Ep. 16: Cancer’s Achilles’ Heel? Onchilles Advancing Novel Immunotherapy to Clinical Trials
In this episode, VibeCast host Ray Dogum speaks with Court R. Turner, J.D., and Lev Becker, Ph.D., Co-Founders of Onchilles Pharma, about their novel immunotherapy, Lev's discovery of neutrophil's ELANE pathway in cancer, and biotech funding challenges/opportunities.
Guest Bio: Mr. Court Turner is cofounder and Executive Chair of Onchilles and a partner of LYZZ Capital. Mr. Turner has more than 20 years of experience in founding, operating, fundraising for, and exiting life science companies. Before joining Onchilles, Mr. Turner was a venture partner at Avalon Ventures. During his time at Avalon, he served as the founding CEO and director of both Synthorx, Inc. (acquired by Sanofi) and Cellular Approaches, Inc. Prior to those roles, Mr. Turner was the founding chairman and CEO of RQx Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Genentech). Before RQx Pharmaceuticals, he served as a member of the executive management teams at both Kalypsys, Inc. and Aurora Biosciences (acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals). Mr. Turner received his J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law and a B.S. in psychology from San Diego State University. Dr. Lev Becker is cofounder and serves as a member of the board at Onchilles. He is also an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago in the Ben May Department for Cancer Research. Dr. Becker’s lab combines proteomic, bioinformatic, immunologic, and functional approaches to study innate immune cells in an unbiased manner across a spectrum of diseases and develops therapeutics to target them. His work has been published in prestigious scientific journals including Cell and Nature. Dr. Becker has received several awards for his research, including: the Duckworth Fund Commercial Promise, J Clifford Moos, and Janet Rowley Discovery Fund awards from the University of Chicago, and the Young Investigator and Fletcher Scholar awards from the Cancer Research Foundation. His lab is currently funded by the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases, and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from Queens University and completed his postdoctoral studies in proteomics and macrophages at the University of Washington. Guest Links: Onchilles Pharma Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onch... Twitter: https://twitter.com/onchilles Court R. Turner, J.D. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/court-r-t... Lev Becker, Ph.D. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/levbecker1/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/LevBecker Follow Vibe Bio's Socials: https://twitter.com/VibeBiohttps://www.linkedin.com/company/vibe...https://www.instagram.com/vibebiotech...https://www.tiktok.com/@vibebiohttps://www.facebook.com/VibeBiotechn... About VibeCast VibeCast is our weekly informational podcast and content series exploring the hottest topics in drug development and Web3 with some of the dynamic people that make up the Vibe community. VibeCast is a collection of long-form and short-form video content intended to help our community learn about the current opportunities and challenges in biotech fundraising and community engagement innovation. Guests will include biotech founders, regulatory experts, drug development executives, blockchain technologists, web3 community builders, patient community advocates, and many other Vibe Bio community members seeking to accelerate the development of breakthrough treatments. Disclaimer: VibeCast is intended to be used for educational and entertainment purposes, and no information or opinions shared constitute advice or services. While guests are invited to listen, listeners acknowledge they are not being provided professional advice from the podcast or the guests. The podcast is for private non-commercial use and guests do not necessarily reflect any agency, organization, or company that they work for.
