Ep. 49: Betting Big on AI-Driven Cancer Vaccines with BreakBio's CEO - Roy de Souza
In this episode, VibeCast host Ray Dogum speaks with Roy de Souza, Founder and CEO of BreakBio, about personalized cancer vaccines. --------------------------------------
Key moments: 00:00:07 - Introduction to Vibecast 00:01:01 - Roy de Souza's Journey into Cancer Care and Biotech 00:04:21 - Exploring Theories of Cancer 00:06:32 - Problem Solving in Cancer Treatment 00:12:57 - BreakBio's Drug Pipeline 00:14:41 - Breakthrough Therapy Designation and Target Indications 00:15:33 - The Power of T Cells in Targeting Solid Tumors 00:17:48 - Combination Therapy and FDA Approval 00:20:29 - Patient Treatment Timeline 00:22:11 - Leveraging AI and Machine Learning 00:28:55 - The Importance of Colon Cancer Vaccines 00:29:42 - Funding Landscape in the Biotech Industry 00:30:44 - Seeking Partnerships 00:32:42 - Future Outlook Guest Bio: Roy de Souza is solving a big problem of our lifetimes: curing solid cancers. BreakBio uses AI/ML to find 30 targets on a patient’s cancer cells from various patient data sets especially mass spectrometry per patient (an industry first). Mass spectrometry provides accurate AI training per patient. It then manufactures a 30 peptide personalized immunotherapy which is also known as a cancer vaccine. Clinical trials in the first indication are starting this year at top academic centres like MD Anderson. Roy received a Masters in Engineering at Oxford, an MBA from the Kellogg School and worked for Elon Musk's first company. He founded ZEDO Inc. that became the 3rd largest ad server in the world and used AI to determine which user sees which ad. He sold ZEDO to Warner Bros Discovery, the world's largest media company which owns CNN and HBO. Roy became determined to get to cures when his wife was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2017. She later passed away. He has 3 young children and is moving to Miami, FL. He is also a Director of SaveGroundwater.org in India and loves skiing and audiobook Guest Links: Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/roydesouza Twitter: https://twitter.com/roydesouza BreakBio Website: https://breakbio.com/ 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 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. Follow Vibe Bio's Socials: https://twitter.com/VibeBio https://www.linkedin.com/company/vibe-bio/ https://www.instagram.com/vibebiotechnology/ https://www.tiktok.com/@vibebio https://www.facebook.com/VibeBiotechnology/ 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 the statements of our guests reflect their personal views only and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any agency, organization, or company that they work for or are affiliated with.
