Wesley Wierson's guest appearances

Wesley Wierson

Finding Genius Podcast

FutureTech Podcast

Raymond McCauley

Nicole Hynson

Joe Schulz

Michael Garfield

Cate Shanahan

Tyler Cartwright

Rebecca Jarvis

Dana Carroll

Stephan Ouaknine

Joan E. Nichols

Zoran Radic

Caladrius Biosciences

Elle Russ

Robin Smith

Jonathan Parker

OwlTail

There are about 90 million dogs in the U.S. right now, which means it’s almost guaranteed that you either have one or know someone who does. They’re known as man’s best friend, and most of us would do anything to help give them the longest and healthiest lives possible. Nonetheless, half of them will die of cancer after reaching age 10. On today’s episode, founder and CEO of LEAH Labs, Wesley Wierson, explains CAR T-cell therapy, a recently FDA-approved therapy for leukemia and lymphoma in humans that harnesses the power of the immune system to attack cancer cells. He also describes how implementing this therapy in dogs could simultaneously benefit dogs and humans suffering from the same type of cancer. “LEAH Labs was founded to bring self-therapies to dogs,” says Wierson, as he goes on to explain how testing this therapy in dogs will provide humans with a much greater understanding as to how the therapy works and what causes CAR T-cell toxicity in both humans and dogs—a major drawback of the therapy. Wierson explains why the current method of CAR T-cell therapy development is not only insufficient and inaccessible, but potentially misinformed, and how the work being done at LEAH Labs is completely revolutionizing this. Interested in learning more? Press play and check out https://www.leahlabs.com/.

There are about 90 million dogs in the U.S. right now, which means it’s almost guaranteed that you either have one or know someone who does. They’re known as man’s best friend, and most of us would do anything to help give them the longest and healthiest lives possible. Nonetheless, half of them will die of cancer after reaching age 10. On today’s episode, founder and CEO of LEAH Labs, Wesley Wierson, explains CAR T-cell therapy, a recently FDA-approved therapy for leukemia and lymphoma in humans that harnesses the power of the immune system to attack cancer cells. He also describes how implementing this therapy in dogs could simultaneously benefit dogs and humans suffering from the same type of cancer. “LEAH Labs was founded to bring self-therapies to dogs,” says Wierson, as he goes on to explain how testing this therapy in dogs will provide humans with a much greater understanding as to how the therapy works and what causes CAR T-cell toxicity in both humans and dogs—a major drawback of the therapy. Wierson explains why the current method of CAR T-cell therapy development is not only insufficient and inaccessible, but potentially misinformed, and how the work being done at LEAH Labs is completely revolutionizing this. Interested in learning more? Press play and check out <a href="https://www.leahlabs.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.leahlabs.com/</a>.

Teaching Old Dogs New Self-Therapies for Cancer—Wesley Wierson—LEAH Labs

About 50 percent of dogs over the age of 10 and one in three in total will ultimately die of cancer. For most of us, this is a pretty devastating statistic, but founder and CEO of LEAH Labs, Wesley Wierson, joins the podcast today to explain how and why this could change. The key may very well lie in a newly FDA-approved therapy for leukemia and lymphoma in humans known as CAR T-cell therapy. Since dogs are commonly affected by B-cell lymphoma, which is the same as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, why aren’t we trying CAR T-cell therapy in dogs? One of the primary reasons is simply a matter of resources, as CAR T-cell therapy costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in humans. According to Wesley Wierson, however, it doesn’t have to. At LEAH Labs, they’re flipping CAR T-cell therapy development on its head. Rather than using viruses to engineer T-cells, they are using gene editing to reprogram T-cells, and rather than generating autologous CAR T-cell therapies, they’re generating allogenic CAR T-cell therapies; together, these techniques significantly reduce the cost of an individual treatment to just about $1,000. This is paving the way for CAR T-cell therapies to be used in dogs with cancer, which not only provides hope for dogs and their owners, but also provides a superior model for understanding how this form of therapy works. As it currently stands, CAR T-cell development is done using immunocompromised mice, which is less than ideal for a number of reasons on which Wierson expounds in this episode. Tune in for all the details, and learn more by visiting https://www.leahlabs.com/. 

About 50 percent of dogs over the age of 10 and one in three in total will ultimately die of cancer. For most of us, this is a pretty devastating statistic, but founder and CEO of LEAH Labs, Wesley Wierson, joins the podcast today to explain how and why this could change. The key may very well lie in a newly FDA-approved therapy for leukemia and lymphoma in humans known as CAR T-cell therapy. Since dogs are commonly affected by B-cell lymphoma, which is the same as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, why aren’t we trying CAR T-cell therapy in dogs? One of the primary reasons is simply a matter of resources, as CAR T-cell therapy costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in humans. According to Wesley Wierson, however, it doesn’t have to. At LEAH Labs, they’re flipping CAR T-cell therapy development on its head. Rather than using viruses to engineer T-cells, they are using gene editing to reprogram T-cells, and rather than generating autologous CAR T-cell therapies, they’re generating allogenic CAR T-cell therapies; together, these techniques significantly reduce the cost of an individual treatment to just about $1,000. This is paving the way for CAR T-cell therapies to be used in dogs with cancer, which not only provides hope for dogs and their owners, but also provides a superior model for understanding how this form of therapy works. As it currently stands, CAR T-cell development is done using immunocompromised mice, which is less than ideal for a number of reasons on which Wierson expounds in this episode. Tune in for all the details, and learn more by visiting <a href="https://www.leahlabs.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.leahlabs.com/</a>.

Cancer in Dogs and Humans: An Unprecedented Approach to Studying and Treating Both—Wesley Wierson—LEAH Labs