Smart Biotech Scientist | The CMC and Bioprocessing Podcast for Process Development and Manufacturing Leaders 212: When the Innovator Becomes the Patient: Manufacturing Reality vs. Patient Urgency with Jesús Zurdo - Part 2
What happens when cell therapy innovation meets real patient urgency? In this conversation, the barriers between scientist and patient all but vanish, bringing clarity—and a new sense of mission—to some of the biggest problems facing advanced therapy manufacturing and delivery.
Meet Jesús Zurdo, a biotech leader whose three decades of experience in innovation took on a whole new perspective when he became a leukemia patient himself. Seamlessly straddling the worlds of industry and patient care, Jesús Zurdo brings a refreshingly honest, systems-level view to cell therapies, manufacturing bottlenecks, and the realities of getting therapies from the lab to bedside.
Topics discussed:
- Experiences and lessons from stem cell registries and point-of-care manufacturing models (03:15)
- Challenges and potential of autologous and allogeneic cell therapies, including scalability and accessibility (06:08)
- The promise and limitations of in vivo cell therapy, delivery risks and patient safety (07:06)
- Reflections on current trends in manufacturing automation, delivery platforms, and the risk of overengineering (09:49)
- Barriers to wider adoption of advanced cell therapies, including hospital infrastructure and economic constraints (13:31)
- The case for earlier lines of treatment with new modalities and value in learning from actual patient experiences (14:30)
- The importance of integrating voices of patients, clinicians, and developers when solving complex problems (17:31)
- Why urgency and remembering our future roles as patients should guide therapy development (18:51)
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Connect with Jesús Zurdo:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesuszurdo
Email: jesus.zurdo@gmail.com
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