Base to Base biotech podcast 6: Persica Pharmaceuticals and Caszyme

This week on the podcast, we have a conversation with Steve Ruston, CEO of Persica Pharmaceuticals, about treating chronic low back pain, and with Monika Paulė, CEO and co-founder of Caszyme.Interview time stamps:Times: 01:40 Caszyme 16:04 Persica PharmaceuticalsPersica PharmaceuticalsPersica is developing a potentially transformative non-opioid treatment for chronic low back pain (cLBP) with some interesting phase 1b data.Chronic low back pain is a problem that affects millions of people, many of whom aren’t helped by existing treatments. Persica’s drug aims to be the first approved pharmaceutical to target cLBP associated with Modic changes, which are identified via MRI scans and linked to bacterial infections in the vertebral discs.It is a non-opioid, one-off treatment (two injections, four days apart) that addresses the underlying cause of back pain rather than the symptoms – changing the mindset from “bad back” to “bacterial infection.” Persica recently announced positive clinical data and is advancing towards registrational studies.On the podcast this week, we have a conversation with Steve Ruston, CEO of Persica Pharmaceuticals.CaszymeCaszyme is a gene-editing company which combines experience and a dynamic platform to deliver world class CRISPR solutions.It was established in 2017 by Dr. Monika Paulė, Dr. Giedrius Gasiūnas and Prof. Virginijus Šikšnys - a pioneer of CRISPR-Cas gene editing research. Over the last seven years, Caszyme has advanced its capabilities as an enabling partner in CRISPR gene editing solutions, collaborating with multiple life science organizations aiming to enter the CRISPR field or expand their gene editing capabilities.Caszyme, nSAGE, and Vilnius University in Lithuania, have joined forces to form a consortium which will develop a new, advanced diagnostics solution. The UNCOVER project will develop a universal, CRISPR-based diagnostics platform for accurate and rapid detection of infectious diseases. This platform will be versatile, user-friendly, applicable to both human and animal health, and will be easily programable to address a wide range of pathogens and disease biomarkers.We welcome Dr. Paulė to the podcast this week to talk about the company and the project.To get in touch with guest suggestions, please email [email protected]