Interview with Robin Mansukhani, CEO and Anil Bhushan, Chief Scientist of Deciduous Therapeutics

July 19, 2022

1530

Today I am joined by Robin Mansukhani, CEO and Dr. Anil Bhushan, Chief Scientist of Deciduous Therapeutics, a venture-backed start-up developing novel immunotherapies to treat age related diseases.

Robin has also been an advisor to several early stage biotech companies in the Aging and CNS space including Therini Bio and Reservoir Neurosciences. Previously, Robin co-founded and served as President and CEO of Alzeca Biosciences, a diagnostic imaging company for CNS disorders, which is supported by venture investors, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and an NIH Direct to Phase 2 Grant. Robin has been an invited keynote speaker both domestically and abroad, including TEDx. Previously, Mr. Mansukhani worked in early stage venture capital at The Maple Fund and investment banking at Axiom Capital. He has also co-founded BlueStamp Engineering, an intensive, project-based engineering program for high school students. Robin previously served a term in AmeriCorps where he led health and literacy programs. Mr. Mansukhani holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Bhushan is the scientific founder of Deciduous where his lab was one of the first to show the role of clearing senescent cells in models of Type 1 diabetes. The long-term goal of his research is to understand the role of tissue secretory senescent cells in aging, autoimmunity and metabolic diseases. Recently they showed that pancreatic beta cells acquire a secretome in T1D in both mice and humans and exhibit many non-cell autonomous properties. Subsequently they have identified key immune cells that can selectively eliminate senescent beta cells to halt progression of beta cell destruction to prevent T1D in mouse models. They now utilize immune modulatory targets to identify new drugs that specifically eliminate secretory senescent cells in humans.