50 episodes listed below
Protein engineering where biologics gets specific.
The Chain follows protein engineers, scientists, and biotech professionals through the technical questions shaping biologics. Recent conversations move from antibody formats and peptide drugs to AlphaSeq, epitope mapping, AI, training, and patent law.
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The Chain is a protein engineering show with its center of gravity in biologics. It is technical by design. Recent excerpts place antibody engineering, peptide therapeutics, protein-protein interactions, AI, training, and biotech strategy in the same working conversation. A PEGS Summit panel asks whether half-life extended peptides could replace multispecific antibodies, then ranges across GLP-1 therapeutics, GPCR targets, HER2, B cells, ADCs, T cell engagers, CAR T, oral delivery, and D peptides. The discussion gives antibodies credit for momentum while still naming problems that peptides may handle differently. Another episode features Derek Lowe in a conversation about AI and the US biotech ecosystem. That exchange moves through PhD training, postdocs, medicinal chemistry learned on the job, graduate-student pressure, and how patent law may lag. The Randolph Lopez episode brings the show closer to platform mechanics. AalphaBio and AlphaSeq are discussed through protein-protein interactions, epitope mapping, SPR binning, epitope-like data, known structures, and how a method is judged against proximity to antibody binding. The show is comfortable with acronyms and discipline-specific shorthand. It does not pause to translate every term into consumer science language. That makes it a better fit for listeners who already have some footing in biotech, biologics, drug discovery, or adjacent research. The conversations are still accessible in shape, because they proceed through questions, examples, and comparison rather than lecture blocks. Guests explain what their tools are meant to reveal. Interviewers press on limits, validation, and consequences. The strongest material comes when scientific claims meet practical constraints: what can be engineered, what can be delivered, what can be protected, and what a company can build around. The Chain also pays attention to careers without turning into a career-advice show. Training, credentials, and company-building appear because they affect who does the work and how the work advances. Its distinctive appeal is that biologics are treated neither as hype nor as abstract research, but as a field shaped by formats, assays, targets, people, and difficult tradeoffs.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants biotech and biologics conversations with the technical vocabulary left in place. Best fit for people interested in protein engineering, antibody formats, peptide therapeutics, platform validation, and drug-discovery careers.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart by staying close to working scientific and industry detail: AlphaSeq, epitope mapping, GPCR targets, oral delivery, patent law, and training pathways all appear as practical problems rather than broad trends.
The Chain explores the lives, careers, research, and discoveries of protein engineers and scientists, the impact their work is having on the field, and where the industry is headed. Tune in to stay up-to-date on the newest advancements and to hear the stories that are impacting the world of biologics.
An antibody gets a pH trick instead of a tighter grip, and you get the scientist's reasoning.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A measured panel on where peptides shine, where antibodies still have room to run, and what remains difficult.
The future of biologic therapeutics gets a thoughtful airing in this PEGS Summit panel, which sets GLP-1 peptides alongside engineered antibodies and asks where each approach is likely to matter most.
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
The Chain's PEGS Summit panel asks whether GLP-1 peptides can do what engineered antibodies missed, and Paul Carter and Janine frame it as a target-fit problem rather than a modality race.
Derek Lowe says drug discovery fails about 85% of the time because scientists often choose the wrong target.
The Chain: Protein Engineering Podcast features Andrew Bradbury and Randolph Lopez explaining how AalphaBio's AlphaSeq converts protein-protein interaction screening into next-generation sequencing.
The Chain host Tarek Gayoor interviews Tomoyuki Igawa, Chugai's head of discovery, about two decades of antibody discovery, development, and organizational leadership.
Leslie Millar-Nicholson, executive director of MIT’s Technology Licensing Office, explains how MIT evaluates, protects, licenses, and manages intellectual property from more than 600 annual inventions.