🧬 2 Identity Crises, 1 Mission: From Broken Shoulder to Biotech Career | Nicole Paulk (Part 1/4)
March 31, 2026
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we sit down with Nicole Paulk, founder, CEO, and president of SIREN Biotechnology, a company pioneering universal AAV immunogene therapy to fight solid tumor cancers. Nicole takes us back to her roots — a scrappy, off-the-grid upbringing in the Pacific Northwest where a lumberjack dad raised her like a son and sports were everything, until recurring shoulder injuries ended her collegiate volleyball career at 18 and triggered her first identity crisis. She walks us through the hustle that followed; swim lessons, kickboxing classes, deli shifts, and crabbing in Puget Sound just to survive, and how she stumbled into science not out of passion, but out of a need for a paycheck at a small ag school. A summer treating patients in Kenya and Tanzania convinced her that clinical medicine wasn't her path, and one offhand comment from her chemistry professor set the entire trajectory of her scientific career in motion.
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“No one’s going to come and save you. You have to save yourself.”
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we sit down with Nicole Paulk, founder, CEO, and president of SIREN Biotechnology, a company pioneering universal AAV immunogene therapy to fight solid tumor cancers. Nicole takes us back to her roots — a scrappy, off-the-grid upbringing in the Pacific Northwest where a lumberjack dad raised her like a son and sports were everything, until recurring shoulder injuries ended her collegiate volleyball career at 18 and triggered her first identity crisis. She walks us through the hustle that followed; swim lessons, kickboxing classes, deli shifts, and crabbing in Puget Sound just to survive, and how she stumbled into science not out of passion, but out of a need for a paycheck at a small ag school. A summer treating patients in Kenya and Tanzania convinced her that clinical medicine wasn't her path, and one offhand comment from her chemistry professor set the entire trajectory of her scientific career in motion.
Key topics covered:
- Farm Kid to Founder: Growing up off-the-grid in the Pacific Northwest forged the grit and competitiveness Nicole brings to every aspect of her life and leadership
- Identity Crisis at 18: How recurring shoulder injuries ended her collegiate volleyball career and forced a complete rethinking of who she was
- Hustling Through College: Swim lessons, kickboxing classes, deli shifts, and crabbing just to make rent and stay enrolled
- Summer in Africa: Three and a half months treating patients in Kenya and Tanzania revealed she wasn't cut out for clinical medicine
- A Career-Defining Pivot: One offhand suggestion from her chemistry professor, Dr. Anya Johansen, redirected Nicole from med school to a PhD in virology
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Find our guest, Nicole Paulk at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolepaulk/
Website: https://sirenbiotechnology.com/
Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
Learn more about Excedr:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Website: https://www.excedr.com
Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:
Website: https://flow.page/kyojin
Resources & Articles:
What Is AAV Gene Therapy?: https://www.askbio.com/aav-gene-therapy/
Ebola & Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever Viruses: https://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/Factsheets/pdfs/viral_hemorrhagic_fever_filovirus.pdf
AAV Capsids That Evade Neutralizing Antibodies: https://www.cgtlive.com/view/maura-aav-capsids-evade-neutralizing-antibodies
AAV as a Vector for Gene Therapy (PMC): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5548848/
Volunteer Medical Work in Africa: https://idi.mak.ac.ug/opportunities/main/volunteer/
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:
Western Washington University: https://www.wwu.edu
Central Washington University: https://www.cwu.edu
University of Washington: https://www.washington.edu
Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU): https://www.ohsu.edu
UCSF Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics: https://biophysics.ucsf.edu
Stanford Division of Human Gene Therapy: https://med.stanford.edu/genetherapy.html
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: https://www.gatesfoundation.org
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
03:50 Nicole's Hippie Farm Kid Upbringing in the Pacific Northwest
05:36 Sports-Centered Childhood and Lessons in Competing Solo vs. as a Team
08:19 Small Town Grit: Community, Self-Reliance, and the Value of Hard Work
14:00 Choosing a College Based on What She Could Afford
15:49 Volleyball Career Ends at 18: Shoulder Injuries and an Identity Crisis
16:56 Surviving on Odd Jobs: Swim Lessons, Kickboxing, and Deli Shifts
19:29 Crabbing in Puget Sound and Transferring to an Ag School
20:45 Falling Into Science for a Paycheck, Not Passion
24:36 Dream of Becoming an Infectious Disease Doctor
26:06 The Letter-Writing Campaign to Fund a Summer in Africa
29:10 Kenya and Tanzania Change Everything: Realizing Medicine Isn't the Path
31:06 A Chemistry Professor's Offhand Comment Redirects Her Toward a PhD
32:13 Outro
The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.