Careers in Discovery

From the moment he walked out of a cinema showing Jurassic Park aged 10, Samir Ounzain knew he wanted to work with DNA. That early obsession turned into a career dedicated to understanding the 98% of our genome that doesn’t code for proteins - what’s often referred to as the “dark genome.”

In this episode, Samir shares the personal and scientific journey that led to founding HAYA Therapeutics, a Biotech trailblazing an entirely new...

When it comes to brain health, few people have dedicated more of their career to pushing the field forward than Rafal Kaminski, Chief Scientific Officer at Angelini Pharma.

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Rafal shares the journey that’s taken him from medical school in Poland to leading R&D efforts across UCB, Roche, and now Angelini. Along the way, we explore his deep commitment to neuroscience, the lessons of buildin...

This week on Careers in Discovery, we’re joined by Martin Brenner, CEO and CSO of iBio and one of Biotech’s most experienced R&D leaders.

Martin shares his journey from pharmacologist to global R&D executive, with leadership roles at Pfenex, Recursion, AstraZeneca, and Stoke Therapeutics. Now at iBio, he leads a company developing gene therapies for rare diseases - while applying lessons from decades of drug development to ...

This week on Careers in Discovery, we’re joined by Erica Barnell, Chief Medical Officer and Co-founder of Geneoscopy.

Erica shares how Geneoscopy is transforming gastrointestinal health with a platform that uses RNA biomarkers from stool samples to diagnose, monitor, and help prevent colorectal cancer and other GI diseases. She talks about the inspiration behind the company, building a patient-friendly alternative to colonoscopy, a...

This week’s guest on Careers in Discovery is Michael Lutz, CEO of Iota Sciences and Osteolabs.

Michael leads two innovative companies - one pioneering single-cell and stem cell handling technologies, the other developing early diagnostics for osteoporosis and bone metastasis. He shares his journey from chemist to Biotech entrepreneur, what he learns building capital-efficient businesses, and why staying close to the science keeps l...

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, we're joined by Paulo Fontoura, Chief Medical Officer at Xaira Therapeutics.

Paulo shares his journey from neurology and academia into big pharma and now Biotech, reflecting on what he learns along the way. He talks about Xaira’s bold mission to use AI not just to speed up drug development, but to rethink how we do it entirely - overcoming human limitations in how we explore biology.

We also...

This week on Careers in Discovery, we're joined by Tim Sparey, Executive Chair at Tay Therapeutics and Non-Executive Chair at Concr.

Tim shares his journey from early days as a medicinal chemist at Merck to a career spanning business development, CEO roles, and now chairing multiple early-stage Biotech companies. He talks about the shift from operator to portfolio leader, how he evaluates new opportunities, and why capital efficien...

Ashley Zehnder is the CEO & Co-founder of Fauna Bio, a company that uses comparative genomics and evolutionary biology to identify novel drug targets by studying how other species resist and recover from disease.

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Ashley shares her journey from exotic animal vet to cancer biology PhD, and how that unique background leads her to explore biology through a completely different lens. She talk...

Søren Melsing is the CEO of EXOCURE, a company harnessing the therapeutic and delivery potential of exosomes across oncology, inflammation, and beyond.

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Søren shares his journey from chemical engineer to Biotech CEO, including leadership roles in R&D, commercial strategy, and company-building across Europe. He talks about learning by doing, transitioning from large pharma to start-up envi...

This week on Careers in Discovery, we’re joined by Remi-Martin Laberge, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Arda Therapeutics.

Remi shares his journey from academic research to building companies, the lessons he learned at Unity Biotechnology, and how Arda is using single-cell sequencing and targeted antibodies to eliminate disease-driving cells in chronic conditions.

We talked about the leap from scientist to founder, apply...

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, we’re joined by Markus Gruell, Senior Vice President of Corporate Quality at Autolus, one of the UK’s leading CAR-T therapy pioneers.

Markus takes us behind the scenes of Autolus’ journey from a UCL spinout to a commercial-stage Biopharma company, offering a rare look at how quality underpins every part of the drug development lifecycle. From working across GMP and GCP to collaborating with ...

Our guest this week, Lara Campana is SVP of Research & Translational Science and a co-founder of Resolution Therapeutics, a company developing regenerative macrophage therapies for inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Lara shares her journey from medical Biotechnology student in Milan to Biotech executive in the UK, and why she’s been fascinated by macrophages ever since a single line in...

After nearly two decades at GSK, Pascal Lestrate took a leap into Biotech, joining Vicebio as Chief Preclinical Science Officer. In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Pascal shares how the shift from big pharma to early-stage Biotech gave him a chance to return to hands-on science - and start with a blank page.

We explore the pioneering work Vicebio is doing on multi-pathogen respiratory vaccines using molecular clamp technology...

From New Delhi to Kentucky to Biotech founder, Lalit Sharma’s journey into drug discovery has been one of relentless learning and ambition.

In this episode, Lalit shares how his love for chemistry led him from a PhD in organic synthesis to leading cutting-edge drug discovery programs that reached clinical trials. Now the founder and CEO of a stealth-mode company tackling the data gap in AI-driven drug design, he reflects on the les...

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, we’re joined by Jelena Aleksic, a serial entrepreneur, business coach, and director at SparkBio.

Jelena shares her fascinating journey from genetics researcher to founder and start-up builder, including the lessons she learned from creating seven businesses across life sciences, tech, and even live entertainment. She opens up about her transition from academia to entrepreneurship, the import...

After nearly two decades in big pharma, Lars van der Veen made the leap to entrepreneurship, co-founding iOnctura, a clinical-stage Biotech developing low-disruption therapies that target the tumour-stroma crosstalk to improve patient outcomes in cancer.

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Lars shares his journey from medicinal chemist to Biotech CSO, the lessons he learned building a company from scratch, and why taking the l...

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Emma is joined by Juozas Gordevicius, founder of VUGENE, a bioinformatics company making complex multi-omics data analysis accessible to scientists across academia and industry.

Juozas joined us to talk about his unconventional journey from computer science into the world of life sciences, how a chance meeting with an epigenetics professor changed his career path, and the story behind foundi...

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, we’re joined by Mirko Buchholz, Co-founder and Managing Director at PerioTrap Pharmaceuticals, a Biotech company on a mission to revolutionize oral health by tackling one of the most widespread and underestimated diseases in the world - periodontitis.

Mirko shares how a passion for chemistry and biology sparked his journey into drug discovery, and how his training in pharmacy gave him the un...

In this episode of Careers in Discovery, Tom meets with Annelise Vuidepot, Chief Technology Officer and UK Site Head at Immunocore, one of the UK’s most successful Biotech companies.

Annelise was there on day one in 2000, when Immunocore spun out from Oxford University, and she’s been at the heart of the company’s pioneering work in T-cell receptor-based therapies ever since. She shares her story of building a new technology from s...