🧬 Engineering a Drug Hunter: From Vet School to Big Pharma | Martin Brenner Rerelease (1/3)
May 7, 2026
Jon Chee sits down with Martin Brenner, CEO and CSO of iBio, an AI drug discovery company building immunotherapies for difficult-to-treat cancers. Before biotech leadership, Martin built one of pharma's most unconventional careers—electrical engineer in Stuttgart, vet medicine at LMU Munich, PhD embedded at Eli Lilly, youngest scientist to lead a 20-person team there. Part 1 covers his formative years: the family that shaped him, the vet clinic that changed his path, and the professor who lit the match.
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"Making medicines, you can help literally the entire world if you get it right."
Jon Chee sits down with Martin Brenner, CEO and CSO of iBio, an AI drug discovery company building immunotherapies for difficult-to-treat cancers. Before biotech leadership, Martin built one of pharma's most unconventional careers—electrical engineer in Stuttgart, vet medicine at LMU Munich, PhD embedded at Eli Lilly, youngest scientist to lead a 20-person team there. Part 1 covers his formative years: the family that shaped him, the vet clinic that changed his path, and the professor who lit the match.
Key Topics Covered:
- Engineering Roots and a Rebellious Phase: How Stuttgart shaped Martin early—and why meeting his wife gave him focus.
- From Circuits to Vet Clinics: What made an EE student spend two months in a vet clinic before committing to six years at LMU Munich.
- The Lecture That Changed Everything: How a retired professor who took benzodiazepines on himself sparked Martin's passion for drug discovery.
- Straight Into Eli Lilly: From his last vet exam to a PhD at Lilly Germany's diabetes lab without missing a beat.
- Leadership Before He Was Ready: How Martin became Lilly's youngest 20-person team lead and what he learned the hard way.
- Told He Had No Leadership Potential: What a blunt theater coach said that became one of his most defining career moments.
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Links:
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Find our guest, Martin Brenner at these links:
Website: https://ibioinc.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:
Monoclonal Antibodies: Past, Present & Future: https://www.excedr.com/blog/monoclonal-antibody-research-and-production
The NDA Process: FDA Submission & Approval: https://www.excedr.com/blog/new-drug-application-process
AI in Small Molecule Immunotherapy Discovery: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44386-025-00029-y
Breaking Into Biotech BD as a PhD: https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-to-break-into-biotech-bd-as-a-phd-student
AI-Powered Antibody Discovery in Oncology: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11954232/
Biotech Partnerships: How They Support R&D: https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-biotech-partnerships-support-research
Companies, Universities, & People Mentioned:
iBio: https://ibioinc.com/
Eli Lilly: https://www.lilly.com/
Pfizer: https://www.pfizer.com/
AstraZeneca: https://www.astrazeneca.com/
Merck: https://www.merck.com/
Stoke Therapeutics: https://www.stoketherapeutics.com/
Recursion Pharmaceuticals: https://www.recursion.com/
Ligand Pharmaceuticals: https://www.ligand.com/
Moderna: https://www.modernatx.com/
Siemens: https://www.siemens.com/
Ohm University (Nuremberg): https://www.th-nuernberg.de/en/
LMU Munich: https://www.lmu.de/
Univ. of Veterinary Medicine Hannover: https://www.tiho-hannover.de/en/
Rohit Kulkarni: https://www.hsci.harvard.edu/people/rohit-kulkarni-md-phd
Michael Coghlan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-coghlan-312a6824
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:43 Growing Up in Stuttgart: Engineering Roots and Family Influences
04:49 Rebellious Years and Finding Focus Through His Wife
06:38 Choosing Ohm University and Committing to Electrical Engineering
09:31 The Pivot: From Engineering to Veterinary Medicine
10:41 Life Inside Veterinary School at LMU Munich
14:48 Clinical Experience and the Professor Who Lit the Fire for Pharmacology
18:02 Straight from Vet School to a PhD—and Straight into Eli Lilly
22:39 Academia vs. Industry: Why Lilly Won
25:14 Building a Career at Lilly and the Power of Mentorship
28:09 Leading a Team of 20 and Developing a Leadership Philosophy
31:01 The Theater Exercise That Told Him He Had No Leadership Potential
32:02 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.