EP 254: Triangulating genetic evidence and dodging bias to pick winning drug targets with Brent Richards of 5 Prime Sciences

Om avsnittet

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Brent Richards, CEO and Founder of 5 Prime Sciences and Professor of Human Genetics, Epidemiology, and Medicine at McGill University. They discuss how to triangulate different types of genetic evidence to validate a drug target, why herd psychology often drives which targets get funded, why strong genetic support didn't save the Zeus IL-6 trial, and how collider bias can distort genetically stratified clinical trials.

Show Notes

0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast

00:59 Welcome to Brent

01:43 How company size shapes access to genetic drug discovery tools

04:10 Brent's framework for triangulating different types of genetic evidence

06:50 The herd psychology behind which drug targets get funded

10:01 Potential reasons the Zeus IL-6 trial failed despite strong genetic evidence

12:49 What a gold standard genetic evidence package actually looks like

17:13 Closing the data gap with diverse genomes and systematic pipelines

19:03 The diabetes patient story that drove Brent into drug development and balancing academia with industry

25:39 Why obesity went from a drug development graveyard to its biggest frontier

29:13 How collider bias can distort genetic risk trial results

38:20 Where to go deeper on advanced genetic drug discovery concepts

40:11 Closing remarks

Find out more:

5PrimeSciences’ symposium on human genetics at ASHG2026 in October

Om avsnittet

Fler avsnitt

EP 257: Managing hereditary cancer risk and medical uncertainty with Marleah Dean Kruzel of the University of South Florida

EP 256: Cutting through the AI hype in drug discovery with Dave Hallett of Recursion

EP 255: Turning long-read sequencing into a routine part of clinical care with Danny Miller of the University of Washington

EP 253: The genetics of brain size, growth, and aging with Andrew Jackson of the University of Edinburgh

EP 252: The diagnosis that became a mission to cure rare disease: Advancing genetic medicine using AI with Stevie Ringel of Nome

EP 251: Cracking the delivery barrier in genetic medicine with Jagesh Shah of Mirai Bio

EP 250: Redefining rare disease realities with Sharon Terry of the Genetic Alliance [Re-run]

EP 249: Building the world's most detailed genetic map of inflammatory bowel disease with Carl Anderson of the Wellcome Sanger Institute

EP 248: The blood mutations rewriting cardiovascular risk: Clonal hematopoiesis and polygenic risk with Pradeep Natarajan of Massachusetts General Hospital

EP 247: Why neurons accumulate mutations like clockwork: Somatic mosaicism and neurodegeneration with Christopher Walsh of Boston Children's Hospital