NFXBio: TechBio Platforms Developing a Universal Vaccine & Beating Treatment-Resistant Cancer

The NFX Podcast

In this episode, Nick Goldner and Jacob Glanville share their founder journeys and discuss platform technologies in biotech. They delve into the business models of Resistance Bio and Sentivax, strategies for infectious diseases, and the challenges of scientific entrepreneurship. The conversation shifts to fundraising experiences and understanding investor feedback, concluding with visions for the future of biotech.

In biology we have a saying: what doesn’t kill you mutates and tries again.

Cancer. Deadly viruses. These problems are so hard to tackle because the goalposts are always moving. Thanks to evolution, these diseases often outpace therapies and vaccines.

Today, NFX General Partner and Head of NFX Bio Omri Amirav-Drory is sitting down with two Founders using platforms to stay a step ahead of evolution. Jacob Glanville, Founder of Centivax, has developed a platform to create broad spectrum vaccines capable of arming the immune system against rapidly mutating viruses (like COVID-19 or influenza). Nick Goldner, Founder of resistanceBio, discusses his approach for mapping all the possible resistance paths a cancer can take in the human body – and developing therapies to shut those escape routes down.

Here’s why we need platforms to tackle biology’s biggest problems, what it takes to build a platform company, and their advice for fundraising in Techbio.

(0:00) Introduction to the episode and guests (1:45) Founders' journeys: Nick Goldner and Jacob Glanville (8:19) Discussion on platform technologies in biotech (23:30) In-depth look at Resistance Bio and Sentivax's platforms and business models (28:45) Strategies for addressing infectious diseases (34:15) Overcoming challenges in scientific entrepreneurship (34:59) Transition to discussing fundraising experiences (43:42) Understanding the investor's perspective and adapting based on feedback (47:34) Vision for the future of their platforms and the intersection of biology and technology (51:33) Outro and podcast reminders