Bio 2026: Where Investors Meet Drug Discovery
Monash University's Kate Strayer-Benton and Andrew R. Snyder, PhD. join the program live from Bio 2026 in San Diego, where biotech, pharma, investors, and service partners converge for the conference's highly structured partnering program.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Kate, Dr. Snyder, it's great to see you. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning. Thanks for having us, Jeff.
Always a pleasure, Jeff. And I should disclose, just so people know, I think they do if they watch the show on a regular basis, Andy, Dr. Snyder is also my brother, so I wanna make sure that everyone's aware of that. There is no favoritism given to anybody on this network.
Kate, I wanna start with you. You're at Bio 2026. It's in San Diego.
Tell us about what Bio 2026 is and what's going on there.
Kate Strayer-Benton, Monash University
Yeah, it is where the action is happening this week. So based in San Diego, typically alternates between Boston and San Diego, although they're throwing Philly back into the mix next year. It's a gathering of, I think, over 20,000 attendees across biotech, pharma, and investors, as well as service providers like CROs and CDMOs.
We are not here in a exhibit hall capacity, although you can see many people are behind me. We are here for the premier partnering access. So Bio is a conference that comprises sessions.
So there's educational content, keynote speakers, company presentations and expos, massive exhibition hall that you see behind me, and then a partnering platform. So I believe they are estimating that this year there will be more than 70,000 partnering meetings that take place over four days in San Diego. It is massive.
It is 30 minute meetings back to back from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, where you get to, through a partnering system, find people who share your interests, might be potential future partners or investors, send them a note, find time to meet, and you are just going one to another, making new friends, making deals happen.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So Andy, thank you for that, Kate. Andy, it sounds almost like robo-dating. If you remember the movie, 40-Year-Old Virgin, there was that quick robo-dating that went on in scene.
Anyway, tell us about the interactions you've had so far, Andy. When we've talked to you in the past, it seemed like things were loosening up from a capital perspective. Is that what you take away from your conversations during the conference?
Andrew R. Snyder, PhD., Monash University
Look, Jeff, this place is buzzing. This place is buzzing. It's been buzzing all week.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
I can hear it. We can hear it.
Andrew R. Snyder, PhD., Monash University
Yeah, I mean, there are thousands of people here. Lots of meetings, lots of interests. We're on the early preclinical side.
Our slate was packed. Out of 70 meeting slots, we got 63 meetings across our portfolio, across our interests. I can't answer whether it's back.
I can just say we had lots of people that wanted to talk to us.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So let me ask you, for us lay people who are not in your space or interested in it, what does this mean, preclinical? Tell us what that means in terms of the types of people that you're interacting. Does that mean they have a drug, but they don't have a trial yet?
Andrew R. Snyder, PhD., Monash University
Well, in some ways. So preclinical is the stage of drug development that's in cells and animals. And obviously clinical relates to when you're testing that hypothesis in people.
It's really a line of demarcation for a lot of drug discovery projects. Obviously, things cost a lot more when you're testing them in humans. They also have to be safe.
And so not all drugs make it to people. Not all drugs that make it to people become products. So again, there's risk along the entire spectrum of drug development.
The idea is that with preclinical, you're perhaps taking on more risk. And so you need to find investors that are willing to go down that road with you. Maybe they're writing smaller checks to get incremental pieces of data.
But the bottom line is that there is a market for this. This is how the drugs get made. This is how the next generations of therapies are gonna progress through preclinical research.
And there are people who fund this work.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Kate, are there certain maladies or diseases that you're seeing more of or less of in your conversations? For example, cancer is always a big one. It's one of the biggest killers in the United States, probably on the planet.
Heart disease. But are there certain maladies that you're talking about in your meetings?
Kate Strayer-Benton, Monash University
Yeah, so immunology and inflammation, huge area of interest. Neurodegeneration continues to be a really challenging area of development, but an area of interest. People are looking for solutions.
Women's health, an area of huge unmet need that is, many people believe, has been underappreciated and underinvested in the past. People are unlocking opportunities in that area that we haven't seen before. Oncology is always a hot area.
CBD, as you said. But those are some of the things that we're finding interest into.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Aging is something that we talked about on this network. Obviously, we're all aging, but there have been, there are people that are trying to reverse aging. I'm sure, I've actually interviewed Brian Johnson.
He's like the guy, the most tested guy. I'm sure you've seen him on Netflix. But is aging and longevity, and I know these things kind of play into that, but is that a topic that kind of comes into this arena?
Or is that maybe an other conference?
Kate Strayer-Benton, Monash University
No, it's funny you mentioned that. I don't know if there were any educational sessions. We, Andy and I, have been very busy, as you mentioned, with all of our meetings with potential partners and investors.
But one of the meetings we had today, they're all a bit of a blur after 60-plus meetings. They kind of blend together, so I'd have to check my notes. But there was one company that mentioned in their investment focus areas, longevity being one of them.
So it is a topic. People are looking for it, and there's interest.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, maybe also hair replacement. Anyway, Andy, I want to come to you. We've talked about generative AI.
Kate mentioned that there were some educational sessions. In those educational sessions, well, I know you were in your meetings, but is AI a big topic? I have to think, going through data sets, that AI is going to be a big topic in your area.
Andrew R. Snyder, PhD., Monash University
It is for certain parts of our industry. For other parts, people are really careful about when they use it and when they overuse it. And so I think it is a huge player.
We're starting to understand what it can do and what it can't do. I think there are problems that it can solve. I mean, it wasn't the focus of this meeting, but there are a lot of companies that employ AI.
There are a lot of advantages to this. There are a lot of places where it can play a role, for sure.
Kate Strayer-Benton, Monash University
There was actually a track, I believe there was a track in the educational sections dedicated to drug discovery and AI. So we didn't get to go to it, but they did have it. And I know some people who came here specifically for that topic.
So it's there, but I think when you talk to investors, there are mixed views on it, as Andy said. Some people are saying, really be careful if you're saying you're touting your AI platform, you better really have an AI platform and not just be using Claude in your research study design. There's got to be a real play there.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So let me ask you, what's next for the Monash University? Well, we've got a lot- You both are kind of wrapping up the conference. Well, by the time this, I was going to say the conference, by the time this airs, the conference will have been over, but it's four days, right?
So there's tomorrow, but what happens post-conference? How do you take what you've learned to the next level? Kate, you go first.
Kate Strayer-Benton, Monash University
So there's a lot of work that we've created for ourselves at this meeting. So it's been super productive, but yes. And honestly, that's our job, right?
Is you want to do these meetings with the goal of getting a next meeting. And if we can say the majority of meetings here generated a follow-up conversation, we have done our job. Obviously we help those follow-up conversations turn into investments, turn into collaboration partnerships, turn into next conversations.
But we have people who have specific investment areas of interest or collaboration interests in their research portfolios. So we are going to go back and we are going to talk with our colleagues. We're going to talk with more of our investigators, understand where this work is being done.
Monash has brilliant researchers, amazing scientists. And there's a lot that we, you know, being on the floor and in here for only a few months, we're still learning too. And this is a great opportunity for us to learn with a purpose.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Andy, I'm sorry I cut you off. Go ahead and finish your thought in terms of next steps.
Andrew R. Snyder, PhD., Monash University
Yeah, it's just what Kate said. I mean, look, all of these are people that we need to have continued discussions with. You know, we came together, had interactions with these individuals.
There's a massive list of follow-up and hopefully it'll lead to opportunities to translate and commercialize this research.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, well, really important. I mean, look, you can't get anywhere. There are so many maladies in the world and we need drugs and treatments for people and to extend life.
And that's really, I think, what it's all about. Kate, very nice to meet you. Andy, always great to see you. And look, we look forward to having you back on the program again very soon.
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This story was originally published July 2, 2026 at 7:30 AM.