Jack Silberstein's startup, Deck Bio, received a "Golden Ticket" award from Servier - he and Servier's Irene Blat discuss how it is one of the many ways larger companies help biotech entrepreneurs

Servier's 'Golden Ticket' gave Deck Bio a place to work at LabCentral and access to Servier's experts for advice. Jack and Irene discuss the benefits of this kind of support to a smaller company, and other ways more established players nurture the biotech ecosystem in hubs like Kendall Square.

Chapters

Intros - 0:07

Deck Bio - 1:25

The value of collaboration - 2:22

What Servier looks for in collaborators - 3:07

Jack's clinical background perspective - 6:06

Support from the LabCentral Community - 7:53

The Golden Ticket process - 10:46

Servier's decision to participate in the program - 12:47

Helping companies other ways - 15:08

Participating in mentoring programs - 17:54

Advice for entrepreneurs - 18:43

The Experts

Irene Blat is an oncology leader specializing in scientific evaluation and strategic partnerships. She is currently Head of External Innovation, North America at Servier, where she partners with VCs, incubators, accelerators and early-stage biotech to source novel therapeutics and platform technologies for the oncology and neurology pipelines. Irene’s leadership over the last 10 years spans roles at Servier, Veracyte, and Genuity Science, where she led licensing and strategic collaborations in oncology precision medicine and AI driven target discovery. Prior to her transition to industry, Irene started her career as a researcher having trained at the Broad Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. She holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from MIT, and earned a B.S. in Biology from Duke University.

Jack Silberstein is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Deck Bio, a biotechnology company pioneering T cell receptor (TCR)-based therapies to target intracellular cancer antigens.

Prior to founding Deck Bio, Jack trained as a protein engineer while earning his PhD in Immunology from Stanford University. He also served as a clinical research coordinator at Johns Hopkins, enrolling approximately 400 oncology patients in clinical trials. This dual background in protein engineering and clinical oncology informs Deck Bio's patient-centered approach to developing therapies for the 75% of cancer-driving proteins currently inaccessible to antibody-based treatments. Deck Bio has been recognized with Golden Ticket awards from Servier and Bristol Myers Squibb, as well as a Platinum Program Award from Mission BioCapital, Lilly, and Ono Pharma. Jack has authored or co-authored more than 35 publications, abstracts, and patents.