Cell & Gene: The Podcast

Building Safer CRISPR Medicines for CVD with Scribe Therapeutics' Benjamin Oakes

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message.In episode 121 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Scribe Therapeutics' CEO and Co-Founder Benjamin Oakes about building next‑generation CRISPR and epigenetic editing tools to move genetic medicine beyond rare disease into common cardiometabolic indications. Oakes shares Scribe’s engineered CasX platform and epigenetic silencers, preclinical data from its various programs, and why exquisite specificity and low-dose LNP delivery are essential to treating patients safely. They also explore Scribe’s partnerships with Sanofi and Lilly, the company’s cardiometabolic-first strategy co-developed with Dr. Jennifer Doudna, and Oakes’ conviction that genetic medicines can fundamentally reshape healthspan and the future of preventive cardiovascular care.Subscribe to the podcast!Apple | Spotify | YouTube Visit my website: Cell & Gene Connect with me on LinkedIn

Advancing Off-the-Shelf CRISPR CAR-T Therapies into the Community Setting with Caribou Biosciences' Rachel Haurwitz

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message.Welcome to episode 120 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast. Host Erin Harris is joined by Rachel Haurwitz, CEO of Caribou Biosciences, to discuss the company’s progress in developing CRISPR-edited, off-the-shelf CAR-T therapies for hematologic malignancies. Their conversation centers on Vispacell, Caribou’s allogeneic CD19 CAR-T for second-line large B-cell lymphoma. Haurwitz explains how Caribou has systematically optimized its allogeneic platform using clinical and translational data. They also cover pivotal Phase 3 trial planning, regulatory considerations, and what to expect next from Caribou’s broader pipeline, including its BCMA-targeted program in multiple myeloma.Subscribe to the podcast!Apple | Spotify | YouTube Visit my website: Cell & Gene Connect with me on LinkedIn

The Editors' Roundtable: A 2025 Retrospective of the Life Science Industry

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message.We’re sharing this Better Biopharma episode on Cell & Gene: The Podcast because Better Biopharma is a sister show in the Life Science Connect family, and this conversation touches so many of the same challenges, pressures, and big-picture shifts our audience is thinking about right now. CGT doesn’t live in a bubble, and neither do the people building it. So we wanted to bring this wider, cross-industry conversation straight to you.Subscribe to the podcast!Apple | Spotify | YouTube Visit my website: Cell & Gene Connect with me on LinkedIn

Developing Itvisma for Broad-Range Treatment of SMA with Novartis' Dr. Norman Putzki

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message.In episode 119 of Cell & Gene The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Dr. Norman Putzki, Global Head Clinical Development, Novartis, about the FDA approval of Itvisma, now the only gene replacement therapy approved for children, adolescents, and adults with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Dr. Putzki walks us through the six-year development journey behind the STEER and STRENGTH Phase 3 programs. And we explore what the expanded age-range label means for patients who were previously left behind, why intrathecal, fixed-dose AAV delivery represents a pivotal advance for safety, efficacy, and scalability. He details how the Itvisma program is informing Novartis’ broader gene therapy strategy across neuromuscular and CNS diseases, and more.Subscribe to the podcast!Apple | Spotify | YouTube Visit my website: Cell & Gene Connect with me on LinkedIn

Turning the Tumor Microenvironment Against Cancer with MGB's Alexander Cryer, Ph.D.

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message.In Episode 118, Host Erin Harris talks to Alexander Cryer, Ph.D., Instructor in Medicine at Mass General Brigham, about a proof of concept strategy that reprograms tumor cells with mRNA lipid nanoparticles to overactivate the cGAS-STING pathway, forcing cancer cells to produce and export large amounts of the innate immune agonist cGAMP to stimulate surrounding immune cells and drive anti-tumor immunity. Dr. Cryer explains the basic biology of cGAS-STING and how his team restored this pathway in tumor cells and leveraged intratumoral LNP delivery to overcome nucleic acid delivery and targeting challenges. He also discusses future directions, the need to move beyond intratumoral administration with more targeted systemic delivery, and the broader concept of turning the tumor’s own abundant cell population and evolutionarily conserved innate immune pathways into therapeutic allies rather than obstacles.Subscribe to the podcast!Apple | Spotify | YouTube Visit my website: Cell & Gene Connect with me on LinkedIn