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Welcome to the Empowered Patient Podcast with Karen Jagoda.  This show offers a glimpse into the latest innovations in applying generative AI, novel therapeutics and vaccines, and the evolving dynamics in the medical and healthcare landscape. One focus is on how providers, pharmaceutical companies, and payers are empowering patients.  In addition, conversations often focus on how technology is empowering providers, care facilities, pharmaceutical companies, and payers to improve patient outcomes and reduce friction across the healthcare landscape.  Popular Topics Include: Virtual and digital health Use of AI, ML, and robots for clinical and administrative purposes  Value-based healthcare  Precision and stratified medicine Next-generation immuno, cell, and gene therapies Vaccines for infectious diseases and oncology Biomarkers and diagnostics Rare diseases MedTech and medical devices Clinical trials  Population health Chronic conditions l Clinician and staff burnout Smart hospitals The audience includes life science leaders, researchers, medical professionals, patient advocates, digital health entrepreneurs, patients, caregivers, healthcare solution providers, students, journalists, and investors.

Mar 19, 2026

Dr. Mike McCullar, CEO of RegCell, is developing a novel cell therapy to treat autoimmune diseases that specifically addresses the loss of tolerance, in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the body's own tissues. This approach contrasts with current treatments, which broadly suppress the immune system and may cause side effects. The key goals of the therapy are to achieve long-term disease control and restore the immune system's natural balance. The company's manufacturing process is designed to simplify cell therapies, making them more affordable and accessible to a broader population of autoimmune patients.

Mike explains, "The real driver of immunity, we believe, is what's called loss of tolerance, which is a system in our bodies that protects us from bad immune cells that attack our tissues. So that's a fundamental limitation in biology, and there really is not a curated treatment at this point. So our view has really been to try to restore the natural balance of our immune system by regulatory T cells, which are an indispensable non-redundant cell type to maintain tolerance against our autoimmune disorders. So we think the current treatments really don't address these challenges. They are broadly suppressing the immune system, and they don't offer curative potential."  

"We've been using the same kinds of drugs for the immune disease for about three to five years, and they will broadly suppress the immune system. They are really unable to distinguish between a good immune cell and a bad immune cell. And I think that's the fundamental limitation of how these drugs work. They could be very affected, but they do really broadly suppress the immune system in an indiscriminate way."

#RegCell #AutoimmuneHepatitis  #Biotechnology #MedicalResearch#AutoimmuneDiseases #CellTherapy #PrecisionMedicine #Immunology #Biotech #RegulatoryTCells #Innovation #HealthcareTechnology #ClinicalTrials

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