Making personalized, autologous cell therapies accessible: Interview with Nabiha Saklayen and Marinna Madrid of Cellino Biotech Inc.

Abstract

Nabiha Saklayen is CEO and Co-Founder of Cellino. Cellino's proprietary technology makes stem cell-derived therapies scalable for the first time. Nabiha was selected as a Pioneer in MIT Tech Review's 35 Innovators under 35 list for her patented inventions in cellular laser editing. She received her PhD in physics from Harvard University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Fellow. She is also the inaugural Tory Burch Foundation Fellow in Genomics at the Innovative Genomics Institute led by Nobel laureate, Dr Jennifer Doudna. Nabiha is also a TED speaker and co-creator of I Am a Scientist, an educational program running in 50 states that inspires children to explore science. Marinna Madrid is Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder at Cellino. She received her MA and PhD in applied physics from Harvard University, where she co-invented laser-based intracellular delivery techniques. She received her BSc in biophysics from the University of California, Los Angeles, after transferring from Riverside Community College. She is the recipient of the Harvard Graduate Prize Fellowship, the Catalyst Accelerator Grant from Harvard Medical School, and was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for healthcare in 2019. She has several patents, peer-reviewed publications and wrote the first review paper on autologous induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based cell therapies. She is also passionate about access to education and the role the community college system plays in providing upward mobility for historically disadvantaged groups. The interview was conducted on February 8, 2022, by Alice Soteriou, Commissioning Editor of Regenerative Medicine.