🧬 Mark Kotter - bit.bio - Part 2 | Navigating Between the Clinical & Research Worlds | Lessons in Combining Different Fields | The Evolution of Cell Therapies | Transitioning from Academia to Entrepreneurship

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Part 2 of 4.

My guest today is Mark Kotter, neurosurgeon, stem cell biologist, and CEO and Founder of bit.bio. Bit.bio is an award-winning human synthetic biology company providing human cells for research, drug discovery and cell therapy.

Bit.bio applies a patented safe harbor gene-targeting approach to inducibly express transcription factor combinations that reprogram human induced pluripotent stem cells into highly defined and mature human cell types.

In addition to bit.bio, Mark is also the Co-Founder of Meatable, Scientific Founder and Chairman of rejuvenation start-up clock.bio, and Co-Founder and trustee of Myelopathy.org, the first charity dedicated to a common yet often overseen condition causing a “slow motion spinal cord injury.”

Mark has also been a professor and researcher at Cambridge for more than 15 years. His diverse experience as an academic and serial entrepreneur offers a wealth of insights aspiring scientist-founders can draw from.

Join us this week and hear about Mark’s:

Transition from his PhD studies at Cambridge to the Medical University of Vienna, where he became a resident in neurosurgery and ran his own research group
Experience at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine
Return to Cambridge, where he combined clinical practice with research
Shift from academia to entrepreneurship, which led to the founding of his first biotech startup

Please enjoy my conversation with Mark Kotter.

Timestamps:

00:28 Intro

01:54 Mark’s spinal cord injury research in Vienna, setting up a lab, and avoiding rigid hierarchy

03:26 Working at the Max Planck Institute, getting noticed again at Cambridge

04:34 Going from no supervisor to teaching PhD students while running a lab

05:36 Starting a new role at Cambridge, the impact of sharing information

08:11 Two different worlds: the research world and the clinical world

09:57 The value of being exposed to and combining the newest tech and patient samples

11:37 Complexity around protocols, cell programming history, and contradictory data

14:18 The translation gap between research and the clinic

16:34 Juggling a teaching role at Cambridge while conducting research, studying in Toronto

18:56 Shifting to the startup world from academia and clinical research

20:23 Starting a family business, understanding financial models and cash flow

21:58 Outro

Enriched Notes:

Topics Mentioned:

Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine https://maxplanckneuroscience.org/institute/mpi-exp-medicine/

University of Cambridge https://www.cam.ac.uk/

Neurosurgery https://www.ohsu.edu/school-of-medicine/neurosurgery/what-neurosurgery

Cell Programing https://youtu.be/jrVQXHmxH7Y?si=csFYmCfaqkQFm95y

Differentiation Protocols https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9405110/

Direct reprogramming protocols https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8161510/

Synthetic Biology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_biology

Opti-ox Technology https://www.bit.bio/platform

How to Spin Out of Academia https://www.excedr.com/resources/how-to-spin-out-of-academia-and-into-a-startup

People Mentioned:

Roger Pedersen https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-pedersen-0b231115/

Harold Weintraub https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_M._Weintraub

Marius Wernig https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/marius-wernig

Thomas Südhof https://med.stanford.edu/sudhoflab/about-thomas-sudhof.html

Shinya Yamanaka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinya_Yamanaka