How do you commercialize regenerative medicine, and why is it so challenging?
What does it take to build a successful biotech startup?
And are revolutionary regenerative medicine solutions closer than we think?
In this episode, our guest is Marianne van der Steen, Professor of Entrepreneurship in Healthcare and Chief Business Development Officer at the MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine in the Netherlands.
Prof. van der Steen is a founding director of REGMED XB, a translational institute with an investment of 250 million euros, which translates groundbreaking regenerative medicine technologies into commercial products and companies.
Her expertise spans across not only research in biomedical entrepreneurship, but also translation of regenerative medicine into market-ready solutions, co-founding of game-changing ventures, and bridging the gap between scientists, businesspeople, and policymakers. With over 15 years of experience in scaling regenerative medicine startups, mentoring entrepreneurs, and making transatlantic collaboration possible, she is the one shaping the future of regenerative medicine.
If you want to learn more about the companies and institutes mentioned in the episode, please follow the links below:
MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine –https://merlninstitute.com
RegMed XB –https://regmedxb.com
California Institure for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) –https://www.cirm.ca.gov
MIRA University of Twente –https://www.utwente.nl/en/news/2010/3/116725/mira-ambitious-plan-for-the-future
Hummingbird Biomedical –https://www.hummingbirdbiomedical.com
ReGen Biomedical – https://www.regenbiomedical.com
Vertex Pharmaceuticals –https://www.vrtx.com/home/
Mayo Clinic –https://www.mayoclinic.org
Nextkidney –https://nextkidney.com
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Biomed unleashed
00:39 Guest Introduction
01:32 Welcome
01:45 What has inspired you to focus on valorization of scientific knowledge?
03:35 Why valorization of specifically regenerative medicine projects?
05:14 Why is it challenging to commercialize regenerative medicine compared to other fields?
07:23 What is the idea behind the RegMed XB company that you co-founded?
09:34 What are the Moonshots in RegMed XB company, and why these specific Moonshots were chosen?
12:00 How do you foster international and public-private collaborations within regenerative medicine field?
14:29 What stage of product development are you typically involved in?
17:05 Do you teach scientists entrepreneurial skills?
20:08 What advice would you give to scientists who aspire to bring their knowledge to commercial applications?
22:34 How do you tackle failures, and what is a failure?
27:30 Why and how transatlantic collaboration between US and the Netherlands is important in the regenerative medicine field?
32:08 Looking into the future, how close are we to treating patients with engineered/artificial/lab-grown human tissues?
36:47 Future of in-silico trials
38:34 How can we measure success?
41:06 What is the most successful project you helped to upscale?
43:14 Last question!
45:15 Final thoughts
46:09 Meet Biomed Unleashed Team
46:37 Biomed Unleashed Outro