BioTalk EP67.pdf

Jeff Galvin, CEO and Founder of American Gene Technologies, discusses his background and how he got into the biotech world. He grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, and developed a love for technology in junior high school, which led him to teach at MIT and Harvard before graduating from Harvard in 1981. He worked at Hewlett-Packard and Apple, and after making money in real estate and startups, he retired in his early 40s. However, he found retirement unfulfilling and decided to invest in a software startup, which led him to the National Institutes of Health and the concept of viral vectors. This sparked an interest in genetics and led him to found AGT in 2006, with the mission to leverage gene and cell technologies to reduce suffering and death from serious human diseases. The company is now on the verge of a clinical trial for a potential functional cure for HIV, which Galvin believes can be achieved at a significantly lower cost than other gene or cell therapies.