The Life Sci Fantastic

Eliot Forster

This is the podcast that pulls back the curtain on life sciences – explaining the scientific breakthroughs that are literally changing our lives.

Hosted by Eliot Forster, scientist and entrepreneur with more than thirty years’ experience, each episode dives into the science of our bodies and the innovations reshaping modern medicine.

With leading experts as his guests, Eliot makes complex discoveries clear, relatable, and inspiring — showing how today’s research is transforming tomorrow’s treatments.

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18 episodes
Avg 29 min
English

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S2 · E8
August 20 · 35 min
HEALTHSPAN vs. LIFESPAN: How to live healthier for longer
We have the science, the tools, and the evidence to help people live longer healthier lives. So why do our healthcare systems still spend the vast majority of their money treating rather than preventing disease? In this episode, Eliot sits down with Lord James Bethell – former UK Minister for Life Sciences during COVID, Chair of the BARBARA Alliance dementia registry, and one of the most vocal advocates in Britain for shifting healthcare from sickness service to prevention system. Together, Eliot and James dig into why the diseases killing us today are almost all human-made, what the GLP-1 revolution reveals about a public that has been let down by decades of ineffective interventions, why the UK has ended up privatising prevention while socialising treatment. A clear, urgent, and refreshingly honest conversation for anyone thinking seriously about the future of health – and about who is going to pay for it. CHAPTERS: 00:00 – Healthspan vs. lifespan 06:21 – The lateral flow test and the cost of leaving good tech on the shelf 08:43 – Why today's diseases are human-made, not biological 11:29 – The confidence problem: does prevention really work? 13:04 – Multi-morbidity: why fixing one disease is not enough 13:49 – Statins, GLP-1s, and the science of visible efficacy 17:14 – Breaking the convention of symptom-led medicine 19:08 – The bad luck fallacy: how much of chronic disease is modifiable? 21:32 – Giving people agency without moralising about health 24:39 – The economics: why we privatised prevention and socialised acute care 29:07 – Why more hospitals and more nurses is not the answer FOLLOW LORD JAMES BETHELL: James Bethell on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jamesbethell/ Listen to James’s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/prevention-is-the-new-cure/id1673584286 This podcast was produced by Crisis What Crisis Productions With special thanks to Mintz: life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
S2 · E7
July 16 · 41 min
CAN A SELFIE REPLACE YOUR DOCTOR?
We have spent a century building an extraordinary system to fix people once they are broken. What would it take to build one that stops them breaking in the first place? In this episode, Eliot sits down with George Tomeski, founder and CEO of Helfie AI – a personal health AI designed to put early detection and prevention into the hands of anyone with a mobile phone. George is not a doctor and doesn't pretend to be. He came to this through something painful and personal – his mother's stomach cancer, missed for over a decade despite regular visits to a GP. That experience led him to a bigger question: is her story actually rare, or is it the quiet norm across every healthcare system in the world? Together, Eliot and George explore the difference between healthcare and health, why every system on the planet – free or paid – shares the same structural flaw of engaging only after breakdown, and what becomes possible when a selfie, a cough, or a photograph can be turned into meaningful clinical signal. CHAPTERS: 07:16 – The structural flaw in every healthcare system 10:10 – Redefining health: detection, prevention, optimisation 13:52 – Why the time is now: sensors, AI, and mobile phones 15:01 – Human health data as the world's largest data category 17:59 – Reaching the four billion people without access to a doctor 20:41 – Compute-at-sense: the economics of accessibility 21:35 – Inside the Helfie platform: what a selfie can actually detect 24:02 – Cardiovascular, respiratory, STIs and cognitive decline 25:13 – Photoplethysmography and the science of a phone camera 28:23 – Validation, accuracy, and regulatory approval 30:00 – Why deviation from baseline matters more than any single reading 32:03 – Precision medicine, finally made real 34:37 – The behaviour problem: knowing vs. doing 37:28 – 6G towers, ambient sensing, and the future of health infrastructure 38:44 – Cholera pumps, seatbelts, and the plumbing of human health FOLLOW GEORGE: George Tomeski: www.linkedin.com/in/gtvs/ Healfie AI: www.helfie.ai/ This podcast was produced by Crisis What Crisis ProductionsWith special thanks to Mintz: life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
July 2 · 58 min
HOW SCIENTIFIC IDEAS BECOME MEDICINES
For an idea to travel from a university laboratory to a patient's bedside is long and difficult. In this special double-header, Eliot sits down with two people who see that journey from opposite ends of the table. First, Professor Chas Bountra, former Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation at the University of Oxford, explains how Oxford rewired its own culture to become the UK's most productive innovation engine. The story includes two unicorn acquisitions, the deliberate equity reform that unlocked academic ambition, and the moonshot question driving the next chapter: when will the UK build its first trillion-pound company? Then, Emma Johnson takes us inside the investor's room. A neuroscientist by training and now a leading UK life sciences venture investor, Emma explains how venture capital actually works, how she decides whether a scientific idea is worth millions, and the single trait she values above all others in a founder. Together, two halves of the same story, and a clear-eyed, hopeful conversation for anyone curious about how science becomes a meaningful impact in the real world. CHAPTERS: 01:56 – Chas Bountra 05:08 – Inside drug discovery at GSK: why 90% of ideas fail 09:30 – Rewiring a university for innovation 11:32 – The equity reform that unlocked academic entrepreneurship 15:00 – Two unicorn exits 16:32 – Building an ecosystem: people, capital, ambition 17:30 – How does the UK compete with the US, China and India? 19:48 – Anti-science, AI, and anticipating the downsides of new tech 24:32 – Emma Johnson 25:44 – From neuroscience to venture capital 27:21 – What "venture" actually means 29:54 – How venture capital funds are structured: LPs, GPs and returns 33:51 – Inside the British Business Bank and the Future Fund: Breakthrough 36:47 – What makes a UK biotech globally competitive 40:39 – How an investor assesses a scientific pitch 48:16 – When investors say no 51:24 – The traits that matter in a biotech founder 54:17 – There is no straight line to success 55:48 – What success really looks like from the investor's seat FOLLOW THE GUESTS: Professor Chas Bountra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chas-bountra-72b9991/ Emma Johnson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-johnson-life-sciences/ This podcast was produced by Crisis What Crisis Productions. With special thanks to Mintz: life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
S2 · E5
June 11 · 40 min
WHAT ACTUALLY HELPS YOU LIVE LONGER?
Most of the advice that genuinely helps you live longer is free, simple, and a little boring. That is probably why so few people follow it. That idea sits at the heart of this episode. Host Dr Eliot Forster sits down with Dr James McIlroy – a qualified medical doctor, founder and CEO of the Aberdeen microbiome company EnteroBiotix, and host of the gut-health podcast Inside Matters. Together they separate the noise from that which is not just useful, but scientifically proven. They start with the fundamentals that almost everyone can act on – sleep, colourful minimally processed food, daily movement, resistance training, and the things worth avoiding, like alcohol. Then they move up the pyramid to the more experimental end: supplements, sauna, heat shock proteins, and what the data does and does not yet support. Whether you are a life sciences student, a curious listener, or someone simply trying to work out which health advice is worth your time, start here. CHAPTERS: 05:27 Bryan Johnson, Blueprint and the pyramid of fundamentals. 09:00 Diet. 11:25 Fermented foods and the gut. 12:33 Alcohol. 16:30 Exercise. 18:04 Resistance training. 20:51 Exercise vs. diet. 23:00 Supplements: what the evidence actually supports. 24:40 Stem cells, peptides and GLP-1s. 26:34 Sleep. 28:17 What wrecks sleep. 30:30 Sauna. 33:27 The microbiome. Produced by Crisis What Crisis Productions With special thanks to Mintz – life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
S2 · E4
May 28 · 32 min
HOW SCREENS HIJACK THE BRAIN
We're not just raising children in a digital world – we're all living in it. In part two of this conversation, Eliot turns the lens around and asks Dr. Michael Rich what a lifetime of screens means for the rest of us: the adults negotiating the relentless pull of smartphones, social media, and now AI companions that tap straight into our emotional circuitry. Dr. Michael Rich – paediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard professor, and "The Mediatrician" – argues that no screen problem is ever really an individual one. It's a family system, and increasingly a societal one. They explore why companion AI is a different and more powerful beast than old-fashioned social media, why banning phones is a blunt instrument where a scalpel is needed, and how the slow erosion of everyday human connection may be reshaping society itself. CHAPTERS: 01:24 – What a lifetime of screens does to adults 02:47 – Why screen use is a family system, not an individual failing 05:55 – Modelling and mentoring: keeping up with your kids 08:22 – Vetting the digital babysitter 08:50 – Companion AI and the limbic system 10:30 – Digital literacy vs digital fluency 14:08 – Do social media age bans actually work? 16:39 – Connectivity vs connection 19:23 – Why the scientific method matters more than ever 22:21 – Boredom as the engine of creativity 24:09 – Loneliness, isolation and mental health 25:06 – Mastery: the fifth M 27:00 – Can social media be used authentically? 28:45 – The Inspired Internet Pledge 30:50 – What tech can learn from pharma's pre-competitive collaboration 33:35 – A supercomputer, not a telephone FOLLOW DR. MICHAEL RICH: The Mediatrician: https://themediatrician.com/ Digital Wellness Lab: https://digitalwellnesslab.org/ BUY MICHAEL'S BOOK: The Mediatrician's Guide: https://www.harpercollinsfocus.com/9780785255727/the-mediatricians-guide/ This podcast was produced by Crisis What Crisis Productions With special thanks to Mintz: life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
S2 · E3
May 14 · 32 min
ARE SMARTPHONES CHANGING OUR CHILDREN’S BRAINS?
What is happening to our children's brains as they grow up with a supercomputer in their pocket? In part one of this two-part conversation, Eliot sits down with Dr. Michael Rich – paediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital, associate professor at Harvard Medical School, and the man known to many as "The Mediatrician." Michael's path is unlike most doctors'. Before medicine, he spent his early career in film, including four years in Japan working as an assistant director to the legendary Akira Kurosawa. Understanding how content for screens is made, and what they are designed to do [to us] has shaped decades of Dr Rich’s research into how digital media is rewiring childhood. CHAPTERS: 02:40 – Why a filmmaker became a paediatrician 05:46 – Screens as an environmental health issue 10:40 – How the brain wires itself to the world 12:45 – Lessons from Romanian orphanages 15:57 – Screens aren't too much, they're too little 17:14 – Dopamine explained 18:08 – What growing up on screens does to attention 20:52 – Bringing back boredom 22:30 – Is it too late for the smartphone generation? 24:36 – The five Ms of digital wellness 29:21 – Monitoring, privacy, and the forbidden fruit 31:31 – Should smartphones be in schools? BUY DR. RICH’S BOOK: The Mediatrician's Guide: A Joyful Approach to Raising Healthy, Smart, Kind Kids in a Screen-Saturated World - ⁠https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mediatricians-Guide-Approach-Raising-Screen-Saturated/dp/0785255729 MORE FROM DR RICH: Digital Wellness Lab: https://digitalwellnesslab.org/ CIMAID (Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders): https://www.childrenshospital.org/programs/clinic-for-interactive-media-and-internet-disorders A CRISIS WHAT CRISIS PRODUCTION: This podcast was produced by Crisis What Crisis Productions. https://www.crisiswhatcrisis.com/ POWERED BY MINTZ: With special thanks to Mintz: life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
S2 · E2
April 30 · 39 min
CAN AI CURE LIVER DISEASE?
What if the next breakthrough in liver disease comes from an algorithm rather than a lab bench? In this episode, Eliot sits down with Dr. Quin Wills, clinician, geneticist, and co-founder and CEO of Ochre Bio, an Oxford-based biotech using AI to tackle chronic liver disease. In this episode we unpack what AI actually is (and isn't), how it's being used to discover new medicines, and why liver disease is one of the biggest health challenges most people have never heard about. Along the way: why fatty liver used to be ignored by doctors, what large language models reveal about human intelligence, and whether AI could ever run a biotech on its own. CHAPTERS: 01:30 – Meet Quin Wills 03:30 – Why genetics led him to AI 04:32 – Liver disease: the myths 06:40 – The obesity wave 08:02 – A short history of AI 11:40 – AI and the scientific method 13:27 – How drugs get discovered 16:21 – AI from lab to clinic 19:29 – Better, cheaper, faster? 22:00 – Why humans still matter 24:46 – Biotech vs big pharma 28:01 – Could AI replace scientists? 30:15 – The chemistry comeback 33:03 – The next frontier: causality 36:15 – Failing forward in drug discovery 37:47 – Treating disease in combination 37:55 – What's next for Ochre Bio 39:06 – Closing thoughts FOLLOW QUIN: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/quinwills/ LEARN MORE ABOUT OCHRE BIO: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ochre-bio/ This podcast was produced by Crisis What Crisis Productions. www.crisiswhatcrisis.com With special thanks to Mintz: life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
S2 · E1
April 16 · 42 min
LIVING WITH ADHD
What does it actually feel like to live with ADHD – and what does the science say about why? In this episode, Eliot chats with Dr. James Brown: neuroscientist, author, and co-host of the ADHD Adults Podcast. Diagnosed with ADHD at 45, James brings both scientific rigour and lived experience to one of the most misunderstood neurological conditions of our time. They explore the biology behind ADHD, from the brain chemistry behind distraction and impulsivity, to why it runs in families and why emotions can feel so hard to control, and ask why, despite affecting around 5% of the population, the condition remains so underfunded and under-researched. With only four licensed medications in the UK, and long-term adherence rates well below 50%, what does the future of ADHD treatment actually look like? FOLLOW JAMES: Instagram: www.instagram.com/adhdadult_james/ BUY JAMES’S NEW BOOK: Focus: The ADHD guide to productivity: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Focus-guide-productivity-actually-works/dp/1529448891 LISTEN TO JAMES’S PODCAST: The ADHD Adults Podcast: https://theadhdadults.uk/ This podcast was produced by Crisis What Crisis Productions With special thanks to Mintz: life sciences lawyers who help turn scientific breakthroughs into reality. https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E7
Oct 17, 2025 · 14 min
BUSINESS OF BIOTECH
In this bonus episode, which concludes the first series of the ‘Life Sci Fantastic’, Eliot steps back from examining the science of biotech to look at the business of this rapidly developing industry. Eliot asks, what is driving those entrepreneurs to bring new treatments to patients, and what are the financial challenges in bringing these drugs to market? Answering those questions is Bill Hicks, who has brokered deals and helped numerous companies and individuals chart the legal and financial challenges in the industry. As co-chair of the life sciences practice at the US law firm Mintz, Bill has ridden the highs and lows of drug development, finance, stock market fluctuations, and more. In his conversation with Eliot, he reflects upon the business of bio-tech. Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E8
Oct 17, 2025 · 23 min
UNDERSTANDING (AND TREATING) AGING
Across the world, people can now expect to live longer. These advances are thanks to better sanitation, vaccination, access to food and healthcare. But aging inevitably involves decline in many of our biological functions, making people more susceptible to disease. What - if anything - can be done to address the underlying mechanisms of aging to both prevent and treat illness? Can aging be ‘cured’? That is the focus of cutting edge research being undertaken by a company called Juvenescence. Its CEO, Richard Marshall, is a highly distinguished doctor and scientist who is leading efforts to understand aging, and developing drugs that can treat its consequences.  In this episode Eliot finds out what his work involves and what are the chances of success? Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E7
Oct 17, 2025 · 23 min
FROM BENCH TO BEDSIDE
In an age of rapid technological development in medical science, how does a new treatment come about? What is the process by which it goes from the mind of the scientist at the laboratory bench to the patient’s bedside? In this episode Eliot meets someone who has travelled that path. Simon Westbrook is the founder of Levicept - a company that has developed a breakthrough medicine for osteoarthritis. It’s a disease that affects about one in six people in the UK, and hundreds of millions around the world. There has not been a breakthrough in its treatment for almost fifty years. So how did Simon come up with his drug and what has been his path to success? Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E6
Oct 17, 2025 · 22 min
CELLS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Cells are the basic buildings blocks of living organisms and are the smallest unit of life that can exist on their own. But what differentiates a healthy cell by from one that is harmful to our bodies? In this episode Eliot finds out how new scientific developments are enabling cells to be used as a potentially powerful tool to fight disease. He meets Harpreet Singh who is the CEO of a company called Immatics based in Germany. Harpreet is an immunologist by training who has devoted his career to discovering innovations in cell technology to aid good health. Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E5
Oct 17, 2025 · 25 min
BUGS FOR DRUGS?
In this episode Eliot explores the little understood world of microbes and bacteria that live inside all of us. Collectively they are called the microbiome, and its well-being is something that is vital to our health. New research is now opening up the possibility of using these bugs as drugs to address a range of diseases. To find out more Eliot meets two fascinating individuals, Trevor Lawley and Tim Sharpington, who run a company called Microbiotica that is on the cutting edge of this exciting new area of treatment. Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E4
Oct 17, 2025 · 21 min
TREATING CANCER
In this episode Eliot continues to look at cancer, and how science is offering new and promising treatments for this all-too-common disease. There is a far greater understanding now of how cancer arises, how it progresses, and how new treatments can be used to turn cancer against itself. Dr Alise Reicin is a doctor and drug developer who is on the frontline of developing new medicines. In her conversation with Eliot, she talks about the challenges of turning a scientific idea into a transformative new drug and the hopes for the future treatment of this cruel disease. Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E3
Oct 17, 2025 · 25 min
EXPLAINING CANCER
Cancer is sadly very common. In the UK, one in two adults will get cancer during the course of their lifetime. Despite being familiar to many, there are still big gaps in our understanding of why and how the disease occurs. But in recent years there have been considerable advances in our knowledge of cancer and its potential treatments. In this episode of the Life Sci Fantastic, Eliot speaks to Professor Sandra Strauss, an expert in bone and tissue cancers, who explains the disease and how modern science is generating new possibilities for patients. Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E2
Oct 17, 2025 · 22 min
WHAT IS GENE EDITING?
What is gene editing, how can it be used, and should we be concerned about the science that can alter the basic building blocks of our biology? In this episode Eliot Forster is joined by Ness Bermingham, scientist, business leader, and presenter of the 'Between the Biotech Waves' podcast to explore an often misunderstood aspect of the science of our bodies. Eliot will hear how gene editing can address diseases like sickle cell anemia, that have defied effective treatments. Ness will explain the possibilities and hope for people whose lives have been blighted by diseases that once seemed beyond cure. Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
S1 · E1
Oct 17, 2025 · 25 min
WHAT ARE VACCINES?
In this episode Eliot asks: what are vaccines, and how do they work? To answer this question, he speaks to Tony de Fougerelles, who was vital in developing the COVID-19 vaccine, and has spent decades hunting for new medicines and treatments for different illnesses. In this episode, he explains how new scientific developments are bringing effective treatments more rapidly than ever before. Tony also tells Eliot how years of illness as a child inspired him to get involved in helping others. Host: Eliot Forster Production team: Andy Coulson and Jane Sankey (Coulson Partners) and Richard Miron (Earshot Strategies) With special thanks to Mintz - https://www.mintz.com
Oct 13, 2025 · 1 min
Series One Trailer
Find out about the Life Sciences - the science of our bodies and the breakthroughs that are changing our lives on this exciting new series. Presented by Eliot Forster, a scientist and entrepreneur, this series will explain and demystify the exciting developments that are bringing fresh treatments to some old and new diseases.

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