Boba & Biotech is a candid podcast about what it takes to develop new drugs and the ecosystem of academics, biotechs, pharma and investors behind it. Our field is often misunderstood by outsiders and insiders alike due to the poor communication habits and complex science that underlie human disease.

I, Armon Sharei, was a PhD student in chemical engineering when I was first enamoured by the idea of engineering a patient’s own cells to attack their disease. Throughout my journey, we spun out a company, SQZ Biotech, from MIT, raised $400M in investor and partnered funding from Roche, and went public on the NYSE. Eventually my board and I had a big fight, I got kicked out and started all over again! 

Please join me as we chat with the people that have dedicated their careers to improving human health and how they navigate the challenges of science, money, corporate politics and the rollercoaster of clinical development. As we sip on our boba throughout these episodes, I promise the only sugar coating will be on the bubbles!

Portal Biotechnologies, headquartered in Watertown, MA, is a rapidly scaling cell-engineering platform company redefining how scientists and clinicians engineer cells across research, drug discovery, and therapeutic applications. Since launching its first product in 2024, Portal has built a network of 100+ active customers, received an $8M contract from DARPA and been deployed in most of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and leading academic hospitals worldwide.

Armon Sharei, PhD, is the Founder and CEO of Portal Bio. Previously, Armon founded and served as CEO of SQZ Biotech (NYSE: SQZ), where he raised over $400M, advanced three oncology clinical trials, established a $1B+ collaboration with Roche, and led the IPO. A Stanford and MIT graduate and former Harvard Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Sharei holds 30+ patents and has been widely recognized for his scientific and entrepreneurial leadership.