Touching Base
Episodes
Bacteria 4D Simulation, Safer Large Gene Insertion, uniQure Roller Coaster
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A new study from the J. Craig Venter Institute simulates the complete life cycle of a minimal bacterial cell in 4D space and time at nanoscale resolut...
AI for Scientists, FDA Reverses Course, and Advances in Cancer Therapeutics
27 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the industry news section of this week’s episode, we kick things off with Tamarind Bio’s efforts to develop user-friendly artificial intelligen...
Women in Science, Robotics, Automation, SLAS, and Lilly Updates
13 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Women in Science Day (February 11) was the top of the list for discussion for GEN editors in this week’s podcast. They shared an anecdote on the his...
Ex-CEO Behind Bars, 10x’s Clinical Ambitions, and Pharma’s AI Gambit
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We kick off the very first episode of 2026 with a major legal development. This week, the former CEO of CytoDyn was sentenced to 30 months in prison, ...
Editors’ Choice: Top Stories of 2025
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of 2025, the GEN team came together to reflect on some of the stories over the last year that they each found impactful. Some of ...
Lung Organoids, Autism and Sarcopenia Insights in Mice, and a Bidding War Ends
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Stories on lung organoids and autism were some of the most read this week. We kicked things off by digging into recent breakthroughs in both areas inc...
New Nasal Vaccines, Korro Stock Dips, J&J and Merck Acquisitions, and Dyno GATC
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nasal vaccines show new promise for human papillomavirus (HPV) to address cervical cancer and whooping cough. In business news, Korro's stock craters ...
uniQure Staggers at FDA, Recursion's Microglia Map, and Leadership Transitions
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
uniQure's “game changing” data announced in September, which showed significant slowing of Huntington’s disease (HD) progression in patients tre...
Artificial Intelligence in the Emerald City and Targeting Colon Cancer Stem Cells
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We are gearing up for our annual AI in Drug Discovery summit in a few days. So, for this episode, we focused on some recent AI news coverage. First, G...
Nobel Prizes Announced and Breakthroughs for Huntington’s and Rare Diseases
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Metal-organic frameworks and peripheral immune tolerance were the big winners of the Nobel prizes in chemistry, and in physiology or medicine, respect...
BPI 2025 Debrief and Takeaways
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
GEN has been at the forefront of biotech and bioprocessing news for over 40 years. Last week, editor in chief, John Sterling and deputy editor in chie...
Developing New Therapies Through Partnership, Electricity, and Immunotherapy
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Novartis has agreed to license and develop Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals’ preclinical stage small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapy ARO-SNCA, a potential ...
Stem Cells in Space and AI for Nanoparticles and Peptide Design
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s episode explores two frontiers: space travel and artificial intelligence. First, we discuss a study testing whether mouse sperm cryopres...
Reversing Parkinson’s in Mice, Protecting Primates from HIV, Top 10 Biotech Clusters, and Sarepta
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of GEN's Touching Base spotlights the unexpected relationship between breathing low oxygen and restoration of neuron function in a m...
Sarepta Under Scrutiny, AstraZeneca’s Big Bet, and AI vs. IDRs
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sarepta has temporarily paused shipments of Elevidys, its FDA-approved treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In this episode of GEN's Touching Ba...
Merck Acquires Verona, Virtual Cell Challenge, Gene Therapy Restores Hearing
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Merck & Co. has acquired Verona Pharma for $10 billion in a deal designed to expand the pharma giant’s portfolio of cardio-pulmonary disease tre...
BIO 2025, Huge Virtual Cell Dataset, AI-Designed De Novo Proteins
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
AcastBIO 2025, Huge Virtual Cell Dataset, AI-Designed De Novo ProteinsBIO 2025 is off and running. GEN editors discuss the size and scope of the bustl...
Rocket’s Gene Therapy Trial Paused, Boltz-2 Open Source, Plasma Swap Rewinds Aging
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A gene therapy clinical trial for Danon disease run by Rocket Pharmaceuticals has been suspended following the death of a patient. MIT and Recursion h...
Customized CRISPR for KJ, 10x and Illumina Lawsuits, Regeneron Bags 23andMe
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A baby, named KJ, has become the first patient to be treated with a personalized CRISPR therapy to address a severe metabolic disorder. We discus...
Insights into COVID-19’s Origins, Recursion Reverses Course, and AACR Stands Up for Cancer Research
09 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The exact origins of SARS-CoV-2 are still something of a mystery, but new research may bring scientists one step closer to an explanation for how the ...
Navigating Biotech’s New Normal, Applying AI to Cas9 Enzymes, and Sequencing Generations
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The seismic changes made by the current administration in the United States continue to impact the scientific community. The business news segment of ...
Discussing De-Extinction, Trump’s Tariffs Touch Biopharma, and Reports from Recent Travels
11 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are Dire Wolves really back? We give our take on Colossal Biosciences’ latest announcement about the de-extinction of Dire Wolves including some tho...
Dravet Gene Therapy Tested in Mice, Sarepta’s Setback, and AstraZeneca Updates
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gene therapies take center stage in this week’s episode. We discuss a potential gene replacement therapy for people with Dravet Syndrome that scient...
Genetic Engineering at Asilomar, Stand Up for Science, and Francis Collins
14 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
GEN editors discuss both the news and history of DNA and genetic engineering. We present a recap of the 50th anniversary Asilomar conference, delving ...
AI Models Writing DNA and Designing Enzymes, Some Pre-AGBT News
28 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In honor of Rare Disease Day, we discuss news from Healx, a clinical-stage biotech, which has dosed the first patient in a Phase II trial of its new d...
Recursion Clinical Trial, CRISPR Delivery methods, preclinical Cas12 use, Gene Editing in AgBio, Top 10 Takeover Targets
14 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Season 2 Episode 1 (February 14, 2025): This week, the GEN editors discussed some interesting and developing stories around AI, including an in depth ...
DNA Day: Deep Dive
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 19 (April 26, 2024): This week, the GEN editors celebrated DNA Day by sharing some stories about their favorite observations and applications ...
How Biotechs Are Plugging AI into Drug Discovery Problems
19 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 18 (April 19, 2024): Biology’s exploding data streams continue to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools to stre...
Launch of Nvelop Therapeutics for Delivery of Genetic Cargo, AACR Recap
12 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 17 (April 12, 2024): This week, the GEN editors discuss the launch of Nvelop Therapeutics, a new start-up leveraging ap...
Dried Blood COVID Dx, Cryo-Shocked Tumor Cell Delivery Vehicles, Verve Halts Trial, Iambic Starts Trial, and Diagonal Therapeutics Launches
05 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 16 (April 5, 2024): This week, the GEN editors discussed deep proteome profiling of home-sampled dried blood spots to assess the effects of SA...
AI in Drug Discovery and Precision Medicine: Nvidia GTC and Precision Med TRI-CON
29 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 15 (March 29, 2024): From the expansion of Nvidia's generative artificial intelligence (AI) platform for drug discovery to AI notetakers ...
Optimizing Nanoparticles and Messenger RNAs with Multiple “Tails”
22 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 14 (March 22, 2024): This week, the GEN editors cover identifying receptors and proteins for cellular uptake and intracellular processing...
NanoString Finds a Buyer, Slide Tags Enter in Early Access as Curio Trekker, Cellares Unveils Cell Therapy Manufacturing Platform
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 13 (March 15, 2024): This week, the GEN editors discussed business news from NanoString, Curio, and Cellares. Featuring Alex Philip...
International Women’s Day, Nanoparticles and Delivery, Novo Nordisk’s Expansion, and Organoids for Congenital Conditions
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 12 (March 8, 2024): Featuring Julianna LeMieux (Deputy Editor-in-Chief, GEN), Uduak Thomas (Senior Editor, GEN), and Alex Philippidis (Senior ...
Moderna Gets Back to Its Roots, Form Bio and Ginkgo Bioworks Team Up, and Under-the-Radar Rare Autoimmune Diseases
01 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 11 (March 1, 2024): After being diverted by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to develop and manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, Moderna gets back to advanci...
Prime Editing for Isogenic iPSCs, PRINT, Universal In Vivo CAR T Editing, Biogen Q4 Results Disappoint; Andrea Choe
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 10 (February 23, 2024): Researchers from Francis Collins’ lab developed an efficient CRISPR prime editing protocol to generate isogenic-indu...
CRISPRed Pigs, Exscientia Fires CEO, & AGBT Roundup; Christian Henry
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 9 (February 16, 2024): Using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, British animal genetics firm Genus has generated a population of pigs that are resistant ...
Intellia and Ultragenyx’s Clinical Updates, Novo Holdings’ Catalent Acquisition, and NanoString Bankruptcy; Simon Barnett
09 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 8 (February 9th, 2024): Intellia and Ultragenyx gave updates on their clinical trials for gene therapies for inherited rare diseases. Novo Hol...
Genome Interpretation, Nanoparticles, Gene Therapy, 2024 IPOs; Nautilus Biotechnology
02 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 7 (February 2, 2024): Simplify Genomics launches genome interpretation platform, COUR’s nanoparticles for autoimmunity, gene replacement the...
Restoring Hearing Loss, CAR T Manufacturing, DNA-Based Medicines, Nvidia and Recursion; Eric Topol
26 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 6 (January 26, 2024): 11-year-old regains hearing after gene therapy; Kyverna uses blood draw instead of apheresis for CAR T manufacturin...
Alzheimer’s Disease, Monkey Cloning, Cytokinetics Stock; Jen Nwankwo
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 5 (January 19, 2024); RNAs to address Alzheimer’s disease; monkey cloned via somatic cell nuclear transfer; Cytokinetics stock roller coaste...
J.P. Morgan 2024: Illumina, 10x, Danaher, AI; Liberate Bio
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 4 (January 12, 2024): Takeaways from the J.P. Morgan Health Care conference: Illumina, Danaher, 10x, Empress Therapeutics; an interview with L...
Novartis and Voyager, JPM Ahead, Epigenetic Engineering; Alex Aravanis
05 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 3 (January 5, 2024): Interview with Co-founder and CEO of Moonwalk Biosciences and former CTO of Illumina, Alex Aravanis; Neuro gene therapy w...
Launch of Tome Biosciences, AI scientist, mRNA vaccines
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 2 (December 22, 2023): Interview with President and CEO of Tome Biosciences, Rahul Kakkar; intelligent lab partner using LLMs; AI for antimicr...
Autism, AI and Epigenetics; Nevan Krogan
08 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 1 (Week ending December 8, 2023): Nevan Krogan (UCSF) mapping autism pathways; Nvidia’s latest AI partnership; CAR-T regulations; epigenome ...