Hello and welcome to Clinical Trial Blazers, a podcast by Paraccel biotech, where we explore the human stories behind breakthrough clinical research.

In this series, we take you inside the world of clinical development, bringing you conversations with top voices from biotech.

Together, we will explore the pivotal choices, bold risks, and remarkable achievements

that define these trailblazers' legacies, uncovering the heart, grit and ingenuity

driving the future of scientific innovation.

I am Alberto Grignolo, your host, on this journey.

Whether you are a rising leader in biotech or simply curious about the future of clinical trials, this series is here to inform, inspire and spark your imagination.

Today I'm talking with Robert Blum, President and CEO of Sato Kinetics in South San Francisco,

a biopharmaceutical company that develops

therapies for heart failure, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and ALS based on the science of muscle

biology.

Robert, welcome, delighted to be with you.

Thank you.

It's a pleasure to be with you.

Let's start from the beginning.

I understand that you are a native of Asheville, North Carolina, so I want to ask you. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you. Let's start from the beginning. I understand that you are a native of Asheville, North Carolina, so I want to ask you, what was it like growing

up in the mountains, considering that you have moved to the left coast of the United States

at some point in your life? So I love Asheville, North Carolina. It is still to this day my home. It is a little town nestled

in the Blue Ridge Mountains, surrounded by environmental beauty, but more importantly, even,

are the people, people who are good to their core, and I think growing up there afforded me a window onto the

rest of my life that, frankly, still to this day, is very meaningfully impactful. I go back

there often. I have dear friends who are there, and the place, the music, the culture, everything

...