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About this guest

For those of you who do not know John MacMahon, he …

1. Built and exited four medtech companies from concept to acquisition, with a combined valuation exceeding $500 million.
   
2. Led groundbreaking work in NB-UVB phototherapy, positioning Cytokind as a leader in the race to develop a breakthrough treatment for autoimmune diseases.
   
3. Featured in the cover story of Scientific American for pioneering research in phototherapy and multiple sclerosis, with $4M in equity capital currently being raised for a pivotal FDA trial.

About this episode

What if the most affordable and effective treatment for autoimmune diseases isn’t a pill—but light? In this episode, Adi Soozin interviews John McMahon, the medtech veteran behind over $500 million in exits and now co-founder of Cytokind, a company harnessing narrowband UVB phototherapy to retrain the immune system—safely, affordably, and with stunning early results.

Recently featured on the cover of Scientific American, Cytokind’s tech mimics sunlight to reduce MS fatigue and may hold the key to treating other autoimmune diseases. With existing insurance coverage, FDA engagement, and a $4M raise underway for their pivotal trial, this episode dives into one of the most exciting biotech frontiers—and a rare investment opportunity.

From the biology of light to billion-dollar potential, this is a must-listen for founders, investors, and futurists alike.

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Show Notes Generated by Gemini

These show notes were generated by AI

• Introduction to Cytokind Adi Soozin introduced John McMahon, the co-founder of Cytokind, highlighting his background in building and exiting four medtech companies (00:00:00). John McMahon explained that Cytokind is pioneering a hybrid approach in drug discovery by using a medical technology device, narrowband UVB phototherapy (a sun surrogate), to stimulate the immune system and treat autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) (00:01:16).
• John McMahon’s Background and Mentorship Adi Soozin inquired about John McMahon’s principles for success in building and exiting multiple companies. John McMahon emphasized the importance of having mentors, specifically mentioning Dr. Paul Yach at Stanford’s biodesign program, who provided invaluable guidance (00:02:37). John McMahon also noted that finding core people with shared values and mission is crucial, and hiring mistakes can be detrimental (00:03:52).
• Intellectual Honesty in Feedback Adi Soozin and John McMahon discussed the significance of intellectual honesty in receiving feedback for professional growth. They agreed that seeking candid criticism from trusted sources, even if it stings, is more beneficial than insincere praise. John McMahon believes that being open to honest feedback is essential for rapid improvement (00:04:57).
• The Role of Sunlight and UVB Phototherapy John McMahon elaborated on the fundamental role of sunlight in human health and immunity, noting its historical recognition in medicine, such as for treating tuberculosis (00:05:58). He explained that narrowband UVB phototherapy, the core technology of Cytokind, acts like a solar panel for the immune system, stabilizing it and promoting healing from the inside out (00:07:27). This concept was initially applied to high-risk COVID patients with promising results (00:08:51).
• The Connection Between Sunlight and Autoimmune Diseases Adi Soozin and John McMahon discussed the observation that multiple sclerosis is less prevalent near the equator, suggesting a link between sunlight exposure and the disease (00:14:15). John McMahon cited a study indicating that children who spend less time outdoors have a higher risk of pediatric MS, highlighting the importance of sunlight for a healthy immune system (00:16:32). He also pointed out that the overuse of sunscreen since the 1980s might have contributed to increased immune risks in the population (00:17:41).
• Scientific American Feature and its Impact Adi Soozin brought up the recent feature of Cytokind’s work on the cover of Scientific American (00:21:47). John McMahon expressed being impressed with the article, which followed the experience of Kathy Regan Young, an MS patient (00:22:59). The article highlighted the potential of their phototherapy to alleviate MS-related fatigue, which is often untreated by existing medications (00:24:12). This recognition has generated excitement within the scientific community and interest from patients (00:26:45).
• Challenges and Opportunities in Funding John McMahon acknowledged the challenges in attracting investors due to the affordable nature of their therapy compared to expensive, long-term treatments. However, the strong positive response from the scientific community and patients, particularly those with MS-related fatigue, is encouraging (00:26:45). Adi Soozin suggested potential connections with individuals in venture capital and those who can expedite FDA approval (00:27:57).
• FDA Interactions and Coverage John McMahon mentioned that Cytokind has already met with the FDA and received positive feedback on the scientific merit for a potential orphan drug indication for pediatric MS (00:30:04). He also noted that narrowband UVB phototherapy is already covered by Medicare and major insurers for dermatological conditions like psoriasis and eczema. This existing coverage provides a foundation for potential coverage in autoimmune diseases (00:31:07).
• Scaling the Business and Clinical Trials Adi Soozin and John McMahon discussed the future milestones for Cytokind. John McMahon explained that they have a partnership with Ftherraa (formerly Davelin), a global leader in phototherapy lights, for distribution (00:43:09). The critical next step is to conduct a $4 million clinical trial to secure new FDA indications for autoimmune diseases, which would then enable broader coverage by healthcare insurers (00:44:25).
• Identifying Novel Metabolites John McMahon described an exciting aspect of their research: the potential to uncover a naturally produced metabolite, similar to liosmpic, that is crucial for immune health. By analyzing blood samples from patients undergoing phototherapy for various conditions, they aim to identify this compound, which could lead to significant breakthroughs in understanding and treating autoimmune diseases (00:45:59). This also presents a substantial opportunity for investors (00:47:28).
• Investor Opportunities and Contact Information Adi Soozin emphasized the significant financial potential for investors, given the existing market for dermatological applications and the potential for treating various autoimmune diseases (00:47:28). John McMahon provided the company’s email address, JMcMahon@Cytokind.net, as the best way for interested investors to get in touch. Adi Soozin offered to include the link to the Scientific American article and any investor materials on the show’s webpage (00:51:01).

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Transcript

This transcription was generated by Gemini & edited by ChatGPT

Adi Soozin:
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of 9×90. Today’s guest comes with a very strong recommendation—Miss Iva Kaufman insisted we record this conversation quickly and share it with you because what you’re about to hear is truly groundbreaking. You’re in for something newsworthy and game-changing.

I’m joined by John McMahon—though he modestly thinks he might disappoint you, I promise he won’t. John has built and exited four medtech companies from concept to acquisition, with a combined valuation exceeding $500 million. He’s now leading pioneering work in narrowband UVB phototherapy, positioning Cytokind as a front-runner in developing a breakthrough treatment for autoimmune diseases.

For those of you who feel trapped in extreme diets like carnivore just to manage symptoms—there’s hope. Cytokind’s work was just featured on the cover of Scientific American for its groundbreaking application of phototherapy in treating multiple sclerosis. This is the beginning of something huge.

John McMahon:
Hi, Adi. That was such a thoughtful introduction—my parents would’ve been proud. I’m genuinely humbled to be here. As Adi mentioned, I’m the co-founder of Cytokind. We’re a bit of a hybrid in the drug discovery space, using a medical technology device—a sun surrogate—to stimulate the immune system. That device is narrowband UVB phototherapy, and while it’s currently used in dermatology, we’re expanding it into autoimmune applications, with a particular focus on multiple sclerosis.

Adi Soozin:
That’s incredible. Just to keep things simple for listeners, we’ll refer to multiple sclerosis as “MS” from here on out. I personally know people who have MS and have had to resort to injecting peptides like BPC-157 just to prevent lesions from forming in their brains. The need for new, effective treatments is huge.

John McMahon:
There’s a tremendous unmet need, absolutely. We’re hopeful we can bring some real relief to these patients—and quickly.

Adi Soozin:
Let’s rewind a bit. You’ve built and exited four companies worth over $500 million combined. What guiding principles have helped you succeed repeatedly from concept to acquisition?

John McMahon:
The most important factor? Mentorship. I was fortunate to be at Stanford during the early days of what’s now a global innovation engine—Stanford Biodesign. Dr. Paul Yock led the program, bringing engineers into clinical settings, and that changed everything. That mentorship—and the strong network of values-aligned people he connected us with—made all the difference. I still lean on that community today, 25 years later.

Adi Soozin:
Oh yes, mentors are everything. I recently sent a project to one of mine—he’s a president at an international bank and commands thousands with a single phone call. When I asked for feedback, he hesitated, saying, “You’re like a goddaughter to me—I don’t want to hurt your feelings.” And I said, “Please do. I’d rather you tear it apart so I can improve faster, than be kind and let me walk into failure with a smile.”

John McMahon:
And how did he respond?

Adi Soozin:
That’s exactly how I operate—I go to the people who love me enough to be honest. They won’t say, “This is terrible.” They’ll say, “Here’s how I’d improve it.” That kind of feedback is gold. Otherwise, you get fake praise to your face and harsh critiques behind your back.

John McMahon:
Exactly. And if you have people you trust who are willing to give you sincere, intellectually honest feedback—that’s invaluable. It may sting, but it helps you grow. You’re not asking them to say yes to you; you’re asking them to say yes to the question, “Tell me what you really think.”

Adi Soozin:
You nailed it. Intellectual honesty is rare, but it’s what allows you to level up faster. So, let’s talk about how that journey led to Cytokind. Tell me more about the moment you realized narrowband UVB phototherapy could be a breakthrough for autoimmune disease.

John McMahon:
It all goes back to the science. Even before COVID, I was sitting on the board of a company started by another Stanford Biodesign fellow that focused on at-home phototherapy. The deeper we looked into it, the clearer it became that sunlight is fundamental to human health. This has been known for centuries—sun gods, ancient treatments, and even a Nobel Prize in 1903 for using ultraviolet light to treat tuberculosis.

Adi Soozin:
Two thousand years of anecdotal and historical evidence, right?

John McMahon:
Exactly. In modern medicine, it’s already standard for psoriasis. Before prescribing biologics like Humira, physicians are supposed to try light therapy first. The reason is fascinating—our bodies have essentially evolved to be solar panels for immune function. The skin is the first responder, constantly exposed to environmental cues, and narrowband UVB stimulates immune regulation from the outside in.

Historically, this showed up during the industrial revolution when kids in Northern Europe started developing rickets—because they weren’t getting enough sunlight due to pollution and long hours indoors.

Adi Soozin:
Wow. So the phototherapy doesn’t just work on the skin?

John McMahon:
Exactly. It’s not just clearing skin lesions—it’s stabilizing the immune system from within. Healthy skin absorbs the light and initiates internal immune modulation. When COVID hit, we saw the opportunity to apply this understanding in a new context. We were in New York when the first patients were hospitalized at Columbia. We hypothesized that if we could calm the immune system, we might reduce mortality—not by fighting the virus, but by preventing the overreaction that leads to severe complications.

Adi Soozin:
That’s powerful. I was patient zero in Florida—my oxygen dropped to 89%, my fingertips turned blue, and all they could do was give me inhalers, antibiotics, and steroids. There was no real protocol then.

John McMahon:
Exactly. We quickly partnered with LSU and Baylor’s infectious disease departments to test our theory. The data was incredibly promising—and that success became the foundation for Cytokind. Iva and Craig were with us from day one.

Adi Soozin:
So Cytokind took shape during the chaos of the pandemic?

John McMahon:
Yes, and the idea from the beginning was that this therapy—already validated in dermatology—could be transformational for autoimmune diseases. We didn’t set out to just incrementally improve existing care. We set out to shift the paradigm.

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Adi Soozin: They gave me like five different things. They were like, “Just see which one of these doesn’t let you die.” So I’m very, very, very familiar with the early days of COVID because yeah, I was patient zero. I was in Virginia for a meeting when it was ground zero and they were saying we don’t need masks. Then I came to Florida, where they didn’t even know what COVID was yet, and I was patient zero.

John MacMahon: I’m glad you’re here.

Adi Soozin: They gave me an inhaler. They gave me—yeah—they gave me everything. They were like, “What will help you to live?”

John MacMahon: And your manifestation is consistent with that first data out of Wuhan, which said you get a trigger from the virus and your inflammation is way more than is necessary.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: Your lungs would fill up with…

Adi Soozin: Fluid.

John MacMahon: With fluid.

Adi Soozin: I literally…

John MacMahon: Those are…

Adi Soozin: …felt like I was drowning in my own body. It was so weird. I ended up stock—stocking up on triacetyluridine. Do you know triacetyluridine?

John MacMahon: I don’t know that one.

Adi Soozin: It’s a specific chemical compound that is used to help rebuild neural pathways while you’re sleeping, but they found that it also drains fluid from your lungs. Isn’t that wild?

John MacMahon: So you remind me—something I’ve learned in this field is that the field of immunology is just getting started.

Adi Soozin: Oh, it is.

John MacMahon: There is so much to be learned. I learned that from immunologists who would say, “If you talk to an immunologist and they say they know what’s going on, you should probably stop listening to them.”

Adi Soozin: Yep.

John MacMahon: If you talk to one who says, “We have some idea of what’s going on,” that’s the one you want to spend time with. So your lungs filled up…

Adi Soozin: Oh my god.

John MacMahon: That’s that overreaction. Then you just can’t get the oxygen and the wheels can come off.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: So we looked at that signal, right? You say, well, how do you get from psoriasis to COVID? Well, you realize that psoriasis is an autoimmune disease. It manifests as a lesion on your skin, but you have underlying excess inflammation. Your system is running hot. And COVID was the biggest, most dangerous signature of running hot. So everybody was trying to do their part. We said, let’s take these lights, do a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study, get some good data. And we were able to reduce the 28-day mortality by more than half in the patients that we treated. That was just as the vaccine was coming online.

Adi Soozin: Oh my god.

John MacMahon: Then people said, “We don’t want to bring these lights in and put them over patients’ beds,” because the patients were so sick, they couldn’t even get up. So we looked for another signal that really needed attention. Multiple sclerosis—or MS—is a fascinating topic. There’s really not much MS around the equator at all.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: If you’ve gotten a lot of sun in your youth, your immune system is like a muscle—you exercised it. You got it into good shape. You went through puberty with a good dose of sunlight. But we’ve had a couple of decades where the sun has gotten a really bad rap. We’re hoping not only to help patients, but to educate people on good sun health—a diet of good sunlight. There’s a healthy amount of sun, and you should be out there getting it. Our story touches on a lot of aspects that people can be proactive about.

Adi Soozin: You know, I didn’t even realize that until you mentioned it. Everyone I know who has MS—they’re not from Florida, they’re not from Texas—they’re from the North.

John MacMahon: Oh yeah. The folks we hear from are predominantly from the upper half of the U.S. Syracuse has the highest rate in the country. The upper half of the U.S. has twice the prevalence of MS compared to the lower half. Canada is higher. Scotland is the highest, and the Orkney Islands of Scotland have the highest MS rates in the world. It’s the same in the Southern Hemisphere—the further away from the equator, the higher the MS rate. Tasmania has the highest rates there.

Adi Soozin: So this increase in MS—like, for example, I’m in my 30s, and my kids are under 10. A lot of families our age have both parents working, and during summer the kids go to indoor camps. So parents think they’re sending them somewhere good, but they’re essentially lining them up for a higher chance of MS as adults?

John MacMahon: The data would show that’s true. The U.S. National Center for Pediatric MS published a study showing that if your child spends less than 30 minutes outside on a weekend, that baseline risk of pediatric MS increases. We think of it not just as pediatric MS, but as an understimulated, underperforming, unfed immune system. The risk is broader, but the data for that study was focused specifically on pediatric MS.

Adi Soozin: Wow.

John MacMahon: If you increase that to 30–60 minutes outside on the weekend, your child’s risk of pediatric MS is cut in half. If they spend an hour or more outside, the risk drops by about 80%. And it plateaued there—even 2–3 hours didn’t add much more benefit. So this is cultural. We evolved certain habits. With the Industrial Revolution, our community changed, and we lost connection with what our bodies naturally needed. Since the 1980s, when everyone said the sun was bad and we should wear tons of sunscreen, that led to a generation with…

Adi Soozin: …immune problems.

John MacMahon: Immune risk, yes. And what that manifests into—whether it’s early onset of illness or something more complex—is part of what we’re looking at. We’re not dermatologists or immunologists. I’m not a doctor. What we do is aggregate the data—epidemiological, clinical trials, sepsis, graph versus host. It all drives toward stabilization of the immune system. If you look at the skin, there are more than half a dozen cells tuned to the UVB spectrum. They propagate signals into your body—nitric oxide lowers blood pressure, serotonin feels good, vitamin D is synthesized. Independent specialties know all these pieces very well. But as a system? That’s functional health, and that’s what we’re all about at CytoKind.

Adi Soozin: That’s… wow. I didn’t even think about it. I’m from a huge family—80 people across five generations. My grandmother didn’t believe in sunscreen. At the start of summer in New York, when the sun isn’t intense yet, we’d be outside without sunscreen and build a base. So we never needed 50 SPF. Maybe 4 SPF, if anything. In Florida though? I can’t get away with that. The sun is too intense. I’ll be a lobster. But I never connected any of that to immune system development. Wow.

John MacMahon: Yeah. There’s a comedian up here in New Hampshire—where I live—and he jokes about how back in the day we’d go outside and say, “Hey, do you need some SPF 4? You look a little burned.” Now people won’t even leave the house without SPF 50 or 100. A lot of that comes from the belief that the benefits of vitamin D from the sun could just be replaced with a pill. Cover up, avoid sunspots, avoid sunburn. But the data is swinging the pendulum back the other way.

Adi Soozin: Okay. Let’s talk about Scientific American. Your work was recently featured on the cover. What does that recognition mean for CytoKind, and how has it impacted investor and scientific community interest in your innovation?

John MacMahon: First of all, we were blown away by the article. I’ve been telling the story for years, and then this scientific writer, Rowan Jacobson, comes in, does some interviews, and tells the story better than I ever have. Huge credit to Scientific American for the work they produced. The article starts by following a patient we met named Kathy Regan Young. She has a podcast called FUMS—she’s an advocate for patients with MS. Her experience is really well-documented in the piece.

Adi Soozin: Well…

John MacMahon: MS has fatigue—and MS fatigue isn’t like the kind of tired most people know. It can come on with very little warning. You might be walking and suddenly you just have to sit down. It’s really debilitating.

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John MacMahon: So your world becomes smaller, right?

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: You’re talking about friends who are worried about brain lesions—which is certainly part of MS—their relapses, which are also part of MS… but none of the drugs treat the fatigue. There are 26 FDA-approved drugs for MS right now.

Adi Soozin: What is it?

John MacMahon: There was a trial in Australia—a collaboration between an immunologist, a neurologist, and a dermatologist. They ran a randomized trial and showed that using a therapy typically used for psoriasis reduced the MS relapse rate. Technically, they were treating clinically isolated syndrome, which is an earlier or previous term for MS. Most importantly, the therapy showed a reduction in fatigue for the patients. Their quality of life improved—friends and family were noticing it. That’s something we really dug into. Kathy also talks about one of the collaborations we have with Octave Biosciences.

John MacMahon: MS is a neurological condition—it’s attacking your nerves, your brain, your other organs. You’re just running hot; your system is overexcited. Octave Biosciences has developed a panel specifically for MS. It looks at 18 inflammatory biomarkers to assess the breadth of the condition. They collaborated with doctors in Australia from that same trial, including Dr. Prew Hart. The data shows that not only was the patient feeling better—something first noticed by her children and friends—but it was also confirmed by the biomarkers. That story, and the global leaders in this space, especially in the investor community…

Adi Soozin: Let’s go.

John MacMahon: …is someone we want to reach. But it’s been a challenge because this isn’t a super expensive drug. There’s no “unicorn” opportunity. Investors ask, “Why cure someone affordably when I could treat their symptoms with an expensive drug they’ll need for life?” That has investor implications. But the scientific community? They’re excited. The article just came out a week ago and we’ve been inundated by MS patients experiencing fatigue. We’re here to help them. Now, this is an off-label use, so it’s an out-of-pocket expense—until we can run a larger trial. But the safety profile is excellent. There’s no documented melanoma risk. So there’s a lot of upside here.

Adi Soozin: Do you know Dr. Libby Sheller?

John MacMahon: I do not.

Adi Soozin: She was an immunologist and a Bayer executive. She also invests in biotech and medtech startups. So, you can go back to what you were saying, but when you mentioned that patients are already asking for this—it made me think. With a lot of pharmaceutical drugs, the best case is when adoption is patient-led. Patients ask doctors for it, which leads to wider awareness, and you don’t need to rely on a big pharmaceutical sales team. But if it’s out-of-pocket, that can be tough. There are people I can connect you with who can help get this through FDA approval and insurance coverage faster.

John MacMahon: That would be an amazing outcome of this—having those conversations.

Adi Soozin: I think that’s why Ivan said, “Adi, you need him on your show.” And now I see why.

John MacMahon: We’ve already made some progress. We met with the FDA—specifically with the Office of Pediatric Device Development. We submitted data from phase one studies and presented the risk factors for pediatric MS. Their feedback was that the scientific merit is there. There are three boxes we need to check to get the equivalent of an orphan drug designation. We could have that by the end of the year, in parallel with a trial funded by what we’ve already raised. So yes—we’ve met with the FDA.

John MacMahon: We have their support. Our main limitation right now is bandwidth to execute. In my past work, I’ve had to meet with the FDA for device approvals. So we have the experience and a team assembled to get it done. We’re not in the dark here. As for coverage—this therapy is already covered for many dermatological indications like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (eczema). Medicare covers it. Many autoimmune patients have multiple autoimmune diseases. We believe the underlying problem is systemic—an immune system that’s constantly overreactive and needs to be reset.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: It’s like the immune system never comes back down. Normally, you get a bee sting or poison ivy—your immune response spikes, then recedes. But in these patients, it just stays elevated. And with longevity, that regulation gets worse over time. If your organs can’t rest because your system is always “on,” that’s a major issue. But if someone has both MS and psoriasis, Medicare covers it. Same with Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross Blue Shield. The data in dermatology is so pristine, it outperforms Humira—at 5% of the cost.

Adi Soozin: Wow.

John MacMahon: Kaiser, in particular, is aggressive with home-based functional health programs. One patient’s daughter had eczema. After her second visit, Kaiser sent lights to their house. We didn’t even know she was being treated that way until her mother mentioned it.

Adi Soozin: So this helps eczema too?

John MacMahon: Oh yes. Eczema is another skin manifestation of an unstable immune system.

John MacMahon: In this case, the child’s mother had long COVID. She told us Kaiser sent a light therapy device for her daughter. We’ve been recommending to use it particularly on the torso, and not directly on inflamed areas like the face.

Adi Soozin: I have a friend who has eczema on his neck—right behind the ears.

John MacMahon: Yeah, so you actually don’t want to shine it directly on the inflamed skin. That skin is already dysfunctional. You want to apply it to healthy areas so your body can absorb it and begin to heal from the inside out.

John MacMahon: And that’s exactly what this young woman did. She didn’t light up her face—and she’s doing great. Her mom even said, “We’re addicted to the light.” It’s a stable, positive outcome. And they adjust usage in the summer as needed. Many people feel worse in late winter or early spring, when their immune reserves are running low. That’s when you might consider interventions like this.

Adi Soozin: So the desire that everyone has to go to the Caribbean or South Florida in January or February—it’s not just marketing. It’s actually a cellular-level craving.

John MacMahon: Yes. Our colleague Richard Weller, head of dermatology in Edinburgh, talks about this. In the UK system, the backlog to treat patients with narrowband UVB is so huge that when winter comes, people go on holiday—and they come back healthier. They should be able to deduct those trips. There are real health benefits.

Adi Soozin: She’s doing that.

John MacMahon: With a project we did alongside Fresenius, the largest hemodialysis provider in the U.S.—their patients get blood pressure readings three times a week. Over three years, they tracked data from 2,000 clinics. The results showed that blood pressure goes down in summer and up in winter. That’s nitric oxide release from UV exposure. It’s a biological response from everyday living.

John MacMahon: And if you have darker skin, which absorbs less UV, you have higher blood pressure and smaller oscillations in blood pressure seasonally. You would need more UV exposure to get the same benefit. That study followed 300,000 patients over three years. So yes—Dr. Weller says, if you’re backlogged in the UK health system, just go on holiday. You’ll come back healthier.

Adi Soozin: Fine.

John MacMahon: Yes, we should all be able to write off our…

Adi Soozin: Your Caribbean…

John MacMahon: …vacation as a health expense.

Adi Soozin: Exactly! So… you’ve assembled a global team of scientists around this bold vision. What’s your approach to attracting top-tier talent and keeping them aligned with such an ambitious mission?

John MacMahon: That’s a great question. And I don’t want to sound cliché, but I think the best way to answer that is with an example. There’s a gentleman named Peter Wolf…

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John MacMahon: He’s the first—he’s out of the Gratz University in Austria—and he was the first person I ever knew that had this title: photomunologist.

Adi Soozin: Okay.

John MacMahon: I remember thinking, “What in the world is that?” But if that guy has that title—and this was early in COVID—I knew I had to talk to him. But since it’s Austria and my Austrian is as good as my Japanese, it wasn’t easy. He wasn’t responding to emails, and I couldn’t track him down through contacts. So I started calling the university three or four times a week. If someone who answered spoke English, they could transfer me to the department, and then I had to hope someone there spoke English too. It took about five weeks. But he was fantastic. He was the first one to say, “Their immune system will stabilize.”

John MacMahon: Absolutely. We just didn’t know if it would stabilize enough to show up clinically. You can look at biomarkers—are you showing less inflammation? Are you sleeping better? Those are the questions that matter. And with every person I talked to, I tried to respect each introduction, because this is a small community, and one introduction leads to another. For instance, there’s a gentleman who’s been nominated for the Nobel Prize multiple times for his vitamin D research. I tracked down the number to his lab, called, and he actually answered. I was prepared. There aren’t thousands of photomunologists in the world. You just have to be sincere, do your homework, and show them where you’re coming from. That sincerity has paid off. We’ve been able to keep a group together.

Adi Soozin: Yeah. Okay. So what I’m hearing is that you’re passionate about this specific cure, and you’re finding other people who are equally passionate about it—and naturally, that creates a desire to collaborate. When you’re that driven to see something through and find someone else with the same level of passion, you’re drawn to each other.

John MacMahon: Yeah. You’ve hit on something really important. When I talk to these folks, they’re true experts. They’ve spent their careers deeply focused—whether it’s immunology, dermatology, vitamin D, preclinical work, or the lymphatic system. I’m not an expert in any one of those things. But that’s why an email doesn’t work—you have to engage directly and show the bigger vision. Each of their specialties is a piece of a larger puzzle, and when woven together, they can explain why sunlight is so powerfully stabilizing to the immune system.

John MacMahon: Take a dermatologist, for example. They’ll say, “I know exactly how the skin responds when exposed to narrowband UVB, and how substances leave the skin and enter the lymphatic system.” And I’ll respond, “Great. Now you need to talk to a lymphatic expert to understand what happens next.”

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: What we’ve tried to build is a research and intellectual platform to uncover those key insights. The backbone of this has been that people have shared their actual blood samples from trials and let us run high-level metabolic and proteomic assays across diseases to find the common signals.

Adi Soozin: Wow.

John MacMahon: That’s how we’ve honored their commitment. We’ve received data from Australia, our own COVID data from here in the U.S., and hypertension data from Scotland. We’re just trying to be the glue. Our belief is that we’re ten times stronger together than alone. That vision has enabled us to bring people together to test our hypotheses.

John MacMahon: That’s what we’re raising money for. We’ve helped individual patients—just in the last four days we’ve had 90 calls from people who read the article. But if we want to create a real shift, we need to do a prospective clinical trial and test what we’ve uncovered. That’s what will allow us to bring this to market.

Adi Soozin: Okay, so you’ve already started to answer my next question—which is: Looking ahead, what are the next critical milestones for Cytoine in terms of clinical trials and scaling the business?

John MacMahon: I’ll start with the business side—getting lights into the hands of patients. We’re really fortunate. The global leader in therapeutic lighting donated devices to us during COVID. At the time they said, “This sounds really out there—but here you go,” and that partnership has endured. Now, we’re a U.S. distributor for them, helping respond to patients who reach out. The company, now called Ftherraa, went through a rebranding from Davelin. They’re global—in 70 countries. I didn’t even know there were 70 countries!

John MacMahon: Every time we share this story, our relationship with them expands our reach. As a distributor, we can help patients and create some revenue. But to hit a true tipping point, we need FDA indications for autoimmune diseases, which means a clinical trial. We’ve got a $4 million trial budget and are working with three top-tier centers in the U.S.—one in Virginia, where I grew up and wanted to serve that community, another in Milwaukee with Dr. Akmed Obedat, and another in Idaho with Dr. Nina Bosanov. We have contracts and budgets prepared. The goal is to validate what we’ve already seen with evidence-based medicine and use that to get FDA approval.

John MacMahon: With FDA indication in hand, the economics shift dramatically. We’re no longer selling directly to patients—we’re selling to providers like Anthem or Kaiser. These healthcare systems see the affordability and the patient impact, and they start offering lights to patients for free—just like Medicare already does for psoriasis. MS is currently the strongest signal we have, and we’re confirming that with this trial. But we’re also exploring other conditions—we’ll leave that detail for later.

John MacMahon: Once we have the FDA indication, that scales the business. Plus, every time we touch a patient, we’re running blood panels. That’s our unicorn opportunity: uncovering a fundamental, naturally occurring metabolite. Liosmpic is a metabolite—your body makes it, just not enough due to lifestyle. Now we know you can supplement it, and it’s changing health globally.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: We believe there’s a similar, naturally produced compound that everyone thought was just vitamin D. But we think it’s something else. And the only way to find it is the path we’re taking—helping patients, learning from them, and running multi-spectrum blood analysis. That way, we can target the right markers in future patients and improve our resolution significantly.

Adi Soozin: I—

John MacMahon: —and that’s the big win. It’s a huge opportunity for investors, for the community, and for the business.

Adi Soozin: I think investors will also see the massive financial potential here. Even just focusing on patients with eczema and psoriasis, they’ll get a solid ROI. But on top of that, there’s the feel-good innovation angle—this could help a wide range of autoimmune diseases. You’ve already validated the market need. Anyone can Google the market size and see the potential. With your light as the sure bet, and even more illnesses being explored, this could scale incredibly fast. Once those approvals are in, you’re already cash-flow positive. The question becomes: how many more markets can you touch?

John MacMahon: I think your branding expertise is really shining through here. We believe there’s a fundamental immune signal that underlies many autoimmune diseases. If we can identify it, that opens the door to pharmaceutical licensing and partnerships. Look at the 12th version of Ozempic, for example—last year, that deal had a $500 million upfront and a $900 million back end. And that was for a drug still in animal trials.

Adi Soozin: Why—

John MacMahon: —we’re in humans. We’re in sick humans. And we’re getting real data. If you ask AstraZeneca what their number one need is for drug discovery, it’s good—

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Adi Soozin: You—

John MacMahon: —input. They need solid data from patient studies. And that’s really been the story of my whole career. When you move off the napkin and end up FDA approved, you’ve got to go through animal studies, bench studies, and human trials. We’re leapfrogging that process by translating the safety profile from dermatology and applying it to autoimmunity.

Adi Soozin: Oh.

John MacMahon: We’re incredibly excited to do this. We’ve got great people lined up, just waiting for us to hit the switch and go full speed.

Adi Soozin: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And you’ll probably have a few more after this. So, what’s the best way for investors to get in touch with you? Usually, we don’t include personal emails because you’ll get hundreds of relevant and irrelevant messages. Do you have an assistant they can contact? Or maybe a form on your website?

Adi Soozin: Do you have social media gatekeepers?

John MacMahon: We have all of those. But the best way is to use the company email. I’ve never been overwhelmed by responses before—but looking at your branding profile, that might change soon.

Adi Soozin: Yeah.

John MacMahon: So, it’s jmcmahon@cyton.net.

Adi Soozin: All right. And you’ll be able to find that in the show notes.

John MacMahon: Thank you for doing this. I really enjoyed speaking with you. I’m getting energized just by your questions—hearing this story told again really gets me fired up.

Adi Soozin: Are we able to embed your Scientific American article on the webpage?

John MacMahon: It’s not behind a paywall right now.

Adi Soozin: Okay, great. So we can link to it. And if you have a deck or a pitch presentation for investors, we’ll embed that on the webpage as well for everyone who’s interested in learning more.

John MacMahon: Great. Yeah, it’s still freely accessible for now.

Adi Soozin: Perfect. We’ll link to it—and if it does end up behind a paywall by the time people go to access it, we’re sorry! You can probably just go to ChatGPT and ask for a summary.

John MacMahon: Great.

Adi Soozin: We’ll put as much information as we’re able to on your investor page at 9×90, just like we’ve done for all the opportunities we support, endorse, and believe should be in front of our listeners.

Adi Soozin: John, thank you so much for coming on. I truly appreciated having you here and learning from you.

John MacMahon: Thank you.

Adi Soozin: Yes. Thank you. Iva—we love you.

John MacMahon: Thank you.

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