EP 178: Expanding the human proteome to facilitate drug discovery with John Lepore of ProFound Therapeutics

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. John Lepore, physician-scientist and CEO of ProFound Therapeutics. They discuss ProFound Tx’s mission to expand the proteome to identify novel drug targets – which resulted in the ProFoundry atlas – and the ways in which John’s diverse experiences inform his approach as a leader.

Show Notes: 

0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast

00:59 Welcome to John

02:01 John’s background at GSK and his transition to drug discovery

05:45 Establishing ProFound Therapeutics to expand the proteome and identify novel drug targets 

08:27 Genomic origins of newly-identified proteins and the process of finding them

09:49 Developing the ProFoundry atlas and integrating data across assays 

15:27 Different approaches to inferring protein links and association to disease

17:13 Collaboration with Pfizer to find regulators in the context of obesity

18:04 Developing novel antibody-drug conjugates for cancer treatment

20:27 Clarifying causality in proteomic data

21:59 Approaching novel targets while considering industrial and business factors

25:19 John’s background as a cardiologist and how that impacts his current work

27:26 Tips for biotech companies looking to be noticed by pharma for collaborations

30:30 Considerations for investigating new and different therapeutic modalities and techniques

33:39 How John consistently reinforces the translational angle as a business leader

36:24 Closing remarks and future direction for ProFound Therapeutics

Find out more

• ProFound Therapeutics (https://www.profoundtx.com/)

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