Mission Matters Innovation with Adam Torres
Oct 1, 2026 · 15 min · 10 segments
In this episode, Adam Torres interviews John Yu, CEO & Chairman of Kairos Pharma…
John YuGuest
Adam TorresHost
Let's, uh, switching focus here slightly and getting into the actual drug part of it, specifically cancer drugs and, and the resistance aspect of this.
Like, I guess what I'll start here with the base is like, what is the cause for resistance to cancer drugs, and how can that be addressed?
You know, there are bacterial strains that become resistant and no longer are susceptible to antibiotics.
And this is because all, all organisms on the planet have this will to live and this desire to compete with other lives to, to be able to survive.
And so it's an ongoing battle between cancers and the body as the cancers try to take over the body, win and use supply of the body to grow even further.
And the way cancers do this is they become more primordial, and what I mean by that is they become more like cancer stem cells.
Each organ of our body has normal stem cells which replenishes those cells of that organ, and even the brain has neural stem cells that replenishes all the cells of the brain.
In a similar fashion, cancer stem cells are the cells that replenish all the cells of a particular cancer.
Because normal stem cells and cancer stem cells, their evil twin, are such important cells o- of either the organ or the cancer, they need to be able to survive and withstand all the toxins and radiation of the environment, like normal stem cells and cancer stems are designed to do the same thing.
So they develop mechanisms to survive the onslaught of radiation and therapy that we use to, to treat it.
And so these cancer stem cells, they can withstand all the drugs of the body, and so we can kill all the sort of daughter cells that arise from the cancer stem cells, but we can't very efficiently kill those cancer stem cells.
And so what happens is, when a, a cancer is being treated, they become more like cancer stem cells, and then they become resistant to the drugs that are used to treat it.
And so as they become more stem cell-like, they become resistant to the drugs that are used to treat it.
We've developed an antibody that targets the CD105, and so as we do that, they become less stem cell-like, and they lose that ability to withstand the drugs that are being used to treat it.
And the cancer that was now resistant to the drugs are susceptible to them again once we use our drug.
So our drug doesn't work in and of itself, but it makes other drugs that are being used to treat it start working again.
When patients develop cancer, they, you know, by using our drug, we can make their drugs work much longer, and what we're hoping to do is make cancer like a chronic disease like HIV that patients can live with for years on end.
Whereas HIV used to be a death sentence within months, now patients are living full and normal lives for years on end.
Let's, uh, switching focus here slightly and getting into the actual drug part of it, specifically cancer drugs and, and the resistance aspect of this.
Like, I guess what I'll start here with the base is like, what is the cause for resistance to cancer drugs, and how can that be addressed?
You know, there are bacterial strains that become resistant and no longer are susceptible to antibiotics.
And this is because all, all organisms on the planet have this will to live and this desire to compete with other lives to, to be able to survive.
And so it's an ongoing battle between cancers and the body as the cancers try to take over the body, win and use supply of the body to grow even further.
And the way cancers do this is they become more primordial, and what I mean by that is they become more like cancer stem cells.
Each organ of our body has normal stem cells which replenishes those cells of that organ, and even the brain has neural stem cells that replenishes all the cells of the brain.
In a similar fashion, cancer stem cells are the cells that replenish all the cells of a particular cancer.
Because normal stem cells and cancer stem cells, their evil twin, are such important cells o- of either the organ or the cancer, they need to be able to survive and withstand all the toxins and radiation of the environment, like normal stem cells and cancer stems are designed to do the same thing.
So they develop mechanisms to survive the onslaught of radiation and therapy that we use to, to treat it.
And so these cancer stem cells, they can withstand all the drugs of the body, and so we can kill all the sort of daughter cells that arise from the cancer stem cells, but we can't very efficiently kill those cancer stem cells.
And so what happens is, when a, a cancer is being treated, they become more like cancer stem cells, and then they become resistant to the drugs that are used to treat it.
And so as they become more stem cell-like, they become resistant to the drugs that are used to treat it.
We've developed an antibody that targets the CD105, and so as we do that, they become less stem cell-like, and they lose that ability to withstand the drugs that are being used to treat it.
And the cancer that was now resistant to the drugs are susceptible to them again once we use our drug.
So our drug doesn't work in and of itself, but it makes other drugs that are being used to treat it start working again.
When patients develop cancer, they, you know, by using our drug, we can make their drugs work much longer, and what we're hoping to do is make cancer like a chronic disease like HIV that patients can live with for years on end.
Whereas HIV used to be a death sentence within months, now patients are living full and normal lives for years on end.
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