Base to Base biotech podcast 11: Turning cancer into a chronic disease, and a different way to draw blood

This week, we have a conversation with Ben Zeskind, CEO and co-founder of Immuneering, and a discussion with Tasso Inc.’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Erwin Berthier.Interview times:01:27 Tasso27:25 ImmuneeringImmuneeringThere is no cure for HIV, yet many people with the virus now live long, healthy lives – thanks to available medicines that prevent disease progression with minimal side effects, treating HIV almost like a chronic condition.So why don’t we treat cancer the same way?Curing cancer is seen as the gold standard in medicine, with many drugs focused on shrinking tumours as aggressively as possible – often at the expense of patient tolerability and quality of life. One widely used class of cancer drugs known as MEK inhibitors work by turning off the cancer driving MAPK pathway 24/7. But treatment also affects the healthy cells that rely on the MAPK pathway, which presents limitations in terms of tolerability and drug resistance, causing debilitating side effects like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and rashes. This standard approach often forces patients into an impossible tradeoff: live longer or live better.Researchers are studying a new MEK inhibitor approach that is administered in stop-and-start cycles and turns off the MAPK pathway intermittently – with clinical trial results showing this improves patient tolerability while maintaining efficacy in advanced pancreatic cancer in a first-line setting. This is the first-ever cancer drug to use this approach and could mark a broader shift in how we think about treating cancer.We have a conversation with Ben Zeskind, CEO and co-founder of Immuneering, a company leading this therapeutic approach, to discuss its mechanism of action, the future of cancer treatment, and the potential for cancer to be treated similarly to HIV and other chronic diseases.TassoOur guest is Erwin Berthier, co-founder and chief technology officer of Tasso, Inc., which is transforming blood collection to improve patient care and accelerate clinical research. Traditional methods rely on painful finger sticks and inconvenient clinic visits, often leading to poor patient retention in clinical trials.Tasso is making clinical trials more accessible and efficient. With more than one million devices shipped, Tasso is driving breakthrough research—including partnerships with Hims and Hers Health, the Parkinson’s Foundation and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.The company recently launched the Tasso Mini and Tile-T20 to further modernise blood collection.The Seattle-based company recently established a new joint venture company with Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd. to exclusively distribute Tasso’s proprietary on-demand blood collection device in Japan.To get in touch with guest suggestions, please email [email protected]