The Connect Current
The Connect Current is your inside look at the people and ideas shaping San Diego’s innovation ecosystem. Produced by Connect, a nonprofit supporting founders and investors for over 40 years, the podcast builds on a legacy of helping high growth companies, including alumni like Cloudbeds, ClickUp, Inhibrx, and NanoCellect Biomedical, grow and scale from San Diego to the global stage. Each episode features relaxed, thoughtful conversations with founders, investors, and community leaders across life science, tech, climate, defense, AI, and more, sharing the stories shaping San Diego innovation. If you’re building, investing, learning, or simply curious about the future of San Diego’s innovation economy, this is your place to stay connected to what’s happening now and what’s next.
Episodes
In this episode of The Connect Current, host James Zanewicz sits down with Rupak Doshi, Co-founder and CEO of OmniSync, to explore how better systems can accelerate innovation. Rupak shares how OmniSync is helping founders and organizations navigate funding, market intelligence, and commercialization through AI-powered tools, and why the path from idea to traction is still more fragmented than it should be. He also offers insight i...
In this episode of The Connect Current, host James Zanewicz sits down with Debbie Chen, Founder and CEO of Hydrostasis, to explore how nontraditional journeys are shaping the next generation of innovation. Debbie shares how Hydrostasis is advancing hydration science through wearable technology, and why better understanding hydration as a vital sign could unlock new opportunities in health and performance. She also reflects on her o...
In this episode of The Connect Current, host James Zanewicz sits down with Adam Jacobs, President of Xzom, to explore how early disease detection and accessible diagnostics are shaping the future of health innovation.
Adam shares how Xzom is building point-of-care solutions designed to make diagnostics faster and more accessible, and what it takes to stand out in a complex, competitive space. Drawing from his background in ...
In this episode of The Connect Current, host James Zanewicz is joined by Courtney Young, PhD, Co-founder and CEO of MyoGene Bio, one of Connect's 2026 Cool Companies. MyoGene Bio is developing MyoDys45-55, an AAV-delivered CRISPR gene editing therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare and devastating muscle wasting disease with no cure. Courtney traces her path from a high school moment, when her cousin Christopher was diagnos...
In this episode of The Connect Current, we sit down with Graeme Rae, Ph.D., Founder and CEO of HyperKelp, to explore how the company is turning the ocean into a sensing network. Graeme shares how HyperKelp’s Kelp Smart Buoy is designed as an open marine platform that can carry a wide range of sensors and deliver ocean data in near real time for environmental, commercial, port, and defense applications. The conversation dives ...
In this episode of The Connect Current, we sit down with James Mackay, Ph.D., President and CEO of Crystalys Therapeutics, to explore how the company is advancing a new treatment path for people living with gout. James shares how Crystalys is developing dotinurad, a next-generation, once-daily oral URAT1 inhibitor, and what the company’s recent $130 million Series B financing enables as it moves through late-stage global clin...
In this episode of The Connect Current, we sit down with Ramesh Ramji, Founder and CEO of SpectralTx, to explore how spectral hyperplexing technology could help reshape molecular screening and the future of connected data. Ramesh shares how SpectralTx is developing tools like Spectra-Gel and SpELs to improve encoding depth, speed and data fidelity, giving researchers richer information for drug discovery, diagnostics, deep learning...
In this episode of The Connect Current, we sit down with Niren Shah, PharmD, MBA, Co-founder and CEO of Cove Therapeutics, to explore one of the biggest challenges in genetic medicine: delivery. Niren shares how Cove is developing non-lipid, non-viral biodegradable polymeric nanoparticles designed to overcome key limitations in the field, including efficiency, safety, manufacturing, redosing, and larger genetic payloads. The conver...
In this episode of The Connect Current, we sit down with Stanley Lewis, MD, MPH, Founder and CEO of A28 Therapeutics, to explore how targeted cancer therapies can create better options for patients facing difficult diseases. Stanley shares the story behind A28’s targeted oncolytic peptide platform, the company’s lead candidate AT-101, and what it takes to move a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company from scientific p...
In this episode of The Connect Current, we sit down with Scott Tait to explore how San Diego can better connect national security needs, university research, dual-use startups, capital, and policy into a stronger innovation system. Drawing on his 27-year Navy career and his work across Lumetec, Startup Science, and the National Security Innovation Catalyst at UC San Diego, Scott shares what it takes to move promising technology fro...
In this episode of The Connect Current, we sit down with Kris Lichter, CEO of TL Foundation, to explore a different approach to investing in innovation. The conversation dives into how TL Foundation is transforming philanthropic capital into long-term investment in San Diego startups, creating an evergreen model that reinvests success back into the region. Kris shares what makes a company a strong fit for the fund, what founders sh...
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