Ecosystem Insights: Rihab Gam, Elastin Biosciences
Rihab’s background is in regenerative biology, immunology, and cellular reprogramming, wit
h a career spanning Tunisia, Japan, Germany, the United States, and the UK. She holds a PhD in Haematology and Immunology from Newcastle University and completed her postdoctoral research at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
Rihab has worked with two Milner Bio-incubator companies. She joined Shift Bioscience in 2022 as the first senior scientist and later became Head of Target Validation. She is now Head of Biology at Elastin Biosciences, where she is building a regenerative biology platform focused on restoring tissue structure and function.
Tell us about your career journey so far
My journey in science has been fueled by a deep fascination with how biology works at its most fundamental level. It began in Tunisia, where I ranked first nationally in my class and discovered my passion for understanding the machinery of life. That curiosity carried me across many continents, driven by the ambition to work at the forefront of biomedical research.
I moved to the UK as a Marie Curie Fellow to pursue my PhD in Haematology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University. There, I trained as a translational scientist at the interface of stem cells, immunology, and regenerative biology, building a foundation in disease-relevant human biology. I then joined the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge as a Rutherford Fellow, working in the Structural Studies Department within a computational biology group. I built a direct cell reprogramming bench from scratch inside a genomics-driven environment, translating computational predictions into experimental platforms and functional biology. That experience shaped me into what I am today: a scientist who builds platforms, not just experiments. I later joined Shift Bioscience as the first senior scientist and went on to become Head of Target Validation, where I built and scaled the company’s experimental engine, growing a one-person function into a full scientific department driving first-in-field cellular rejuvenation research.
Today, I am Head of Biology at Elastin Biosciences, where I am doing what I love most: building a regenerative biology platform from the ground up to tackle one of the most fundamental challenges in human health, repairing the body’s structural framework and restoring function at the tissue level. Across every stage of my journey, I have been driven by the same belief: that biology holds the key to restoring health, extending human potential, and building a future where people do not just live longer, but live better. I believe that none of this is done alone, and every step of this journey has been shaped by extraordinary mentors, collaborators, teams, and institutions that believed in bold science and gave it the space to grow.
What changed the most for you moving from one startup environment to another?
In my first startup role, we were a small but highly driven team, based at the Milner Therapeutics Institute, surrounded by other companies at the same stage of their journey.
Being at the Milner meant you were never alone. There was always a neighboring company to exchange ideas with, troubleshoot experiments, borrow a reagent, find the right supplier, or point you to the right piece of equipment. Knowledge moved fast. Help was always one bench away, and none of it would have been possible without the Milner facilities team, who are the invisible engine behind everything that happens there. Later, as the Milner expanded, we were given space at the Milner Bio-incubator’s City Centre Hub, where the environment evolved again. We were the only company on site, embedded within an academic setting, and that created a different but equally valuable dynamic. We exchanged knowledge, approaches, and perspectives with the academic teams around us, and the facilities team there were also exceptional. That experience is why, when choosing where to build Elastin Biosciences, I made the deliberate decision to come back to the Milner. I know first-hand how important environment is, and that no matter how strong the science is, if you are not growing in fertile soil, nothing scales. The Milner is not just lab space. It is a living ecosystem. It is a community of builders and a place where companies grow together, not alone.
I appreciate that environment every single day. And I deeply respect the team behind it. Because no company succeeds in isolation. It takes a village.
What are you working on at Elastin, and what excites you most about it right now?
At Elastin, we are building a regenerative biology platform focused on one of the most fundamental and under-explored pillars of human health: the body’s structural framework. Elastin is not just another protein. It is what gives our organs elasticity, resilience, and mechanical intelligence. When elastin fails, tissues stiffen, vessels narrow, lungs lose compliance, skin loses integrity, and organs begin to fail. This breakdown sits at the core of aging, cardiovascular disease, fibrosis, and many degenerative conditions, yet it has remained largely untreatable.
What excites me most is that we are not just studying elastin, we are learning how to rebuild it. We are developing a platform that can re-activate elastin synthesis, restore functional fibre architecture, and protect tissues from ongoing degradation. This means building human disease models, developing translational assays, and creating the first systematic approach to true elastin regeneration. The ambition is big: to move regenerative medicine beyond cells and genes and into the structural fabric of the body itself. If we can repair the scaffold that holds human biology together, we unlock an entirely new chapter of medicine. That is what we are building. And that is what makes coming to work every day feel like standing at the edge of something truly transformative.
How do you balance curiosity-driven science with the urgency of startup timelines?
I don’t see curiosity-driven science and startup urgency as opposing forces, I see them as partners: Curiosity is what tells you where to go, and urgency is what forces you to get there efficiently.
In a startup, you don’t have the luxury of exploring everything. But you also can’t afford to explore the wrong thing. So the balance comes from building a platform where deep biological questions are translated into fast, decision-driven experiments. We design experiments that answer multiple questions at once, we build assays that scale, and we make sure every piece of data moves the company forward. The discipline of a startup forces clarity. You learn to ask better questions, to design smarter experiments, and to prioritize what truly matters.
At Elastin, we are tackling hard, unsolved biology. That requires curiosity. But we are doing it with a clear translational roadmap, strong execution discipline, and a constant focus on impact. Great science is not slow science. It is focused science.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received in your career so far?
I’ve learned from every person I’ve encountered along my journey, but one piece of advice truly crystallized everything for me. It came recently during a session at 5050 with people building civilization-defining companies. We were told, very simply and very clearly: “We have a moral imperative to move faster.”
In medicine, longevity, and disease, urgency is not just execution, it is responsibility. Every delay is time patients don’t have. Every month lost is people waiting longer for therapies that could change their lives. If we truly believe our work matters, then moving fast is not optional. It is our duty. And urgency is not chaos. Urgency is focus. It forces clarity. It forces discipline. It forces you to ask, every day: what actually matters, right now? That mindset shapes how I build, how I lead, and how I execute.
What’s a book/paper/talk that genuinely shaped how you think?
A body of work that genuinely shaped how I think comes from the author Brené Brown. I first read Dare to Lead, followed by Braving the Wilderness and later Atlas of the Heart. Those books fundamentally changed how I think about leadership, courage, and what it means to build something meaningful with other human beings.
Science is not just data and experiments, it is people, trust and vulnerability. It is having the courage to take responsibility when things go wrong and the humility to grow when you don’t have all the answers. Brené Brown put language around things I had already felt intuitively: that real leadership is built on empathy, accountability, and the ability to stand alone when necessary without losing connection. Her work made me a better leader, a better builder, and a better teammate. And in startups, where everything is uncertain and the stakes are high, that emotional intelligence is just as important as technical excellence.
Name a scientist (living or dead) you’d love to have coffee with.
Isaac Newton. Not just because of what he discovered, but because of how he thought. He didn’t just answer questions, he invented entirely new frameworks to ask better ones. When the mathematics didn’t exist, he built it. When the tools didn’t exist, he created them. When the laws of nature weren’t yet written down, he wrote them.
What fascinates me most is that he did all of this largely alone, driven by pure curiosity and an obsession with understanding how the universe works at its deepest level. That mindset, that refusal to accept the limits of what already exists, is the essence of scientific progress.
I would love to sit with him and talk not about what he knew, but about how he thought.
