Penn Undergraduate Biotech Society (PUBS) Podcast

ToxiSense is genetically engineering a greener world by developing bioluminescent plants to detect endotoxin on medical products and drinking water. Biopharmaceutical products and drinking water must be tested for endotoxins, the sickness-causing molecule from bacteria. The current method relies on expensive horseshoe crab blood and is environmentally damaging. ToxiSense genetically engineered the Arabidopsis plant to luminesce at different intensities based on the endotoxin concentration applied to it, serving as a sustainable, cost-effective solution.

Dr. Ben Doranz co-founded Integral Molecular in 2001. He has led all aspects of the company’s growth since its inception, bringing 5 different technologies from research to market and growing the company into a profitable commercial entity. He is an inventor on over 10 of the company’s patents, the principal investigator on over 30 NIH grants, and an author on over 100 publications, including articles published in Cell, Science, and Nature. Dr. Doranz is an established life science entrepreneur, previously responsible for directing the biotechnology program at the Port of Technology business incubator in Philadelphia and helping create startups at the Center for Technology Transfer at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he led the discovery of the coreceptor CCR5 for HIV. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, where he co-founded the Penn Biotech Group and won the Wharton business plan competition, and a B.A. from Cornell University.

In this episode, Grace Dai and founder of Nucleus Kian Sadeghi (who studied Computational Biology at Penn!) delve into a discussion about the power of thinking forward as an entrepreneur, staying inspired and passionate as a Penn student, using genetic testing to give people more power over their personalized health, and raising money as a biotechnology startup.

In this special episode, Jerry Cai and Dr. Thomas Mallouk, a renowned Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, explore current approaches to scaling up hydrogen fuel production and long-term storage, desalination approaches to supplement potable water, and Dr. Mallouk's interests in guitars and glassblowing.

Join Dzung Than and Dr. Ping Wang, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine, for a discussion on next-generation technologies that advance precision diagnosis and prognosis using bioengineering, nanotechnology, chemistry, and microfluidics.