Ben Scruggs, CEO of Altis Biosystems: Building the Gut Model That Predicts Which Drugs Actually Work
Ben Scruggs, CEO of Altis Biosystems, joins me to talk about building human gut models that help pharma, biotech, and nutrition companies predict how a drug or ingredient will actually behave in the body before it ever reaches a patient. The conversation covers what an epithelial barrier is and why the gut is such an overlooked bottleneck in drug development, how Altis's technology is being used for absorption studies, inflammation research, and toxicity screening, and why GLP-1 drugs make such a compelling test case for the company's platform.
Just as much of the episode is about Ben's own path: trained as a cell biologist, he spent close to a decade as a venture investor at Hatteras Venture Partners before stepping into the CEO role at Altis, a UNC spinout, about three years ago. He talks candidly about what surprised him most moving from advising founders to running a company himself, including the realization that most of the job is selling, not science.
Altis Biosystems has scaled from testing a few dozen compounds at a time to routinely screening thousands, using automation and robotics to keep pace with customer demand, and Ben shares where he sees the technology heading next, well beyond the gut.
Timestamps
00:00 Cold open & sponsor thank-yous
01:40 Scot's pre-show intro: today's guest, Ben Scruggs of Altis Biosystems
03:33 Episode starts
03:49 How Scot and Ben know each other
04:25 Ben's background: PhD in cell biology, postdoc in genomics
05:28 The pivot into venture investing at Hatteras Venture Partners
06:43 How UNC connections led Ben to Altis Biosystems
09:24 Inside Hatteras Venture Partners: 25 years, 100+ investments
13:06 Making the leap from investor to CEO
15:15 What Altis Biosystems actually does
16:34 What is an epithelial barrier, and why it matters
17:32 The three markets: absorption, inflammation, and toxicity
19:58 Why GLP-1 drugs are the ultimate bioavailability test
20:25 Altis's dual business model: full-service CRO vs. self-serve kits
23:29 Defining bioavailability
24:18 Beyond pharma: nutrition and CPG customers
28:37 The UNC tech-transfer story behind Altis
30:00 Advice for investors considering the jump to operator
31:42 The most underrated founder skill: selling
33:01 What's next: expanding beyond the gut
37:30 Scaling from dozens to thousands of compounds
41:39 Where to learn more about Altis Biosystems
42:10 Thanks and credits
Where to Find Ben Scruggs:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminscruggs/
Altis Biosystems: https://www.altisbiosystems.com/
Where to Find Scot Wingo:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescotwingo/
Tweener Times: https://www.tweenertimes.com/
X: https://x.com/scotwingo
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This episode of Triangle Tweener Talks is hosted by Scot Wingo, presented and produced by NC Tweener Fund, with creative assets and design support from Walk West.
We couldn’t share posts like this without our amazing sponsors:
Platinum:
NC IDEA: https://ncidea.org
Gold Sponsors:
- Balentine: https://www.balentine.com/triangle-entrepreneurs
- EisnerAmpner: https://www.eisneramper.com
- Robinson Bradshaw: https://www.robinsonbradshaw.com
Silver Sponsors:
- Automated Consulting Group: https://automated.co
- Bank of America: https://business.bofa.com/en-us/content/technology-industry-group.html
Just as much of the episode is about Ben's own path: trained as a cell biologist, he spent close to a decade as a venture investor at Hatteras Venture Partners before stepping into the CEO role at Altis, a UNC spinout, about three years ago. He talks candidly about what surprised him most moving from advising founders to running a company himself, including the realization that most of the job is selling, not science.
Altis Biosystems has scaled from testing a few dozen compounds at a time to routinely screening thousands, using automation and robotics to keep pace with customer demand, and Ben shares where he sees the technology heading next, well beyond the gut.
Timestamps
00:00 Cold open & sponsor thank-yous
01:40 Scot's pre-show intro: today's guest, Ben Scruggs of Altis Biosystems
03:33 Episode starts
03:49 How Scot and Ben know each other
04:25 Ben's background: PhD in cell biology, postdoc in genomics
05:28 The pivot into venture investing at Hatteras Venture Partners
06:43 How UNC connections led Ben to Altis Biosystems
09:24 Inside Hatteras Venture Partners: 25 years, 100+ investments
13:06 Making the leap from investor to CEO
15:15 What Altis Biosystems actually does
16:34 What is an epithelial barrier, and why it matters
17:32 The three markets: absorption, inflammation, and toxicity
19:58 Why GLP-1 drugs are the ultimate bioavailability test
20:25 Altis's dual business model: full-service CRO vs. self-serve kits
23:29 Defining bioavailability
24:18 Beyond pharma: nutrition and CPG customers
28:37 The UNC tech-transfer story behind Altis
30:00 Advice for investors considering the jump to operator
31:42 The most underrated founder skill: selling
33:01 What's next: expanding beyond the gut
37:30 Scaling from dozens to thousands of compounds
41:39 Where to learn more about Altis Biosystems
42:10 Thanks and credits
Where to Find Ben Scruggs:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminscruggs/
Altis Biosystems: https://www.altisbiosystems.com/
Where to Find Scot Wingo:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thescotwingo/
Tweener Times: https://www.tweenertimes.com/
X: https://x.com/scotwingo
---
This episode of Triangle Tweener Talks is hosted by Scot Wingo, presented and produced by NC Tweener Fund, with creative assets and design support from Walk West.
We couldn’t share posts like this without our amazing sponsors:
Platinum:
NC IDEA: https://ncidea.org
Gold Sponsors:
- Balentine: https://www.balentine.com/triangle-entrepreneurs
- EisnerAmpner: https://www.eisneramper.com
- Robinson Bradshaw: https://www.robinsonbradshaw.com
Silver Sponsors:
- Automated Consulting Group: https://automated.co
- Bank of America: https://business.bofa.com/en-us/content/technology-industry-group.html
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Triangle Tweener Talks is sponsored by:
Triangle Tweener Talks is sponsored by:
- Atomic Object: https://atomicobject.com/
