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Talking Biotech is a weekly podcast that uncovers the stories, ideas and research of people at the frontier of biology and engineering.
Each episode explores how science and technology will transform agriculture, protect the environment, and feed 10 billion people by 2050.
Interviews are led by Dr. Kevin Folta, a professor of molecular biology and genomics.
Kevin Folta (00:04.307)
background there it sounds like but I think I can get rid of that so what we can do is just give me like 10 seconds of silence
Kevin Folta (00:21.459)
Okay, that's good. I'm the audio engineer too, so. All right. Believe me. It's, well, you know, I'm a professor that teaches classes in critical thinking and molecular biology and physiology. And then I do lab research and I'm a farmer at home. So I'm busy guy. All good, here we go.
Kerry Love (00:25.486)
Jack of all trades, Kevin. Hey, it's like you work for a startup company, Kevin.
Kevin Folta (00:46.919)
Hi everybody and welcome to this week's Talking Biotech podcast brought to you by Calabra. Now during the COVID epidemic, or at least the beginning of the pandemic, we had a lot of discussion about how we were going to generate new therapeutics to treat a problem. And we saw some pretty amazing things happen with respect to moving an idea from a concept to an actual therapeutic. And all of this was enabled by a really efficient chain of events, along with plenty of infusion of government money
to make this kind of thing happen very quickly. It was a great example of what can be done to move a therapeutic application relatively fast when there's ability to do it, when there's capital there, and when there's capacity to amplify it, to build it. And so all of this is a great example that we could go to solve a real problem in healthcare in just, what was it, 11 months. But that's not true for everybody.
There are places in the world where concepts thrive, but the capacity to implement them does not. And if there was a company that could assist with that, both in the raising of capital to do it, as well as to actually getting it into a pipeline, that may be a great benefit to helping with healthcare solutions worldwide. So today we're speaking, oops, sorry, got to move my thing here. right. So today we're speaking with Dr. Carrie Love. She's the CEO and president of Sunflower Therapeutics. Welcome to the podcast.
Dr. Love.
Kerry Love (02:13.764)
Thank you. Thank you, Kevin.
Kevin Folta (02:16.167)
Yeah, this is really, really exciting to talk to you because it's a little departure from where we normally are with the podcast. So could you tell me a little bit more about the general idea behind Sunflower Therapeutics and just the enabling technology that you offer? Like what's the problem that you want to
Kerry Love (02:37.294)
Yeah, no, I really appreciate the opportunity. So at Sunflower, we consider ourselves solution providers, Kevin, to the broader industry of people trying to bring protein -based products to diverse market segments to consumers. So that might be protein -based drugs, therapeutics, vaccines, maybe alternative food products, cosmetics, right? So there's a ton of different products that now in this new biotech age use protein.
we're kind of helping to support that.
You ask about kind of what are our core technologies that enable us to provide solutions. We are experts in small footprint manufacturing. So that's a way to be very efficient in deploying bioprocess really anywhere in the world using a small footprint equipment approach. And we're experts in using microbes to do that, right? So those are things like bacteria or yeast, right? To make protein really efficiently and quickly for diverse market segments.
Kerry Love (03:44.75)
Kevin, you're muted.
Kevin Folta (03:48.455)
How about now? hold on one second. Let make sure I'm okay. Okay. I wanted to double check my microphone so we can go from there. Okay. So let's talk about small footprint technologies. I mean, it sounds a little bit jargony. And so when we're talking about small footprint, is it something that you have equipment that you can deploy internationally that can be of interest and used to say a small startup somewhere in Africa or in Asia?
Kerry Love (04:15.544)
Yeah, exactly. So small footprint manufacturing is a means of deploying bioprocess, typically using integrated and continuous techniques. So interestingly, drugs and therapeutics are actually the only consumer good that we don't collectively make in a continuous and integrated fashion. And so that's really what small footprint manufacturing is doing for bioprocess. It's minimizing those unit operations, making them smaller, usually
fully automated and integrated so that they can be deployed as a piece of hardware really wherever those processes are needed.
Kevin Folta (04:53.747)
What's the need? guess it seems like if you're a company that has a plan to develop XYZ, you would already have that in place. So why is there even a necessity for this?
Kerry Love (05:05.476)
Yeah, it's a great question. And I think fundamentally, Kevin, it's that good ideas can really come from anywhere. We saw this kind of boom with additive manufacturing, using things like 3D printing about 10 to 20 years ago, where we saw diverse solutions coming from all different parts of the world. We're now seeing that same thing happening in biotech. So you're right. If you're a big company and you already have capacity, maybe this isn't as relevant to you unless you want to break into a new
But bio economies don't exist everywhere all over the globe in spite of the fact that we have huge populations in diverse locations There is no for example commercial product manufacturing on the African continent, right? Africa imports 95 % of all of their health care related goods and services including personal protective equipment So they're actually not producing product for their own needs and use they're importing it which causes a major major
health care related trade deficit.
Kevin Folta (06:07.629)
Is there a utility of having local manufacturing in terms of speed of deployment of something like PPE in the event of like a breakout of Ebola, something like
Kerry Love (06:16.718)
Yeah, absolutely. I think there's advantages to speed and to preserving that whole chain of deployment for both drugs and related products and services, right? Certainly we saw this in the pandemic, right? Being able to deploy quickly enables both mass vaccination and also more cost effective. So when we think about Africa not having this, this was a huge, huge barrier and part of why they
didn't reach 60 % population vaccination until actually quit pretty late in 2023. So I mean, that's significant.
Kevin Folta (06:56.845)
What are the bottlenecks that exist with, say, deployment to new threats? So something new arises, I mentioned COVID -19, coming up with new therapeutics for SARS -CoV -2. But how useful is it to have these things more localized in terms of logistics and storage and all that
Kerry Love (07:16.824)
Yeah, great question. I mean, I think it really depends on what it is that we're combating against, right? So if we think about, for example, an infectious disease, right, a new potential pandemic threat, being able to deploy quickly and very close to the site of kind of massive infection is actually really helpful for containment, right? Being able to do that quickly and thoroughly. You also often get better buy -in when you're talking about making a product locally using local or regional labor,
There's a lot of vaccine hesitancy in diverse parts of the world when we think about product that gets pushed in as opposed to product that's homegrown, right? That's true across many market segments for consumer goods.
Kevin Folta (07:59.417)
That's really true because so much trust, especially in places like Africa that has a colonial history, that there is a certain inherent mistrust in someone coming from the outside and saying, hey, have we got something for you? that's
Kerry Love (08:12.376)
Yeah.
Rightfully so, Kevin, right? I mean, I think this is the challenge, right? I mean, think historically the global north has used populations in the global south as a means for clinical trial execution, but not necessarily for the benefit of those therapeutics that are actually being deployed in clinical trials in region. So it's really challenging, right? And so I think distributed manufacturing, which is really powered by small footprint approaches, helps to overcome some of that loss of trust.
Kevin Folta (08:42.835)
I see distributed manufacturing. I think that's a really cool concept. the principal idea is distributed manufacturing, but how many different things can you support to manufacture like
Kerry Love (08:54.542)
Yeah, it depends on the technology, Kevin. So Sunflower's technology is incredibly diverse, right? It's really applicable to lots of different kinds of protein -based products. So, you our technology for producing bulk drug substance could make a vaccine antigen one week, and then you could turn around and deploy the same hardware to make a monoclonal antibody the week after, or a hormone or an insulin product, right? So really thinking
about the way that the equipment is constructed and deploys a bioprocess is part of that.
Kevin Folta (09:30.929)
I see. So most of these are protein -based therapeutics or are you also dabbling in mRNA and other goodies like that these days?
Kerry Love (09:38.786)
Yeah, so mRNA is a totally different technique, Kevin, right? So it's not a protein -based product and it's not made using a living host. Interestingly, you have to have a lot of protein to make an mRNA product. So actually there's significant advantage if you want to make mRNA to having systems like ours from Sunflower in your region to make all those raw materials. But what we're talking about is making protein -based products. So again, maybe it's a subunit for a subunit vaccine, maybe it's a
right, something like like an insulin product or human growth hormone, right, these are essential medicines.
Kevin Folta (10:15.583)
or GLP -1 these days. Yeah, you could deploy to the heavier regions of the globe. I guess the other... So you're mentioning this is all done in creating proteins, and this is done in microorganisms. So what kind of microorganisms are typically used in production of proteins?
Kerry Love (10:17.902)
true, DLP one.
Kerry Love (10:38.424)
Yeah, it depends on the protein product and the process that's been invented for that product. We tend to use yeast, Kevin. We think that that's a great balance between the kind of speed that you get from a microorganism, right? Because yeast double very quickly every two to three hours. But yeast also are eukaryotes, right? Which, as you know, as a microbiologist means they have membranes, they have organized organelles inside of each cell that actually create the right transit of proteins.
between their inception and the surface. Most of the products we make in yeast are secreted. So we're using that cell as a little factory to help us with the quality control during the production.
Kevin Folta (11:21.101)
very good. We'll talk with Dr. Kerry Love, who's the founder and CEO and president of Sunflower Therapeutics. We'll talk to her a little bit more about some of the success stories on the other side of the break. This is the Talking Biotech podcast by Calabra, and we'll be back in just a moment. All right, so then we'll pick up on this side here. And then, so far so good. I'm getting it. In the second
Can we cover a couple of particular success stories of things that really worked out for a given region? What would you suggest?
Kerry Love (11:57.672)
Yeah, I mean we're kind of at the beginning of this, Kevin, because we are a truly disruptive technology. So we're just starting to get traction, but the traction we're getting is because we have such opportunity for bioeconomy development. So we're in that place where we've been working in Africa for the last four years, and we're starting to get significant interest and uptake there.
Kevin Folta (12:19.333)
Okay, so what we should be talking about is the way the need is getting filled.
Kerry Love (12:24.996)
And the fact that people see the need and they see that this is a way to fill it, which is so exciting.
Kevin Folta (12:31.729)
Yeah, that is pretty cool. I like this. It's very nice. You should develop a university -based module, too, that we could just deploy at a university to make the goodies we need.
Kerry Love (12:44.164)
So we have that, we totally have that, Kevin. Our smallest system actually got deployed as early access product to two universities here in North America in 2022. So that's actually how we developed the product that's now being commercially deployed.
Kevin Folta (12:53.221)
Okay, well maybe.
Kevin Folta (12:58.833)
Maybe I'll ask you about that just kind of as an aside. Is there anything else that I should really hit in the second
Kerry Love (13:00.92)
Yeah, go ahead.
Kerry Love (13:05.654)
No, I mean, I think you're doing great. Like, I think we're just having a really natural conversation, Kevin. I appreciate it.
Kevin Folta (13:10.067)
yeah. No, no, that's where that's, that's what sounds best. It's always good. It's always hard when you have somebody on who has, who's reading from a script and then you can't, you know, it's, it's not, not off the cuff. All right. So we'll keep going. And then if you have anything that I need to ask about, can I ask about other organisms in yeast or is it, is it, and is it Baker's yeast or using Piquia or is it. Okay.
Kerry Love (13:32.75)
Yeah, sure.
So we use Pichia pastoris? Yeah. Yeah, sure, no problem.
Kevin Folta (13:38.041)
All right, I'll ask you about all that. So, okay, here we go. Here we go. And now we're back on the Talking Biotech podcast. We're speaking with Dr. Carrie Love. She's the founder, CEO, and president of Sunflower Therapeutics. And in the first part, we talked a lot about the need and what was being done to help meet that need of small footprint manufacturing that can happen throughout the world with a deployable module. So pretty cool stuff. And this is all protein, as we discussed so far.
protein -based therapeutics that are being generated in yeast. when you're talking about yeast, you're talking about a couple different critters here. Are you using baker's yeast or are you using picaeopastorus?
Kerry Love (14:18.576)
Yeah, we use pichia pastoris for a couple of reasons. One is really fundamental from a microbiology perspective, Kevin. Again, I think you'll appreciate this. Bakers yeast actually isn't as well organized inside of the cell, right? So for example, it doesn't have a streamlined path for a protein to go from where it's made to the surface, but pichia does. It's actually much more like a mammalian cell, right? Like a Cho cell, for example. So it secretes proteins
super efficiently. So that's one major reason. Another few reasons that we use yeast as opposed to mammalian cells or bacteria is because we really get the best bang for our buck, right? So they're organized like a mammalian cell, which means you can make really complicated proteins that usually you'd have to use a Cho cell or a more expensive organism. But they don't have some of the pitfalls of bacteria, right? Like endotoxins, right? Which are some kind of
byproducts that come along with those cells when you cultivate them to make protein. So great balance there, but we're somewhat agnostic, right? Many of our customers are interested in using our equipment with other microbes. That's fine. It's built to do the job for whatever people are interested in doing, right? And we're actually presently starting to work on CHO -ready systems as well.
Kevin Folta (15:41.427)
Okay, I see that. Now that can work because it depends on what your, I guess you say your partner in the production is looking to grow and in the process, right? So, Piki is really cool because it's such a, I haven't used it in 22 years, but it was a really efficient microbe in terms, I guess if it was livestock, we'd say feed conversion. You put in a little bit of stuff and get a lot out, which is really pretty
Kerry Love (16:07.746)
Yeah, totally. And we see the same. So we're able to grow really high density cultures in our continuous fermentation systems. You know, some other benefits of PICCIA is it's well recognized by regulators worldwide. Most of the global insulin supply is made in PICCIA. We've got monoclonals that are approved by the FDA that are made in PICCIA, lots of other products. So there's a good comfort with that as an organism, right? But again, it's really capable. That's what you have to have.
Kevin Folta (16:35.571)
So the concept of having a small footprint bioreactor type situation that you can amplify some sort of a therapeutic product or I shouldn't even say that, a protein product. There's increasing need even in places like my lab where we need a specific peptide or protein generated and to have that done can be either expensive or require some extra expertise. Are there maybe university level models of this that could be deployed that
allow us to custom generate different proteins?
Kerry Love (17:06.328)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's really what we're made to do, Kevin, is to support innovators like you all the way through the whole value chain, even beginning in academia. Our smallest system, the Daisy Petal system, right, which is a bench top fermentation system deploying continuous fermentation, perfect for a university lab. I mean, it has the output capacity to make product really in quantities even enough to support, you know, first in human clinical work. But it's a great size for an academic
We actually deployed a couple of early access systems in academic labs here in North America in 2022 just to get some great customer feedback, which we did.
Kevin Folta (17:46.759)
very nice. So where is the most interest right now? When you say you're internationally exposed to help bring these, I can't remember the term now, the deployable manufacturing. Distributed manufacturing, okay. So you have distributing manufacturing. Where is it being distributed to?
Kerry Love (17:59.896)
Yeah, distributed manufacturing.
Kerry Love (18:08.024)
Yeah, great question. And we're getting a lot of traction in diverse locations in the global south. So we're excited that our first systems that are going to be commercially deployed later this year are actually going to go to India. So that's super exciting. They're going to go to a vaccine developer. We also have a lot of engagement in Africa, specifically in South Africa. We work with a group there based in Pretoria, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. They're super interested in
as a way to help them take innovation into the clinic and ultimately into the marketplace. So the benefits are really being seen by diverse innovators in the global south and we're getting that traction.
Kevin Folta (18:50.791)
does it seem like COVID or the development of the COVID vaccine, either the RNA but also the protein types of the COVID vaccine, did that really increase the interest in this kind of deployable manufacturing strategy because of the ability to quickly adapt to a new pathogen threat? Do you think that those things are maybe a little bit related?
Kerry Love (19:16.452)
Yeah, I mean, I would say kind of the timing was all right, Kevin. I've been at this from an innovative standpoint since 2013. So it's been more than 10 years that I've been working kind of on this technology and its precursor form. And we had a lot of interest even early on kind of in the work that we did before we became Sunflower when we were at MIT. I think what COVID did was really amplified the interest just in biotechnology product development in general. But it also put a
fine glass over the fact that that capacity is not evenly distributed in the world. I think that was really what came out of the pandemic. And, you know, that's a big problem. And now we're seeing a very large response to
Kevin Folta (20:03.149)
Do you find that there are places, let me reframe that, is that I've worked in my lab with scientists who've come from every corner of the world. And what I really like about that is that each one brings a different perspective to the way you solve a problem or maybe an idea that really does compliment what we're already doing that I would have never thought of. And I don't know that it's necessarily just a different scientist. I think it's maybe partially cultural in where they come from and the way they think about things being
And does that really enable places which have maybe been historically underserved to really have the capacity to be able to manufacture their ideas?
Kerry Love (20:40.632)
Yeah, I think we have to combine that innovative spirit, which you're absolutely right, comes from diverse cultural perspectives. We have to combine that with the actual access to the technologies that are right sized for people in these regions to deploy to their own benefit. It's not enough to just be excellently trained. My colleagues in Africa are excellently trained. Africa runs clinical research better than anywhere else in the world. And my colleagues
just incredibly smart, thoughtful, innovative scientists. They don't have the same access to capital, for example, to build a half billion or billion dollar plant to make their product. So we've got to figure out how to lower that barrier, both in terms of the upfront cost and then the ongoing sustainability of a technology to enable them to participate in bioproduct and bioeconomy creation.
Kevin Folta (21:36.111)
And are your colleagues in Africa working on therapeutics which are specific for African issues or local issues? Africa is a very diverse place, I know, but maybe regional issues that are more threatening like malaria perhaps or something like
Kerry Love (21:51.652)
Yeah, exactly. think that's the other thing that happens, Kevin, is when you have capacity in region, you actually can really meaningfully address in region problems as well, right? It actually pulls assets from R &D right into the clinic and ultimately into the marketplace. So, you know, I'm really hopeful that we're going to see a whole lot more of that over the next 10, 20 years as bioeconomies really rise up and start to thrive in Africa. I'll add something else.
that you're mentioning, which is really important. When we enable in -region creation of product for region, we're helping to create, co -create a better product with regional scientists. So Africans are the most diverse people group on Earth.
that continent is much more genetically diverse. And with that and the fact that drugs aren't made for Africans, most drugs that are made in the global north and deployed to Africans make them sick, actually. I was stunned to learn that 15 % of Africans who receive a biologic drug go to the hospital. So we've got to create or support a way for Africans to create product for Africans. It seems really logical, but it doesn't exist if we
have that pull with the manufacturing capacity.
Kevin Folta (23:13.319)
That's a really good point I never really thought of. I I knew Africa was diverse because I've been all over the place. And when you go from Egypt to Morocco to South Africa to everywhere in between, it's all completely different. And so that's, it's a really, really good point. What are the major protein therapeutics that are being generated in these startups? Are they mostly vaccines or something
Kerry Love (23:37.48)
Yeah, a lot of different kinds of products and and I would say it's not mostly startups in Africa that are doing this It's mostly government -supported entities Usually it's you know different kinds of research institutions or academic labs on continent I think we're just starting to see startup companies launching out of these institutes and kind of trying to become commercially viable There's a lot of work around HIV right on Understandably, so the HIV burden is significant there also things
malaria, other unmet tropical diseases like dengue or chikungunya, right? So things that really are relevant to the region, that's the bulk of the work that I'm aware of.
Kevin Folta (24:20.947)
I guess maybe the devil's advocate question is that when we're doing something at massive scale, it's easy to have many levels of quality control and you can test the batch and then they're all going to be same for the millions of individual batches within that group. And so how does this work in a smaller scale with respect to things like quality control?
where you'd have to have some sort of oversight to make sure that the smaller deployable units are still giving you something
Kerry Love (24:52.024)
Yeah, it's the same as in large scale, Kevin. In fact, in many ways, it's easier in small scale than it is in large scale, because every time you touch something as an operator, you have to go and test it and make sure that you didn't do anything to it. So if you think about doing that in ultra large scale, that's actually harder. When you talk about small footprint manufacturing, especially using like Sunflower's fully integrated technologies, we're basically taking all of the unit operations that it takes to make a bulk drug
and we're combining them under one fully automated system with quality control. So humans don't touch anything in between unit operations. So there's no opportunity to screw stuff up, right?
we still want the batch to be tested at the end, right? The bulk has to be tested at the end of that process before it can be released. That's just good manufacturing practice. So in many ways, the controls are the same, but the combination of smaller scale plus automation makes that actually a lot easier.
Kevin Folta (25:53.745)
very good. I saw online in the news that Sunflower was partnering with the Department of Defense for something. So what is their major interest?
Kerry Love (26:05.028)
Yeah, so Sunflower actually operationalized in 2019 with a significant contract from the U .S. Department of Defense through the Joint Program Executive Office. And that actually helps support the building of our larger end -end DALIA system prototype. The U .S. government's really interested in just increasing the local manufacturing base, right? That's important for us just in terms of kind of our own vaccine sovereignty, our ability to respond.
as you mentioned before, quickly to potential pandemic needs. But that's a technology that we can use to the benefit of war fighters worldwide as well. Often it's really hard to get medicines in theater where they're needed, either for war fighters or civilian populations in the region. And this is something that the government has been really excited about since its inception.
Kevin Folta (27:01.585)
That's a really, really good point. And I had another one that was similar. I got to think about what I was going to ask you. shoot. here we go. One of the big criticisms of the way that drugs are manufactured globally is that very few of them are actually manufactured here in the US. And so is there potential for this kind of a platform to even serve domestic need in some capacity?
Kerry Love (27:29.892)
Absolutely. mean, to be honest, Kevin, we think more is more. There's no reason why we shouldn't be using a distributed manufacturing concept to involve diverse populations here in the US to participate in value creation of biotech products for the US, right? When you think about deploying an equipment concept that is very simplified and uses automation, we want people to be using our system who've never deployed
bioprocesses before. So we've worked on all those human factors to make sure that anyone can be successful. So that means you could be doing manufacturing anywhere. It doesn't have to be in a biotech area like where I'm based in Boston. It could be in, mean, frankly, it could be anywhere. It could be in Wyoming. It could be in Arkansas. It could be in Florida. It doesn't really matter.
Kevin Folta (28:24.879)
very good. Is there a particular success story that really surprised you where somebody was able to use your equipment to do something revolutionary?
Kerry Love (28:35.608)
Yeah, I mean, I think I'll follow on what we were just talking about in terms of the simplicity of the human factors. So one of our early access systems went, as I mentioned, to a US -based university. It sounds like a lab a lot like yours, Kevin, where the graduate students are really interested in making protein -based products, but they're not experts in bioprocess, right? So they actually had never run a fermenter before. So we deployed that equipment and trained the students in that lab. And within about a
to 10 days, they ran a bioprocess on their own. They had never done it before. So I think that's a success story because it just is proof positive that really anyone can do this, right, with a little bit of training and a piece of equipment that's geared toward accessibility.
Kevin Folta (29:22.247)
Yeah, it also seems like a small company or startup in the States, for instance, that wanted to make some sort of boutique enzyme or something that would be, have a high demand in industrial use or maybe therapeutic use, that they would be all over this because if it was kind of a plug and play opportunity to be able to take the hard part, which is the manufacturing part out of it, to be able to just use their idea. You know, is there like
turnkey retail side of this that could be deployable just for small company support in the US.
Kerry Love (29:57.432)
Yeah, absolutely. We call it plug and produce, Kevin, because that's how simple it is, right? Yeah, so we're actually commercializing our first product right now. So the, the Daisy Petal Perfusion Bioreactor system. This is that benchtop unit that we deployed as early access with academics. It is now ready for sale, right? We're engaging in commercial builds for customers. As I mentioned, you know, we'll deploy outside of the U S but we're getting interest in traction here too. And you're right for, from a small company perspective, it's exactly the race.
the right level of not complexity, right? It's very simple, and that's what it's for. It's really to help people figure out where they wanna go in the market before they know exactly what the demand is gonna be.
Kevin Folta (30:42.748)
very good. That's pretty cool. Is there any other question I should ask you that we've left
Kevin Folta (30:52.807)
Or that would be a good lead to highlight some other interesting facet of the product or the company.
Kerry Love (30:59.928)
Yeah, I mean, I think I'll tell you, we're organized a little differently than other businesses, right? So we're a public benefit corporation, Kevin, which is a really important mechanism for incorporation to say we wanna do well by doing good, right? So, yeah.
Kevin Folta (31:16.599)
Let me ask you about that. I saw it on the website and I wasn't sure the easy way to leave that in. So here we go.
Kerry Love (31:22.232)
Yes, dive right in.
Kevin Folta (31:27.335)
What I really neglected to ask you about was kind of a philosophical basis of the company itself, because I noticed on the website, you speak about it being a public benefit company. So can you tell me more about that philosophy?
Kerry Love (31:40.558)
Yeah, absolutely, Kevin. A public benefit company or a PBC, this is a for -profit C Corp, right? So it's still a for -profit company. It's not a non -profit, but it's a company that believes in doing well by doing good, right? And so what that means is that we have to serve both our fiduciary responsibilities to our shareholders alongside of our public benefit purpose, right? And for Sunflower, our public benefit purpose is improving the
of health and wellness products for humans and animals worldwide through our products and services or any other way that we can do
Right? So certainly that means that we're going to engage very intentionally and trying to be capacity builders in the global south. But it also means that, for example, we donate 10 % of our net profits every year to things that we think are really passionate, that we're passionate about, that are improving the lives and health of humans and animals. Right? It's just a way where we can kind of walk our talk.
around being thoughtful and caregiving to the rest of the world in terms of accessibility for healthcare solutions.
Kevin Folta (32:55.443)
It's wonderful. And I hope more people follow that kind of a model. And I know that this is sometimes really attractive to students who are currently in college, a very big difference between how they were 20 years ago and now. And so if students were interested in working for a company like Sunflower, like let's just say for Sunflower, who was building this kind of capacity, and maybe not just in science, but like, what do you look for in somebody who would fit the company
Kerry Love (33:23.566)
Yeah, I love that. think, you know, obviously we have, you know, a number of company values that are embodied in different ways, but I think three characteristics that are really important to me. The first is intensity, right? We have to be intense about pursuing this thing that we want to do that's big and challenging. Initiative, right? I want people who are going to like pick things up and start going whether we ask them to or not. And ultimately passion, right? So those
the kind of three core values I think that ultimately kind of are I see as critical elements to success here in this business.
Kevin Folta (34:02.321)
That's interesting because those are things that you don't necessarily teach in the classroom. so it's a, which is really cool. and, and, but are there certain skills that you look for as well to compliment those kinds of more value based or values based, qualities.
Kerry Love (34:18.68)
Yeah, absolutely. mean, we're looking for students or professionals with a diverse background in science. Maybe it's fermentation science, maybe it's molecular biology or strain engineering, or just engineering in general. We've got chemical engineers, we've got process engineers, industrial engineers. But honestly, Kevin, more important than any of those kind of rear wheel skills are those front wheel skills that we just talked about.
because we're really at the cutting edge of continuous bioprocess in our business. So we kind of almost have to retrain anyone who joins us. So it's more important for people to have that passion and actually be coachable and really want to kind of pull with the rest of their colleagues, their teammates, than to have a specific skill set that we may or may not be able to really, you know.
Kevin Folta (34:58.515)
No, no, I get
Kerry Love (35:17.741)
drive from.
Kevin Folta (35:18.801)
Yeah, it's almost better, isn't it, to have somebody?
Kerry Love (35:21.932)
A lot of times it is, Because sometimes you're actually having to like reteach against like prior teaching, right? When you're talking about something that's super cutting edge and innovative, right? Sometimes having a particular style of thought is a barrier, you know?
Kevin Folta (35:37.191)
Yeah, I do a lot of deep programming because I like to kind of, especially in shortcuts and things like that, that people have adopted that really do end up in a compromise of final quality. They kind of go, okay, here's how we're going to do it the right way. And, and, and then that's what's so much fun. I, I see people using kits and shortcuts and not getting the products they want. And then, having to retrain folks, but I can, I can teach them how to use a pipette or I can't teach them to care. And.
I think that I love that part of the philosophy as we were speaking about it. Any other questions that I could ask you? I guess it seems pretty
Kerry Love (36:17.164)
Yeah, I mean...
Kevin Folta (36:18.429)
It's a pretty tight unit there. So why don't I just ask you next where people find out more and if you could give us a hint on website and then like if you're on Twitter X or threads or whatever, that would be awesome. Okay. All right, here we
Kerry Love (36:20.377)
Yeah.
Kerry Love (36:31.182)
Yeah, that's great.
Kevin Folta (36:34.865)
This has all been really eye -opening and really a really nice, let me say that again. This has been really eye -opening and really gives me a much better sense of the way the company works. And I really do appreciate the approach and the idea of building capacity. If people want to learn more about Sunflower Therapeutics, where would they
Kerry Love (36:55.096)
Yeah, they can look at our website, Kevin, so our website at www .sunflowertx .com. We also have a channel on LinkedIn and a YouTube channel, actually, where we put videos out that are great explainers to try to help people understand our approach. So those would all be great places to look.
Kevin Folta (37:14.865)
Very good. So Dr. Kerry Love, thank you very much for joining me today and hopefully next time you have a big thing to talk about, let me know and we'll rejoin you again and hear about some more success stories.
Kerry Love (37:25.226)
Awesome, sounds good Kevin. Thanks for this opportunity.
Kevin Folta (37:28.345)
And to the listeners, thank you very much for listening to the Talking Biotech podcast. My voice cracked there. Thank you very much for listening again. I get excited about not just new products, but new ways to enable their capacity to build them so that they can serve the people they were meant to serve. It's really exciting to know that these kinds of technologies coming from a company that wants to enable these technologies and do so in a, wow, what was the term again?
Kerry Love (37:57.54)
distributed manufacturing.
Kevin Folta (37:58.619)
No, no, the term about the kind of company it is with that. Let me go back and do
Kerry Love (38:04.578)
Public Benefit Corporation.
Kevin Folta (38:10.631)
The ability to generate capacity and do it from a public benefit corporation is a really good model that I hope catches on. This is the Talking Biotech podcast by Calabra, and we'll talk to you again next week. And then we hit stop.