Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 116 - Jim Jenson - Morphoceuticals

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Episode 116 - Jim Jenson - Morphoceuticals · The BioHub - by Avetix

• 0:07
  Welcome back to another episode of the Biohop podcast.
• 0:10
  Today I'm thrilled to be joined by Jim Jensen, the CEO of
• 0:14
  Morphosuticals, a tech bio company focused on understanding
• 0:18
  and manipulating the bioelectron to induce regeneration and treat
• 0:23
  diseases. Jim, thank you so much for
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  coming on the podcast. And thank you for the
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  invitation. I'm delighted to be here.
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  Now good to good to have you. Jim, just to start with, can you
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  share a little bit on your background and your journey so
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  far and ultimately what led you to Morphosuiticals?
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  Yes, I've been delighted too. So it's a it's a multi step
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  journey as as many of us have had with some some real decision
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  points along the way. Originally, I'm a PhD scientist
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  from Cornell Medical College. I was a protein chemist and I
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  wanted to be a laboratory scientist for my whole life.
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  I loved being a lab scientist and but I was recruited out to
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  pharma very early by Roche in New Jersey, who was just
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  breaking into the field of molecular biology and protein
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  chemistry very early on developing a protein drug, One
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  of the first ones, alpha interferon for Harry cell
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  leukemia. And it made me a good offer.
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  So I jumped back in the days when you were kind of a bad guy
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  for jumping from the purity of academia and to pharma.
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  But it was a great, great move. And so we, we, I was kind of
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  molecular nanology there. But that was recruited to
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  another biotech developing a protein drug in California,
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  Tritan Biosciences, which was owned by Shell Oil and
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  developing A Betaseron for a beta interferon for Ms., really
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  one of the first proteins to show activity on NSA, an
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  incidental finding on a cancer trial.
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  And that that was very exciting journey and successful.
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  And we were merged and acquired by Shearing AG, the German
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  company that really developed the drug, very successful
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  product for Ms. patients. And I love work with sharing AG.
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  And then following the acquisition, I was again
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  recruited to Boston to a biotech company and molecular immunology
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  company developing an AIDS therapy that went IPO.
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  That was my first IPO and then hit toxicity in the first
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  patient, severe toxicity and became a a penny stock and never
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  recovered. So that was quite an education.
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  And so I had to decide this was the decision point for me.
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  Do I go back into biotech? Do I go into pharma?
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  What do I do? And I at that point decided to
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  take the big jump and start a company.
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  And I started a company based on my protein knowledge, covalent
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  binding of of drugs to proteins. It was a little bit before its
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  time. It was good training.
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  I call it my training exercise. But then I've since started 3
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  biotech companies of significance as founding CEO.
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  Most notably was Dyserna which was which I sourced and founded
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  with my Co founder Doug Fambro of EC at the time which was
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  bought by Sher by Nova Nordisk for 3.3 billion in 2021.
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  And another one now in clinical stage that I that that Eli LED
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  Lily led the Series A with some other family office people
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  that's doing multiple clinical trials right now that's going to
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  be very successful. I handed that off 6 years ago to
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  my Co founding scientist who's a great CEO.
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  I'm still a strategic advisor to that company and stakeholder.
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  So then then there was a big decision point, you know, what
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  do I really want to do now and what can I, how can I help?
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  What, what can I? I've done a lot of things.
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  So it was a realization, not even a decision, a realization
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  that what I would like to do and can do is to move back closer to
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  new platforms, even though it's out of phase at the moment.
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  You know, from a capital point of view, new platforms that can
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  make big transformative enhancements in, in, in treating
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  patients that that in new ways with, with a new modality.
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  And so two things came up and one of them landed, you know, in
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  talking to people and in my lap. And, and here I am at
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  Morphsuiticals. Yeah, fantastic.
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  Thank you. Thank you for that overview.
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  And in in terms of for listeners who may be unfamiliar with your
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  work, how would you explain the core idea of bioelectric
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  regeneration and what makes your approach unique?
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  So, yeah, so we are. So bioelectricity has been
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  around for two centuries. It's been known since scientist
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  called Galvani. He really, he's the one who
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  discovered animal electricity in frogs about the same time Ben
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  Franklin was flying his kite into, you know, storms to
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  discover that was electricity. So it's a it's been known
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  forever. The tools have only recently
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  become and and available to really crack it as as a
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  therapeutic modality. But it's you called it a tech
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  bio company, which it is because it's a combination of biology
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  coupled with physics and artificial intelligence.
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  And so so so and and building the first Atlas of the
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  bioelectron. So what is the bioelectron?
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  It is the set of electrical communications throughout the
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  body and within the body known they existed for a long time
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  that that bind are multicellular collectives together for a
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  common purpose and that is maintaining tissue integrity and
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  health. And it is a form of non neural
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  cognition and that has its own agency.
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  It has its own memory and it knows what tissues to build and
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  when to stop. And so our goal is to, you know,
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  switch on these dormant control systems, treat patients with
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  many conditions that you can't treat any other way.
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  So it's really, we think, writing a new chapter in
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  medicine. So it's a, you know, biology is
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  a living program whose code can now be altered in multiple ways.
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  And Morphosuiticals uses these, what we call top down controls,
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  akin to a biological software to induce therapeutic change by
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  reawakening this bioelectric code that knows what tissues to
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  build and when, when to correct, when to stop and correct defects
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  and induce regeneration. So you know, it's a big concept
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  to get your head around because it's it's it's, it's old and
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  it's new. But so there's the way Mike
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  Levin, the founder, describes it is it's just like in the brain.
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  This is a useful analogy, I think like in the brain, the
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  amazing architecture gets around the difficulty of bottom up
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  controls, stepwise controls for powerful computations.
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  And that's that's, that's what it is.
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  Yeah, fascinating. Thank you for thank you for the
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  the overview in terms of setting up the company, what was the,
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  you know, what was the inspiration behind it and how
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  did the founding team actually come together?
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  OK, well, it's so it was founded in 2020 before I got there by
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  two scientists at Tufts, Michael Evan and David Leckapen.
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  David Leckapen. And they are, you know, really
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  leaders in the fields of the electricity by electricity and
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  regeneration. They're, they're extraordinary
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  individuals. It was first funded by two early
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  stage funds who saw the potential juvenescence initially
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  seeded it and then Prime Movers Lab and they came in together
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  for $10 million. And then, you know, as I was
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  speaking to people about how I was really interested in helping
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  translate new modalities that will be really important.
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  I, I was approached by one of the VCs and to, to join to
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  really broaden the platform to cover, cover much more, much,
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  many more unmet indications in therapeutic areas than we're
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  currently envisioned. And so that's really where I
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  came in and that's what I wanted to do.
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  The original inspiration that was Mike and David looked at
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  their, their signs and their vision and saw that they could,
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  they could really, by switching on this dormant control system,
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  they could really address conditions of, of, of
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  degeneration, regeneration, organ failure in ways, you know,
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  fibrosis in ways that can't be addressed now.
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  And so it was really their vision that that they started a
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  company and then those guys seeded it and then I came along
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  to help move it forward. What's been the most memorable
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  moment for you since since joining, do you think and kind
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  of the most important milestones that you've you've you've ticked
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  off? Yeah, it's been, it's been quite
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  an extraordinary 2 years to, to crack open something like this.
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  And I actually asked the team this question, you know, about,
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  you know, what do you, what's, what do you, what do you think's
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  the most important thing that we've done?
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  And because we kind of put our goals together and our what we
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  think we've accomplished and put them up on the wall.
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  Everybody came up with the same answer independently.
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  And it was really introducing for the first time a whole organ
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  bioelectric map of, of that was developed in our in our lab and
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  initially for kidney and the extraordinary amount of
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  information that's contained that makes sense and that's,
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  that's approachable from an intervention point of view.
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  And that is visually so impressive.
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  It's really, we call it the Christmas tree.
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  It's so beautiful. And so it's, it's, it's just
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  stunning to to have that happened in the first year.
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  And also for me it's, you know, it's really such a privilege to
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  work so closely with brilliant people like Mike and David.
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  That's really, that's amazing. One of the big like attraction
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  points to you joining with those two.
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  Yeah, it is. It is they, of course, that's
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  critical. And you, you know, you learn so
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  much and the privilege of being close to them and, and, and
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  helping them, helping them realise their vision is and, and
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  that and the team, the team building is something that I
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  really like to do and to integrate their team with
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  building out the company team. But yes, indeed, that's that's a
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  big part of my motivation. And you know, as you said, it's
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  been a really successful two years since you've come in.
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  What are some of the biggest, like scientific and then also
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  operational challenges that you've had to navigate as you
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  advance the platform? Yeah, well, there are, there are
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  those as you as you endeavour to do new things and the I think
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  the biggest challenge that we had anticipated but not realized
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  how big is the massive amounts of data and how you deal with
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  it. And so a couple things about
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  that. So you have you've got the in
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  living tissues, you've got this, this imaging pipeline of
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  bioelectric, bioelectric data. And this is spatial, it's, you
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  know, fields and currents and all of this that you have to,
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  you know, digitize and accumulate that.
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  But then you have to integrate it with the cryo fixed data for
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  the spatial transcriptomics, the yarn expression proteomics,
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  create a pipeline of imaging data that feeds into our AI
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  system in a way that it can be read and processed because you
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  know, it's, it's so much data and in a way that can be
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  efficiently fed into the AI system that renders it useful
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  and translatable into drug target formation.
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  That was that was a big one. And we've pretty, we've pretty
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  much cracked that because we had to make it out, you know, that's
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  it. Yeah, fantastic.
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  And then you know you received strong, you touched on that
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  alluded a little bit earlier, you received strong interest
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  from investors for, for your seed raise.
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  How, how did that help you accelerate your, your
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  developments and then sort of commerce following up, what's
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  the, what's the plan moving forward?
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  Yeah. So, so that was critical at this
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  point because we were sort of doing a repositioning or an
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  extension, right. And So what we decided to do
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  when I joined two years ago and expanded this effort, we decided
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  to extend the seed round. So we're still working in that
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  seed round capacity and because we needed to new tools, right,
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  some of which we can buy expensively, some of which we
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  have to invent and then experienced team, very
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  specialized team you needed to hire and time, right to put this
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  in place. So we, we did that seat
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  extension led by sovereign wealth and some very high enough
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  individuals who fortunately, you know, share an understanding and
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  excitement about the, the, the transformative approach to, to
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  farm intervention with this. And you know, not, not everyone
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  is playing in this early space these days.
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  Some are, some aren't, but many are and who, who just share this
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  enthusiasm and these people do. So that was critical.
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  And, and so this enabled us to put this, you know, put this
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  technology and place and really crack open for the first time
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  the insights and, and tools to approach the bioelectrome in a
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  therapeutically and systematic way.
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  And we're doing that. You've touched on team like a
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  couple of times, obviously mentioned to Co founders, and
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  then just then putting in place the team of specialists to be
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  able to do this. How important is it finding not
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  only the right people who can do the job, but culturally match,
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  you know, the the team environment and wanting to
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  progress this all forward together.
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  How how difficult was that in the first initial stance to to
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  put it together? There were challenges.
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  There were challenges because for one thing, it's an academic
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  group and it's an operational group, OK.
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  And their, their life missions are different, but we still fund
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  people in, in, in Tufts because they're critical to, to, to what
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  we do. And, and we build out more, more
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  of operational things, you know, directed toward therapeutic
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  intervention in the company. That's, that's an interesting
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  challenge. And I, but I've done that a few
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  times and one approach is, you know, as CEO is you, it's, it's
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  deep respect for who they are and what their missions are, OK.
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  And I, and, and where, where they contribute.
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  And, and also as the CEO, you know, really developing trust
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  and, and you don't just, you don't just get that you have to
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  help and, and trust. And on my part as CEO, dealing
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  with intellectual humility is a big part of it and, and candor
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  and, and my curiosity of what they do.
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  And so that, that, that all worked.
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  And I think it's at hums and with our people, it's really
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  enabling them to innovate. You know, you have to have
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  goals, but I always also say not everybody agrees with this, but
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  I think you learn as a biotech CEO over the years, especially
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  at this stage, it's a sort of a guideline of minimum viable
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  process. You know, you need process
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  because the goal posts start here and they're over here.
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  And so the innovation is out here and, and, and again, it's a
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  matter of trust and support. And you know, if you like people
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  and then it works. And right now it's, it's just
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  really working. It's, it's a, it's just an
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  extraordinary privilege and, and delight to be working with this
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  team. Fantastic, fantastic.
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  What are the, what are the as we're, as we're entering into
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  2026, what are the short term goals?
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  What what are the immediate plans over the next sort of 6 to
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  to 12 months? Well, the, the near term goals
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  are we still have to refine all these components.
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  And it, it's amazing how we're developing for the first time.
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  You know, there's the, there's the, the, the, the system has
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  this spatial, all these spatial components, the transcriptomics,
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  bioelectron proteome, the massive data pipeline and then
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  to feed it into our AI system. And, and, and then, you know,
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  comparing normal state with disease state for all of this.
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  OK, So we're working on kidney and liver initially because
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  they're tractable kidney disease, liver disease.
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  And then with the AI system sort of all this data and, and it's
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  like 10 to the 10th power components and variations,
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  right? So your eyes can't make bigger
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  and see what's the difference between normal and disease and
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  then run, run the AI system backwards sort of to predict
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  molecular targets and, and points of intervention for, you
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  know, for to move the disease bioelectric state in the
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  direction you want and, and then do a proof concept in animals.
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  So that's all within the next year.
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  So that's a lot. And then, then, then partner
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  with pharma because you know, pharma as we all know, pharma
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  with a patent Cliff and all of these things, pharma needs new
• 20:21
  modalities. So when we're at the right
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  point, partner with them who need nudalities like go to OK,
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  you're dealing with, you know, lung fibrosis, horrible things
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  or liver fibrosis or kidney failure.
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  Look what we can see as a new Ave. here.
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  And, and I think partnering on an indication specific basis
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  will be an important part. And, and then, yeah.
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  And then that's, so that's, that's really what we those are
• 20:54
  pretty standard, you know, but but things that we're we're
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  we're we're working toward, yeah.
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  Fantastic. Do you have any sort of longer
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  term goals for the company sort of past those things?
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  What what's the ultimate sort of direction you guys are pushing
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  towards? Yeah, well, it's, I mean, it's a
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  big vision like for men, most people in pharma is the, is the
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  therapies for patients that don't have solutions.
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  And so, you know, we all see here the potential for new forms
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  of medicines for, for these, these these huge areas of organ
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  failure and degenerative disease and regeneration and trauma.
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  So that's, that's the big picture in terms of the
• 21:39
  corporate goals, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll have our own
• 21:44
  pharmaceutical programs developing and we have some
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  ideas on what those are in a combination with partnering.
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  And I think that combination will give this whole new
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  modality the the biggest opportunity to express itself
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  most broadly for new patient therapies.
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  So that's that comment that we're just going to play out
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  with the Series A round at at some point not too far away.
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  Fantastic. It's it's really fascinating.
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  And I think the one thing that viewers and listeners will be
• 22:17
  able to get from this as well is the passion that that comes out
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  of your voice when you're when you're talking about it and
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  clearly how much you've enjoyed and the the past two years as
• 22:26
  well. And thank you so much for coming
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  on. As a tradition, we normally end
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  the podcast with one final question.
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  And it's just if you could have dinner with any scientist,
• 22:37
  innovative past or present, who would it be and why?
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  You know, in this company it, it comes to me very quickly, and
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  that is Charles Darwin. And let me tell you the reason
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  because wouldn't it be fascinating to see how his
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  thinking on evolution as a process of natural selection,
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  right should happen slowly over time, would be influenced by our
• 23:08
  knowledge today of this. I mentioned agency and memory of
• 23:15
  our cellular collectives in providing like multiple short
• 23:21
  term paths to morphological goals and set points in addition
• 23:29
  to natural selection. And that would be a fascinating
• 23:32
  conversation. And also he seems such A and of
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  course we don't know. I don't know how much do I know
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  about reflective and it must be genuinely curious and it would
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  be a great conversation. Yeah, fantastic.
• 23:44
  I'm sure it would be. Jim, thank you so much for
• 23:47
  coming to the podcast. It was really fascinating to
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  learn more about you, your career, and also everything
• 23:53
  you're doing at Morphosuiticals. Hope JPM goes well for you next
• 23:57
  week. And yeah, all the best for the
• 24:00
  rest of this year. I know everyone will be watching
• 24:02
  and hoping everything goes well.