies with flexible labs, offices and grow‑on space, alongside commercialisation and skills programmes.

Led and co‑funded by Opportunity North East with support from the UK and Scottish governments, Scottish Enterprise and regional partners, ONE BioHub can accommodate up to 400 bio‑entrepreneurs. The aim is to accelerate research from the University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University and NHS Grampian into market‑ready solutions, diversifying the regional economy and creating life sciences jobs.

Adalyon

Adalyon develops AI‑driven speech biomarkers to serve as digital endpoints in clinical trials, helping sponsors detect treatment response earlier and manage patient engagement. Its platform analyses natural speech from voice journalling or guided conversations to extract behavioural, emotional and paralinguistic features relevant to psychiatric and neurological conditions.

The company combines AI engineering, clinical research operations and behavioural science to build tools that align with regulatory expectations for digital endpoints. Its technology is designed to automate aspects of psychometric assessment, flag dropout risk and shorten trial timelines by enabling earlier, objective insight into how patients are responding to therapy.

To get in touch, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have conversations with Cosmo Feilding Mellen, CEO of Beckley Psytech; Sirli Rosenvald, CEO of Estonian company Funki, and Per von Mentzer, CEO of Swedish company PharmNovo. We spoke with Funki at Life Sciences Baltics in Vilnius, Lithuania, recently, and with von Mentzer at NLS Days in Gothenburg.

Taking on pain

PharmNovo AB is a biotechnology company headquartered at Medicon Village in Lund, Sweden. Founded in 2008, it specialises in the development of novel treatments for neuropathic pain, a condition that affects millions of patients worldwide and remains difficult to manage.

The company’s lead candidate, PN6047, is a selective delta opioid receptor agonist. Preclinical studies have indicated analgesic effects without the tolerance and dependency risks associated with traditional opioids. PN6047 has progressed into Phase II clinical trials, marking a significant step in evaluating its safety and efficacy in patients.

PharmNovo conducts its clinical programme across European trial sites, with a focus on peripheral neuropathic pain indications such as diabetic neuropathy and post‑surgical nerve injury. Data from these studies will inform the design of later‑stage trials and determine the potential pathway toward regulatory approval.

Funki fungi

Funki is an Estonian food biotech company developing fungi‑based proteins as alternatives to meat and fish. The company combines food science with product development to create sustainable foods that replicate the taste and texture of conventional protein sources.

Its work gained international recognition as a finalist in the XPrize “Feed the Next Billion” competition, where it presented a salmon analogue made from pea protein and fungi. This project highlighted both technical capability and consumer‑oriented design.

Funki’s research and production efforts are part of a wider European movement to diversify protein supply chains and reduce the environmental impact of food systems.

Psychedelics take a leap forward

Beckley Psytech is a UK‑based biotechnology company developing psychedelic‑derived medicines for serious mental health conditions. Its lead programme, BPL‑003, is an intranasal formulation of 5‑MeO‑DMT designed for the treatment of treatment‑resistant depression (TRD). The company is also advancing ELE‑101, an intravenous psilocin candidate, for major depressive disorder and alcohol use disorder.

Clinical progress has been significant. Phase IIb trials of BPL‑003 met primary and secondary endpoints, showing rapid and durable reductions in depressive symptoms. On the back of these results, the U.S. FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy designation in October 2025, expediting the path toward phase III trials. ELE‑101 is in earlier‑stage studies, with recruitment completed for initial safety and efficacy assessments.

By targeting conditions such as TRD — where existing therapies often fail — Beckley Psytech is addressing one of the most urgent gaps in psychiatry. Its strategy combines short‑acting psychedelic compounds with controlled delivery methods, aiming to make treatments both clinically effective and practical within healthcare systems.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have conversations on data integration with Lithuanian company Vugene, and we talk protein degradation with Amphista Therapeutics.

Multi-omics

Vugene is a Lithuanian bioinformatics company focused on multi-omics data integration. Founded in 2021 by CTO Juozas Gordevičius, the company is headquartered in Kaunas.

Its core offering is a software platform designed to help researchers make sense of complex biological datasets — including transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and epigenomics — without requiring deep coding expertise.

The platform is a flexible, modular tool for academic and commercial labs that need to process high-throughput data but lack in-house bioinformatics capacity. Rather than offering a fixed pipeline, Vugene provides a semi-automated interface that allows users to upload raw data, select relevant analysis modules, and receive interpretable outputs.

The emphasis is on speed, reproducibility, and transparency.

Their early traction has come from collaborations with research groups in Europe and North America, particularly in oncology and neurodegeneration. While still early-stage, the company is positioning itself as a pragmatic alternative to both DIY bioinformatics and expensive consultancy models.

We had a conversation with Gordevičius and the company’s CEO, Gražina Mykolaitytė.

Protein degradation

Amphista Therapeutics, based in the UK, recently announced first data from its SMARCA2 degrader programme, marking significant progress in the targeted protein degradation field.

Amphista’s Targeted Glues achieved potent, selective degradation of SMARCA2 within four hours, with CNS penetration in vivo, avoiding off-target effects on the closely related SMARCA4 protein, a key challenge in the field.

Building on SMARCA2 data, Amphista also unveiled its TEAD oncology programme, introducing a novel mechanism of action via F-Box Protein 22, distinct from cereblon- or VHL-based PROTACs. This marks the company’s second new MOA this year, reinforcing its leadership in the TPD space and expanding on the BRD9 MOA announced in 2024. Amphista has made significant progress across its pipeline.

Their chemistry doesn’t depend on known ligase recruitment, which opens up targets that are inaccessible to conventional TPD platforms.

This week, our guest is Louise Modis, chief scientific officer of Amphista.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have one interview, covering enzymes and AI with Biomatter Designs, from our visit to Life Sciences Baltics in Vilnius, Lithuania recently. And from the trip to Dublin in Ireland we talked about technology that can be useful in neurological condition diagnosis, and much more, with Danu Sports.

Enzymes and AI

Biomatter Designs is a Lithuania‑based biotech working at the frontier of protein design. Since its launch in 2018, the company has concentrated on building tools that use artificial intelligence to generate new enzymes and proteins from the ground up.

The idea is to move beyond tweaking what nature already provides and instead create molecules with tailor‑made properties for medicine and industry.

Its Intelligent Architecture platform is designed to cut through the slow, trial‑and‑error cycles that usually dominate protein engineering. By training generative models on structural and functional data, Biomatter aims to give researchers a way to specify what they need—a catalyst, a therapeutic, a material—and have the system propose viable candidates that can be tested in the lab.

We had a conversation with the company’s CEO, Laurynas Karpus.

Learning through gait

Founded in 2017, Danu Sports develops wearable technology designed to help athletes train smarter and reduce injuries.

The company’s flagship product is a “smart sock” system that uses embedded sensors to capture gait and movement data in real time. Coaches, physiotherapists, and athletes can use the analytics platform to monitor performance, identify risks, and support rehabilitation.

Backed by venture funding and based in Dublin, Danu Sports is part of a new wave of sports‑tech companies blending biomechanics, data science, and everyday usability to make high‑level performance insights available outside the lab.

In September 2025, the company announced a partnership with Hoka at the Ultra‑Trail du Mont Blanc, showcasing its smart sock technology with elite athletes, while also expanding into medical applications.

Our conversation is with Oisín Lennon, CEO of DANU Sports.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have three interviews done during Life Sciences Baltics, which was held in Vilnius, Lithuania recently.

While we have more still to come, this week on the podcast we have conversations with Justinas Mačiulaitis, Keli Therapeutics’ founder and CEO; Arnas Karužas, CEO of Ligence; and Emilė Radytė, CEO and co-founder of Samphire Neuroscience.

Ligence

Ligence is a health‑tech startup using artificial intelligence to automate echocardiography.

Founded in 2019 by a team of medical doctors and engineers, the company’s flagship product, Ligence Heart, applies deep learning to 2D ultrasound images, automatically recognising views and performing cardiac measurements. This reduces the manual workload for clinicians and improves diagnostic consistency in heart disease monitoring.

Headquartered in Vilnius, Ligence has raised seed funding from European investors including Simpact VC and the EIC Fund, and is working to expand its AI‑driven cardiac diagnostics platform into hospitals and clinics across Europe.

Samphire Neuroscience

Samphire Neuroscience is a femtech and digital health company developing non‑invasive neurotechnology to support women’s health.

Founded in 2021, the company’s first product is a wearable headband, Nettle, that uses gentle electrical neuromodulation to alleviate symptoms associated with the menstrual cycle, such as pain, fatigue, and mood changes.

With offices in Vilnius and London, Samphire has attracted international venture backing and accelerator support, positioning itself at the intersection of neuroscience, wearables, and women’s health innovation. Its mission is to provide accessible, science‑based tools that improve quality of life for women worldwide.

Keli Therapeutics

Keli Therapeutics is advancing next‑generation cell therapies for acute and chronic inflammatory conditions.

Its lead candidate, KELI‑101, is designed to prevent acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac bypass surgery — a complication that often progresses to chronic kidney disease. In September 2025, Keli announced a strategic manufacturing partnership with Bramble Bio to scale production of KELI‑101, pairing its activated perinatal‑origin mesenchymal stromal cells with Bramble’s cGMP expertise.

Earlier this year, the company also secured a €2.5m European Innovation Council grant to launch clinical trials in AKI. With a platform up to 20 times more potent than standard MSCs, Keli is positioning itself as a leader in regenerative medicine with broad potential across inflammatory and degenerative diseases.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have two interviews again. We talk about treating high blood pressure with CEO of George Medicines, Mark Mallon, and have a conversation with Jack Hoppin, CEO of Ratio Therapeutics, and John Babich, CSO, about the field of radiotherapeutics.

Blood pressure

Nearly half of US adults have high blood pressure and despite all the treatments already available, three in four remain uncontrolled. This is often because the traditional stepwise treatment approach stalls before reaching target blood pressure.

George Medicines believes its solution could help millions of patients achieve better outcomes, faster.

The company has developed the first and only triple combination pill for the initial treatment of high blood pressure. It’s available in unique low dose options, offering the power of combination therapy, with good tolerability, in a single pill — a paradigm shift in hypertension care. This drug is the first to be approved for use right at the start of treatment.

The company is a spinout from the George Institute for Global Health in Australia.

Radiopharmaceuticals

Radiopharmaceuticals sit at the intersection of nuclear medicine and precision therapy, offering a way to deliver radiation directly to tumours while sparing healthy tissue.

The next wave of oncology innovation is changing how we think about cancer therapy, but it comes with unique challenges—from isotope supply and manufacturing logistics to regulatory navigation and the race to harness rare isotopes like actinium-225.

Jack Hoppin, CEO of Ratio Therapeutics, and John Babich, CSO, are leaders in this space, and they are our guests on the podcast today. Their company is developing next-generation radiopharmaceuticals using proprietary platforms (Trillium and Macropa) designed to enhance tumour targeting and drug design.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have two interviews. We chat with Step Pharma CEO, Andy Parker, and also have a conversation with Re-Vana CEO, Michael O’Rourke.

Ocular therapeutics

Re-Vana Therapeutics and Boehringer Ingelheim recently announced a $1bn+ deal to develop long-acting ophthalmic therapies.

Re-Vana Therapeutics is a privately held, US and UK based developer of ocular therapeutics and innovative ocular drug delivery technologies which spun out of Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Terms of the deal include up to three development programmes per year leading to a potential total deal value exceeding $1bn contingent on milestone achievements. The agreement grants Boehringer Ingelheim target exclusivity, and provide for upfront, development, regulatory and commercial milestone payments to Re-Vana.

Re-Vana’s drug delivery technology is designed to release slowly over six to 12 months, aiming to drastically reduce injection frequency.

Lowering the treatment burden could lead to higher treatment compliance and potentially result in better therapeutic outcomes.

Re-Vana’s is developing internal assets - a six-month sustained release aflibercept and a six-month bispecific – both photo-crosslinked, bio erodible and delivered in the clinic with no surgery.

Step Pharma takes on CTPS1

Step Pharma is taking a smart and focused approach to tackling cancers and blood disorders by targeting an enzyme called CTPS1, which plays a key role in how cells produce the building blocks of DNA and RNA.

The idea is simple but powerful: Cancer cells and certain immune cells rely heavily on CTPS1 to grow and survive. By selectively blocking this enzyme, Step’s lead candidate, dencatistat, deprives malignant cells of the raw materials they need to divide, while healthy cells are largely unaffected because they can fall back on a related enzyme called CTPS2. This selectivity is what makes the approach potentially safer and more effective than broader chemotherapy.

They have been moving quickly, expanding beyond blood cancers into solid tumours and a rare condition called essential thrombocythaemia, which causes overproduction of platelets.

We spoke with the company’s CEO, Andy Parker, about the work the company is doing.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have two interviews: one to mark Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, on osteosarcoma with Paul Romness from OS Therapies; and IMUNON’s CEO, Stacy Lindborg, talking about ovarian cancer, immunotherapy, covid, and more.

Interview times:

02:33 OS Therapies

23:03 IMUNON

Challenging osteosarcoma

OS Therapies is a clinical stage oncology company focused on the identification, development, and commercialisation of treatments for osteosarcoma (OS) and other solid tumours. OST-HER2, the company's lead asset, is an immunotherapy leveraging the immune-stimulatory effects of Listeria bacteria to initiate a strong immune response targeting the HER2 protein.

OST-HER2 has received Rare Pediatric Disease Designation (RPDD) from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and Fast-Track and Orphan Drug designations from the U.S. FDA and European Medicines Agency.

The company reported positive data in its phase 2b clinical trial of OST-HER2 in recurrent, fully resected, lung metastatic osteosarcoma, demonstrating statistically significant benefit in the 12-month event free survival (EFS) primary endpoint of the study.

Ovarian cancer, immunotherapy and more

IMUNON has two DNA-based technology platforms: TheraPlas and PlaCCine. They are designed to use DNA as a therapeutic to code for proteins, which the body can then use to produce medicine where needed.

TheraPlas is designed to harness interleukin-12 (IL-12), a powerful cytokine and well-validated target for cancer immunotherapy, to teach the body’s immune system to fight cancer at the tumour site.

PlaCCine is designed to prompt the body’s immune system to create a vaccine response against infectious diseases such as COVID-19 without needing a virus or device to deliver it.

IMUNON recently announced positive phase 2 data of its IL-12 immunotherapy (IMNN-001) based on TheraPlas technology in advanced ovarian cancer and is currently initiating a phase 3 trial.

Recent phase 1 data of its DNA-based vaccine (IMNN-101) leveraging PlaCCine technology in treatment of COVID-19 indicate that it may be a viable alternative to mRNA vaccines and able to target the Omicron variant as well as any emerging variants in the future, while offering advantages in terms of manufacturing and storage.

We spoke with IMUNON’s CEO, Stacy Lindborg, about the work the company is doing.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com

This week, we have three interviews to mark Stand Up To Cancer Day. We have conversations with Simon Kerry, co-founder and CEO of Curve Therapeutics; Poolbeg Pharma CEO Jeremy Skillington; and Stefano Gulla, CSO of Kling Biotherapeutics.

Interview times:

03:12 Curve Therapeutics

21:32 Kling Bio

37:10 Poolbeg Pharma

Microcycles to address cancer

Curve Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company using its gene-encoded Microcycle discovery platform to build a pipeline of innovative cyclic peptide and small molecule drugs to address high priority intracellular disease targets, with an initial focus on cancer, immunology, and inflammation.

Addressing cancer treatment side effects

Poolbeg Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focussed on the development of innovative medicines to address unmet medical needs.

The company's clinical programmes target large addressable markets including, cancer immunotherapy-induced cytokine release syndrome and metabolic conditions such as obesity with the development of an oral encapsulated glucagon-like peptide GLP-1R agonist.

The role of B-cells in beating cancer

Kling Biotherapeutics is a biotech company developing antibody-based drugs for cancer and infectious diseases.

Through its proprietary primary B-cell platform technologies, the company combines high-efficiency B-cell immortalization with functional, antibody-first screening to uncover novel antibody–antigen pairs.

To get in touch with guest suggestions, or to sponsor or advertise on the podcast, please email jim@deeptechdigest.com