Turbocharging Translation: Perspectives from Roche, ADDF, Axonis, Harvard, BioM and Sofinnova | WXPRESS June Edition

Turning scientific insight into real-world impact is one of the most important tasks in medicine. In this month’s edition, we feature voices from pharma, biotech, academia, and ecosystem leadership—all shaping how innovation advances in today’s global health landscape.

In June, Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month spotlights one of medicine’s most stubborn frontiers. We interview three leaders driving momentum: Dr. Azad Bonni, SVP and Global Head of Neuroscience & Rare Diseases at Roche; Dr. Howard Fillit, Co-Founder and CSO of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF); and Dr. Shane Hegarty, CSO and Co-Founder of Axonis Therapeutics. Their recent efforts reflect a shared commitment to closing long-standing central nervous system (CNS) translational gaps.

Behind every breakthrough is science that dares to challenge what we think we know. As the Founding Director of the Wyss Institute at Harvard, Dr. Donald Ingber’s work on organs-on-chips is redefining how we model disease—and what’s possible at the interface of engineering and medicine. And ideas don’t scale without a robust ecosystem. Joining us from Munich, Dr. Ralf Huss, Managing Director of Bio^M, and Dr. Karl Naegler, Partner at Sofinnova, discuss the critical roles of ecosystem building and collaborations.

We hope you enjoy these perspectives. At WuXi AppTec, we are proud to enable the translation of science through our global CRDMO platform, and it has been an honor to help advance breakthroughs for patients.