What do you say when you're out of work?

Priscilla Claman, President of Career Strategies, Inc., a Boston-based firm offering career coaching services offered advice for how to "Tell your story" when you are unemployed in a blog for the Harvard Business Review this month. It is a quick read with some useful tips and links to topics such as how to stay positive and leverage social media for your career search as well as suggestions for navigating those tough interview questions related to your current "out of work" status.

If you have more time to delve deeper, she also contributed to the book, the HBR Guide to Getting the Right Job. It is full of suggestions for how to define your career path, compete in a fiercely competitive job market and land the right job for you. A sound career investment for only $19.95.

 

 

Assembling Your Start-Up Team: Balance is Everything.

You've come up with a great idea, drafted a business plan, researched the market, obtained the IP, and courted investors to close on financing. You’re exhilarated. I know this, because I’ve seen it so often with start-up clients at the Sonder Group, and before that at NewcoGen (a Flagship Ventures fund). You’re exhausted, too. And you’re just in time for one of the most demanding, delicate, and make-or-break balancing acts you’ll ever face: hiring your team.

When money is tight, always to use your own network first. That’s common advice, and it’s good. Hire people you’ve already have had success with, people you enjoy working with, and who know your market. Tap into your own network of colleagues, board members, advisory board members, and future customers to help you find candidates. At the same time, as Marshall Loeb of MarketWatch reminds us, “Don't hire someone just because you know them." I have seen early stage biotech companies regret hiring people with experience that’s not quite market-relevant, but whom they know, and whom they believe plausibly to be able to learn the job. Why the regret? Because there is no time to train employees — even talented ones. Everyone hired at the beginning should bring key knowledge that can help to propel the company forward and not hold it back, even temporarily.

There’s another balance to be struck between bringing in specialists and bringing in generalists. On one hand, early employees in start-ups inevitably end up wearing multiple hats. On the other hand, generalists with no initial experience in the start-up’s particular market can be a drag on progress. In this day and age, markets and technologies advance at lightning speed. The solution is to hire specialists from a competitor or who have already had success in the same job elsewhere.

Beware, however, of getting lured into hiring someone with a big name who is accustomed to working in a large organization with lots of support: that often leads to frustrations on both ends. When you court candidates, don’t, as I’ve often see start-ups do, fail to be transparent about the true challenges of the job. Try to be as open as possible. That way, when problems occur, as they will, your new employee is ready to meet them with resolve rather than surprise or disappointment. Once you've finally found the final candidate, what do you offer them? If you haven’t already, do some initial research regarding salary guidelines. This calculator can help you review the fully loaded cost of a head count. If you have a friend in the business, you might also want to sneak a peek at the Radford surveys. 

 

Communicate well with your board and plan the amount of equity you will offer. Start with a very open conversation with the candidate about their past and current compensation. Do a full accounting, including salary, commission, bonuses, equity, medical, dental, life insurance, retirement, car allowances, phone/office supplies, education reimbursement, and any other relevant components. Try not to expect that they will get so excited about the job they will take a big cut in pay. When the going gets tough, you don't want them questioning their decision to join. 

 

Finally, don't try to do it all. Outsourcing marketing, manufacturing, accounting, human resources, and other such jobs can help conserve capital and allow you to focus on the prize — successfully launching your venture. Research as much as possible: this Wall Street Journal how-to is a great place to start.

 

And of course, consider partnering with search experts for at least some of the top executive positions to minimize risk and maximize success.

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Practical About The Crystal Ball: 3 Actionable Lessons Job-Seekers Should Take From Industry Predictions

Let’s face it. New Year’s predictions are as plentiful — and perishable — as New Year’s resolutions. If you’re a life-science job seeker, however, keep in mind that this year will almost certainly ring in no increases in NIH grants and a continuation of challenges in Big-pharma  due  regulatory and legislative pressures.  That’s pretty decent incentive, if you ask me, to stick to your resolution to keep a practical eye on industry trends. Of course, as with any resolution, it’s all about actionability.

 

To get you started, let’s take three trends identified by Steve Burrill, as well-respected an oracle for our trade as there is, and look at how to apply those predictions.

 

Prediction #1: To mangle James Carville, it’s the sequencing, stupid. As Burrill says,"The focus this year will shift from the $1,000 genome to the $100 genome. It’s real. It’s happening. It’s the diagnostic of tomorrow."

 

Life Technologies and Illumina, two companies that have always primarily been tool suppliers, have clearly seen the advantage of applying their tools to diagnostics. Each is taking steps to morph into Roche- and GE Health-like entities. In 2012, Life Technologies acquired Navigenics and  Pinpoint Genomics. Expression Analysis began offering access to cutting-edge genomic tools such as NGS. They coupled this with a quality system environment and the CLIA-certified laboratory guidelines required by their customers working in clinical studies, and positioned themselves for greater activity in clinical diagnostics. Talk about understanding how to cross the tool/Dx chasm! They were highly successful and were bought this past year by Quintiles.  

Lesson: For candidates in the tools industry, if you have not been thinking Dx – start. Educate yourself about the personalized medicine and diagnostic fields. Opportunities abound for people who understand both the tool and Dx markets and how to bridge them.

Prediction #2. The synthetics are coming! Synthetic biology, which is even more powerful than genetic engineering, allows us to design biological systems in a rational and systematic way — in some cases to create that which has never been made. Burrill tells us that “Advances in synthetic biology will begin to transform manufacturing of everything from fragrances to fabrics as engineered organisms produce materials traditionally derived from plants and petroleum.”

Lesson: As industrial biology advances this year, employment opportunities expand. The need for microbiologists, molecular biologists, computational experts, educators, and journalists will increase in this area, as will the number of companies such as Sample 6 (food safety testing), Gen 9 (gene synthesis), and Joule (renewables), that need those people. New life science graduates should widen their thinking to contemplate this field instead of focusing solely on pharma.

Prediction #3: What the world needs now is food, clean food. Burrill says, “In 2013, there will be expanded use of biopesticides to combat insects and microoganisms that damage crops. Plant breeders will harness emerging technologies, such as RNAi, to produce a new generation of products that allow for greater crop yields without the stigma of producing foods that are considered genetically modified.”

Lesson: 2013 is truly the year to look at applied markets such as agriculture. The global food crisis and climate change will generate an increasing need for crops with greater productivity, greater ability to ward off pests, and greater ability to survive challenging weather conditions. Examples include companies such as Synthetic Genetics and partnerships like Monsanto and Alnylam applying genomics for pest control. This means expanded demand for new genomic technologies — and the people trained to develop them.  

All in all, the future will belong to the people future-oriented and flexible enough to plan for what’s next, rather than what was. Get out of your comfort zone and spend some time reading or attending seminars about these applied fields. Have a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year, and hey — weren’t you going to drink less coffee?

 

e-oriented and flexible enough to pla

Job growth slow but genomics still full speed ahead

So we finish up the year with two mildly good stories. Unemployment continues to slowly tick down and the genomic world continues to speed ahead albeit with some slight hiccups. According to the US Department of Labor Statistics, we started out in January, 2012 with a 8.3% unemployment rate and will finish the year somewhere around 7.8%. That does not seem like a big difference but considering in Oct of 2009 we were at 10%, it seems a little more significant. My personal outlook is the job market in our life science and diagnostics industry is better than the national average. New companies that offer real value are still getting venture backing like Oxford Nanopore or Foundation Medicine. Today's bioscience worker needs to continually work hard to watch market trends but also try to get a view of those emerging companies, under the radar screen and be more diligent keeping up with the scientific literature and news to anticipate which new publication/discovery will become next year's company. 

It was a good year for genomics too with one or two hiccups. Helicos Biosciences, once considered a high flyer in the Next Gen sequencing market filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection in November. Complete Genomics stumbleda bit, had a layoff and announced they would be acquired by BGI. On the positive side, Next gen sequencing technology companies continues to drive costs down and throughput up. Science Magazine included results of the ENCODE project which generated 15 terabytes of data over the past five years to uncover the functions of human DNA sequences one of the most important science stories of 2012 - right up there with the Higs boson From a commercial perspective, the big companies continue to move more solidly into this space as evidenced by Quintiles acquisition of Expression Analysis. Roche, clearly seeing the future of genomics in the clinic made a bid for Illumina but lost that battle- for now. And finally, the bioinformatics space, fueled by genomics is growing leaps in bounds with lots of opportunities and new companies popping up. So all and all, 2012 was a good year with lots of prospects for making 2013 look even better.

 

 

Conference Networking Tips

Having just returned from the ASHG (American Society for Human Genetics) meeting in San Francisco, it occurred to me to share three top things to consider when networking at meetings. Whether you are trying to do a business development deal, start a scientific collaboration or network for your next job, here are three things to consider;

1. Plan ahead: We are all busy in our daily lives. It is easy to jump on that plane and figure out what you are doing at the conference while you pursue the schedule over coffee on the first day. Instead, start a month before the meeting and identify your goals, determine which people/companies you want to see then reach out ahead of time to set up meetings. This can be as casual as planning to stop by a booth, having a lunch meeting or attending an exhibit hall presentation by a company of interest to you. When reaching out to contact people, be clear, up front why you would like to meet them.  

2. Make it a two way conversation: Listen and speak in equal measure. Have your pitch of who you are and what you are doing clear. It is important to communicate to them what you want and why you are meeting with them but don't forget to return the favor. You may have goals of what you want to accomplish but ask yourself - What's in it for them? If it is not apparent how they might benefit from your interaction, just ask "What can I do to help you? or offer that you will "owe them one in the future." You will feel better for helping someone out and this can help keep the door open for future conversations.

3. Follow up: Whether there is a specific follow up action such as setting up a phone interview with a hiring manager, meeting with a scientist at the company or nothing in particular, closing the loop is important. Send a LinkedIn invitation or email them, thanking them for meeting with you that includes your contact info and a point or two from your discussion. It is a great way to develop a relationship, share connections and keep in touch for future opportunities.

If networking is particularly arduous for you, consider setting a goal for every meeting of how many people you want to meet. You can even make a game of it by collecting "X" number of business cards as a metric. One of the best ice breakers, I have heard at a biotech incubator meeting where most people did not know each other was "Hi. I set a goal that I would meet ten new people today. May I introduce myself to you?" If said with a sense of humor and a smile, this can go a long way to starting a conversation. So good luck and happy networking!

 

 

George Church meets Hollywood

Who knew that Stephen Colbert would be the superpower behind bringing genomics and synthetic biology to the "Nation"? In the past, he has hosted both Francis Collins, NIH Director and Craig Venter, founder of Synthetic Genomics and Celera on The Colbert Report to discuss the human genome and other topics. But this month, the general public got a real treat. George, not normally in the public-eye as much as some of his peers, made his prime time comedy début. He joined Steven to plug his new book, Regenesis:How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves. George talks about the personal genome project and synthetic biology while holding his own with the wily and energetic Colbert. Watch the Church/Colbert clip for a guilty pleasure then buy the book. It will make the perfect birthday and holiday gift for those budding scientists and just about everyone who wants a glimpse of what the genetic future holds.

Salary trends - Genome Web10th annual salary survey

For those interested in general salary and work trends in our industry, GenomeWeb published their 10th annual salary survey. They include a graph of median salaries in different regions from Researcher to VP of R&D and one that shows median salaries by title, gender and experience. Christie Rizk, assistant editor at Genome Technology does a good job summarizing trends and the article is definitely worth a read.

 

Getting Past Truthiness: Three Ways to Assess if You’d Be Happy (and Effective) at a Startup.

Startups inspire so much excitement that it can be easy to forget that working at one is not for everyone. When I assess candidates for “startup affinity,” I sometimes see Colbertian truthiness rather than real self-awareness about preferences and strengths. As you consider your career, it’s critical to identify what your interests and comfort zone really are, rather than what you want them to be or assume they should be. To do that, ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s Your Risk Tolerance?  You’ve probably thought through your financial risk tolerance in the context of managing your 401K and other investments. But as you consider whether a startup could be a good match for you, it’s critical you think about how much safety you need in other ways, as well. Being tasked with building value when a path has not been laid out yet is not for the risk averse. Ask yourself whether you could be comfortable making changes on your own, or if you feel more at ease executing an established plan. If the latter, a startup may not be the place for you. You have to be the kind of person more concerned with the positive growth aspect of a company than the possibility of a layoff — and that’s not everyone.

2. How Wide (and Flexible) is your Skill Range?  In Fortune 500 companies, employees develop deep skill sets in specific areas such as project management, process scale-up, or cost-effectiveness. Working in a startup, however, is all about finding and implementing (or managing the implementation of) solutions — whether the challenges you face fall under your previous expertise or not. In a startup, for example, the duties of a VP of Sales may include building and managing a team as well as direct selling, technical support, customer support, business development, and marketing. This is a dream to one person and a nightmare to another. And guess which belongs in a startup?

3. Are you a Grower or a Manager?  Creating something unique and amazing — even if that means thinking in entirely new ways — is a key motivator for entrepreneurial types. Consider whether you gravitate to the challenge of building something from the ground up, or if you’re attracted to managing well to continue sustained growth. Would you rather develop a business plan that dazzles customers and leverages everything your company has to offer, or would you rather work to deliver on part of the plan?

In the end, one set of preferences isn’t objectively better than the other — even though the amount of ink spilled about entrepreneurs might lead you to believe otherwise. Success can be had in a variety of ways, and in a variety of venues: going against your grain seldom results in value creation or career satisfaction. Whatever your professional preferences, know them for what they are, and don’t settle for what you think they should be. Remember: To thine own self be true. Not “truthy.”

What I’m Looking For: Three ways to define what you need in a critical hire.

Finding the right person for a critical position is a multistage, multifaceted process, but not one, as Bono sings that has to feel like "climbing the highest mountain."  It all starts with the hiring manager getting very clear and very specific about the qualifications and qualities that will bring value to the team and the company. It can be difficult to distill down exactly what you need, but it’s necessary – not only for writing the all-important job description, but also for knowing what to look for in candidates during the hiring process. In my experience, the three most important things to keep in mind are domain experience + success + chemistry.

1. Domain experience

Candidates often tout their flexibility and ability to learn new things, and there are indeed times when a company knows that some amount of retraining is inevitable.  For the most part, when training is a luxury of yore, it’s far better to seek industry-specific experience. If that sounds too picky, just consider how irrelevant next gen sequencing is to the in vivo imaging market—aside from matters of reimbursement, of course. If you can, go for candidates who understand the specific technology/market in which you play.

2. Success

It is one thing to have had experience in a particular job, and quite another to have consistently met or achieved goals. Look for candidates who can show they’ve knocked it out of the ballpark. Ask candidates to share success stories; expect them to bring ideas about how they can add value to the company or to their group if they are hired. Basically, find the consistent hit-makers like U2, not the one-hit-wonders.

3. Chemistry:

One of the most difficult elements to assess — because it’s completely intangible — is chemistry. On the one hand, Myers-Briggs philosophy would say that a team should have all kinds of different personality types in order to bring a full complement of skills to the table. Some employees should be high-energy and risk-taking, for example, some cautious and methodical. On the other hand, similar kinds of people can often work better together, especially if their working style reflects — or has been honed by — the culture of the company. Either way, think carefully about what type of employee and what working style will be effective in a particular role and on a particular team. 

It's easy as one, two, three.

 

How is your job search like an investment pitch?

The 8th Early Stage Life Science Conference last week in Boston was a fantastic event as usual. Organized by Abigail Barrow, Director of the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center with support from Merck and Reid Leonard, Managing Director at Merck Ventures Fund, it offered a showcase of exciting early stage companies ranging from Bionic eyes, novel gene transfection approaches and cures for septsis and cancer. It included several impassioned presenters, talking about some novel ideas to advance healthcare - sure to get your inner geek on. But one of the most interesting talks was delivered by Richard Anders of Massachusetts Medical Angels - how to make pitches stronger. He was speaking about seed-round financing for early stage CEOs but his points are useful to job hunters. In the end, it's the same goal - how to make a more compelling pitch. Whether it is an infusion of cash for a Newco or closing on a new job, his points are noteworthy.  

1. Pedigree: Newcos must highlight strengths, experience and "know how" of the CEO and management team. The parallel for candidates is probably obvious. A good candidate must be comfortable talking about themselves and able to relate their experience and background in a compelling way. Talk about your education, work experience and why you are an "A player". Translate your strengths into how you can add significant value while minimizing risk for the company. Eric Gordon, CEO of Atentiv, a personalized digital learning tool company is the master. If you can ever see him pitch, don't pass it up. He has raised ~$116 million from investors and returned ~$1.4 billion in cash in 4 of 5 exits to investors and it shows.

2. Proof: Seed money is tight and so is the job market. According to Jeremy Halpern of Nutter McCleen & Fish, there is a massive decrease in seed stage deals - In fact, a 48% decrease 2010/2011 year on year, as venture funds go upstream to support later stage, less riskier companies. Now more than ever, an early stage CEO needs to demonstrate there is a market need for their product or a clear mechanism of why their solution works. A job candidate must do the same. No hand waving allowed. Early stage companies and candidates must clearly back up statements with proof and examples of success with solid metrics as well as third party validation. Be prepared to talk about your successes and what you have learned in the process. How would you translate those to the companies you are currently interested in joining? Who do you know and how valuable is the network you have built over the years to the companies you are interviewing with?

3. Get the story right: In a Newco presentation, the "story" must be focused and crisp. Too many new CEO's get lost in the details and forget to summarize how an approach solves a major unmet need. I have seen candidates do a similar thing and fail to communicate exactly where their expertise lies and how they may provide a unique skill set to a hiring organization. A great elevator pitch is key. In both cases, it is critical to communicate a compelling story. Practice. Practice. Practice. Just as a Newco CEO spends significant time on her/his presentation, job seekers should do the same. And if you do get it all right, there should be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 

Tips for College Students (aka - my future clients)

The job market is improving for those graduating from college these days especially for those who plan well. Here are 4 tips to improve your chances of landing a great job:

1. Think of your resume as a direct extension of you. It has the power to open doors or slam them shut. Go to your career office for free templates and advice. Really spend time on it. Share your draft with friends, family and professors until you get it right, and be open-minded to constructive criticism. When you are happy with how it looks be sure to save it as a PDF file so it does not get edited when you send it out to prospective employers.

2. It's never too early to start using Linkedin. If you are not familiar, it is like Facebook, only for work and professional networking. Never post anything that is less than completely professional. Write your profile then join relevant job groups such as your college group, groups associated with your major and other focus groups that you may be interested in. Most colleges/universities also have alumni groups which can be very helpful if you are looking for a summer internship or even an introduction to potential employers.

3. Skip the beach lifeguarding job during college summers and focus on landing an internship in your major. Even unpaid internships, if you can afford it, will give you great experience and make a big difference down the road when you graduate. Many colleges offer grants to pay for summer internships if money is a problem. This will give you the opportunity to see if you thrive working in certain environments and will beef up your resume. Network with your professors, use job boards such as Indeed.com, and contact friends/family to find connections and opportunities.

4. At the end of your summer job, ask for feedback on how you did and for advice on areas where you could improve. Ask your manager if they could be a reference for you in the future. Thank them for opening the door and giving you an opportunity to work in your chosen area. Hopefully you will be able to return the favor to other developing professionals later in your career.

Eureka! The personal genome gold rush gets going.

Recently I spent a highly energizing evening at the MIT Enterprise Forum in an Innovations Series Event called “The Future ofthe Personal Genome.”  Kevin Davies, Editor-in-Chief of Bio-IT World, moderated a panel of four leaders in the personal genome world: Colin Hill, CEO of GNS Healthcare, Mike Pellini, CEO of Foundation Medicine, George Church of the Personal Genome Project, and Jamie Heywood, Chairman of PatientsLikeMe.  Topics included everything from how to spur the public to see the benefit in personal genome sequencing to how to make this information more actionable in a clinical/healthcare setting. But what I was thinking was that the personal genome gold rush was finally beginning in earnest.

Three examples:

Bioinformatics: We have been talking about “drinking from the fire hose” since automated DNA sequencing began in the late 1980’s, but the rate of data generation today is amazing. What persists today is the challenge of interpreting all of this data. Illumina, LifeTech, Complete Genomics, and others, have an unprecedented need for computational biologists. High throughput biology is accelerating, as is the need for programmers, engineers, analysts, and architects. As I write, a small Cambridge-based company (and client), Knome, has seven positions open. Life Technologies has about twenty-three. Just about every company I looked at has an opening for at least one software engineer/programmer. Prediction: We will need to aggressively train new graduates in this area and poach from other technology sectors such as aviation, astronomy, and academia going forward.

DNA Diagnostic Leaders: Of course, blood gas measurements will never go away, but the new opportunity is for genomic scientists and commercial people who can usher in new genomics tests, while respecting current medical practice, privacy issues, and reimbursement requirements. Consider, for example, companies like Foundation Medicine, which are sequencing patients’ individual tumors to deliver on the promise of personalized medicine. Or Good Start Genetics, next-gen sequencing for routine genetic-carrier screening. Although the technologies are potentially game-changing, the challenges of incorporating these new approaches into existing healthcare paradigms remains, and we need people with experience gaining FDA approval and selling to the clinical market. Don Hardison, CEO of Good Start Genetics, has addressed this challenge by hiring many of his former team members from Exact — people with solid molecular diagnostics experience, to complement some of the NGS expertise in the company. Prediction: There are not enough people with DNA sequencing and diagnostics experience to feed these new companies. Cross-training classic diagnostic experts with NGS experts will be the wave of the future. Lots of opportunities moving forward especially for recent graduates.

Sales & Marketing: The platform race is accelerating. Companies such as Oxford Nanopore and Nabsys will continue to develop cutting-edge solutions and will need commercial leaders to bring products to market. Oxford Nanopore is searching for a VP of Sales as I write. Darren Lee just started at Nabsys this week as VP of Marketing and Business Development, and I am sure NobleGen, GenapSys and others are not far behind in their recruiting efforts.

These are just a few areas. When you remember the potential jobs in related fields such as education, clinical genetics, and patient care, you realize that the opportunities starting to open really could be of a gold-rush scale. Look for the confirmation of these positive trends — many of them associated with increased personal genome activity — in the soon-to-be-released new edition of the edition of the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey for 2012-13.

 And saddle up, everybody — thar’s jobs in them thar genome hills!

Highlights of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference 2012

There’s never a better way to kick off a new year than to join the mobs descending on San Francisco for the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference —especially after a year that saw its ups and downs. The place was teeming with investors trying hard not to think of the European financial situation; with companies in search of funding; with industry leaders, insiders and observers of all stripes. And every one of them networking furiously. It’s biotech’s version of mass speed dating. At JP Morgan, if you don't have an invite, you can still get in on the action. Lots of conversations happen on street corners, in wildly-packed hotel lobbies, and during receptions (over a glass or two) at some off-site venue.

Some of the highlights this year, official and not, included exciting announcements, progress on the Next Gen Sequencing front, and of course cost containment & acquisition plans for 2012.

Mixed news

First the good stuff. Noubar Afeyan, who was celebrating his nineteenth JP Morgan conference, looked jubilant after the announcement that Flagship Ventures closed Fund IV. At $270 million, Fund IV is the largest fund yet in the Flagship portfolio. Watching what he is doing with JOULE and with talented people like David Berry is just plain fun. Can't wait to see how he spends his money.  In more Flagship news, on Monday, one of Flagship’s portfolio companies that’s near and dear to my heart, BG Medicine, announced a new CEO: Eric Bouvier, PhD. It’s going to be an exciting place for Eric to be, as BG seems to be making true headway with its transformative galectin-3 and AMIPredict diagnostic tests.

Obviously, after a year like this, there was some gloom. Francis Collins named one of the elephants in the room, talking about decreased NIH funding (down significantly from nine years ago). The odds today are that new investigators only have a one in six chance of funding, as opposed to the one in three chance of years past. On the positive, Dr. Collins shared his excitement over the plethora of new discoveries made every day by scientists. He also described the objectives of the new NIH Institutes and the $140 million partnership between NIH and DARPA to develop a chip-based approach to drug toxicity testing. One growth area surely seems to be on the molecular diagnostics side, with Qiagen, Cepheid, Gen-Probe and others all launching new tests and/or platforms.

Next Gen Sequencing forging ahead

Another positive: As a big fan of the $1000 genome efforts, I was happy to hear about Life Technologies’ Proton Torrent announcement of the $1000 genome instrument. It was also great to see Illumina fired back with its instrument upgrade announcement. The latter was perhaps smaller news, but the larger story — that this is a technology space jumping with activity — is all good. One of the biggest buzzes seemed to be about the PacBio news that Hugh Martin is out and Mike Hunkapiller is now CEO. The word is that this is not as abrupt as it looks. Mike apparently has been working closely with the PacBio team for quite a while. And of course, Mike has a plan. We wish him the best of luck in his new capacity.

Tough 2011 but solid plans for 2012

Many of the presentations reflected just how tough last year was, with NIH grant scarcity and very cautious customers. But what struck me was how persistent, tough, and never-say-die this industry really is. Frank Witney, CEO of Affymetrix, gave his update about his company’s difficulties in the last half-year. Even with a 20% cut in R&D as a cost savings measure, however, he remains bullish about their CytoScan HD product.

Thermo also announced cost-savings programs. The $55M they save will offset reduced customer spending and NIH cuts. Perkin Elmer revealed that no new acquisitions will be made until they finish the Caliper Life Sciences integration. Fluidigm is focusing on expanding into new market segments including cell culture, molecular diagnostics, and protein expression as well as will be considering acquisitions in the future. All in all it seems that companies remain optimistic and continue to look for creative ways to be successful.

Taking a break On the personal side, one of the highlights of my JP experience this year was an unofficial Applied Biosystems (ABI) get-together that Linda Avey (cofounder of 23 & Me now CEO/founder of Curious, Inc) and I hastily planned. She’s something special, with entrepreneurial star power to spare and plenty of courage to shake things up. Makes me remember how fortunate I was to work with Linda and many of the others that were able to join us. What good friends I made: impressive professionals and wonderful people who work hard to make a difference in life sciences and human health.

Five Old-Fashioned New Year’s resolutions every bioscience worker should make.

It's been yet another roller coaster of a year in the bioscience industry: lots of excitement, but some real lows, too. PerkinElmer acquired Caliper, but announced layoffs. Pacific Bioscience, a high flyer early in 2011, is perhaps now plummeting to earth: it laid off 130 workers. Even the golden child of life science tools, Illumina, has had sluggish sales and recently announced it will shed 8% of its workforce. Sometimes it’s not easy to hang on, much less enjoy the ride.

Not surprisingly, I get many calls from people looking to find a new job in the short term and/or to optimize career options for the long term. They ask what they should do. My answer? “A lot.” Specifically, a lot of fundamentals. We may be doing work at the edge of the possible, folks, but the old-fashioned basics still really count — and it never hurts to be reminded of them. So here they are: the five old-fashioned resolutions every bioscience worker should make for the coming year. Along with visiting the gym more (and the soda machine less), of course.

Resolution 1: Do your job. As much as career concerns can loom, focus on your current work and do the absolute best you can. Be mindful of corporate goals and your manager’s needs — and just plain get things done. Ask for feedback and try to incorporate that feedback into your approach. Remember that most positions and companies have ups and downs. Sometimes patience and perseverance make a huge difference, sometimes moving on is best. But don’t let deciding between them interfere with your performance. And emulate Harry Truman’s buck-stops-here philosophy. Take responsibility. Don’t pass along problems – fix them.

Resolution 2: Look at yourself honestly. Set aside some time and systematically name your true strengths and weaknesses. Think about at which job you were happiest. What were you doing? One way to approach this task is to pen a five-page PowerPoint about your expertise, experience, and education. Include success stories and work products. Be specific. In these times, there are many people with "broad experience." Don't be afraid to show your domain expertise. Think of it as a quick way to introduce yourself – to yourself; even if you never present the PowerPoint directly to others, the activity itself will help you distill your professional essence in a highly communicative way and get clarity about what your next steps should be.

Resolution 3: Make new friends, and keep the old. We all get so focused on our own tasks that sometimes we forget to look up, see what’s going on in our industry and with our colleagues — even though knowledge and networks are critical to many career decisions. Subscribe to Genome News, attend local entrepreneurial events such as the MIT Enterprise Forum. If you are in San Francisco in January, network at the JP Morgan Conference. It’s a great opportunity to see new life science companies before they’ve made their splash, understand the community as a whole, and meet people who may be helpful. Reconnect with old colleagues. And while you’re at it, put down that sandwich you’re eating in front of the computer and make a lunch date!

Resolution 4: Help others. Make the effort. Introduce people to each other. When you hear of something that might help someone, pass it on. Go out of your way especially to assist those people who are unfortunately out of work. Remember — it can happen to anyone. Taking time to help another is not only the right thing to do, but may result in a helping hand if it’s ever your turn to need one. Stan Lapidus, CEO of SnyapDx, is a vocal proponent of this principle. It’s important, and it’s easier to follow than his other career advice (delivered with a grin, of course): “marry well.”

Resolution 5: Be grateful. We are all incredibly lucky to have chosen work in an industry that can directly or indirectly benefit to human health and well-being. Let's all make it count. As Francis Collins said in a recent interview, “[T]here has never been a more exciting time to get involved in biomedical research. This century, the 21st century, is going to be the time when we derive answers to questions that have vexed us for all of history. […] To be part of that process of discovery and application could be, I think, the most exciting way for somebody to spend their life.

Happy holidays to all, and to all a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.

Under the Radar: Raindrops on Roses

Time to appreciate some of the incremental advances and ideas that together will usher in the age of personalized medicine. Favorite thing by favorite thing — that’s how the world changes. So move over Julie Andrews.

Research-wise, a major favorite thing is seeing a real step in making gene therapy actually work – a decades-long dream for many of us. Looks like British scientists have had preliminary success in treating Hemophilia B by injecting patients with the correct form of a defective gene. This is exciting news (in time for the holidays!) for those suffering from hemophilia. It has good implications, too, for those living with and working on diseases that have not-so-good histories with gene therapy. 

Very nice to contemplate, too, is a new venture involving Stanford’s Atul Butte, MD, PhD. I’ve mentioned Atul before, but just because he’s a friend doesn’t mean he’s not a star — he’s been pioneering the development of scientific tools that leverage genetic data to improve clinical care for years. He and a dream team — Russ Altman, MD, PhD; Euan Ashley, MD, PhD; Michael Snyder, PhD; and John West — have started a cool new company, Personalis, dedicated to bridging the gap between personal genetics and clinical medicine.

In terms of company ideas, again, I’m going with the importance of the incremental, and the importance of providing value to customers and financial success to investors. The back–to-basics approach that companies like Enzymatics, Cell Signaling and abpro are offering is refreshing. Watch for companies that can bootstrap, or that can subsist on only "angel round" investment without heavy infusions of cash to make it. A template for great start-ups? New England Biolabs. It started decades ago, and is still going strong.

Playing to your strengths is key, and the McKernan family is excellent at identifying and building value. Keep your eye on Courtagen Life Science, where father and sons Richard, Brian, and Brendan McKernan are Managing Partners and Board Members (Richard is Chair). The current team built Agencourt, and bought part of Genome Therapeutics. They also identified George Church's polony technology (key for next gen sequencing) and parleyed that into a value-added sale to Applied Biosystems and Beckman Agencourt. So far, they have developed protein immunoassays for point-of-care diagnostic and contract research markets, and they recently launched a biomarker discovery effort. Knowing them, they have plenty of plans for the future.

And then there are the unsung heroes.

Kudos to Morten Winger (and John Lindsay) for discovering and developing the value in Halo Genomics. They built value with their next gen sequencing sample preparation product, stayed under the radar, and sold quickly to Agilent. I have lots of faith in Mike Irwin, Director of Genomics, Americas Field Operations at Agilent and his team’s ability to capitalize on that new line. By the way, Morton and John did the same thing with ProXeon, which sold to Thermo. Can't wait to see their next act.

Another win for Mike Lucero, the father of Real Time PCR marketing. He’s succeeded at TaqMan, then at Fluidigm (went public this year) then at QuantaLife (sold to Bio-Rad). It’s been a brilliant run that even includes a break to lead Stokes Biosciences (which in April was stealthily sold to Life Tech). What will Mike do next?

Ruth Kaucher is one to watch. After a great career at Applied Biosystems, she moved to Beckman Coulter Genomics to build their genomics services group. But it just got more interesting. She is now VP of NA sales for BGI, a Broad-Institute-like Asian not-for-profit to which many big conservative pharm companies are already outsourcing their sequencing. BGI gave an impressive presentation at ASHG about focusing a worldwide effort to identify gastric cancer genes for the Cancer Genome project. We have all heard the China “sleeping giant” story; now it will be fascinating to see if BGI moves into a genomics scientific leadership role worldwide.

My last personal favorite for the day is woman-with-a-mission Linda Avey. After co-founding 23andMe then setting up a very powerful Alzheimer's consortium at BU with Bob Green, she is now the CEO of Curious, Inc. Aren't you?

If that’s not a list that beats whiskers on kittens, I don’t know what is.

Steve Jobs, Innovator

The legacy of Steve Jobs is breathtaking. In many ways, he remade our expectations and experience of technology. In many ways, that is, he remade our path to the future. As researchers, scientists, and entrepreneurs who dedicate our lives and careers to innovating in our own fields, I think we have a special appreciation for this remarkable man and his accomplishments. And we have a special opportunity, perhaps even an obligation, to learn from the aspects of his character that allowed him to achieve what he did. It feels like a fitting tribute to do exactly that.

Among Jobs’ iconic traits — along with brilliance, vision, an incredible appetite for risk-taking, and a passion for success — was what I call intellectual adventurousness. Carmine Gallo digs into this beautifully in The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success. Gallo describes Jobs as having "spent a lifetime exploring new and unrelated things” and argues that this was a major contributor to his inventiveness.
That this interest in seemingly disparate ideas — and of course, the ability to bring them together — was key to Jobs’ abilities as an innovator aligns closely with my experience with some of the most interesting and successful entrepreneurs in the life sciences.

In our field, the intellectual adventurers are the innovators who’ve pushed through the boundaries of the serial-science paradigm of life-science research. They’ve redefined life sciences as interrelationships and systems — it’s a perspective that allows for solving problems on a much bigger scale. These life science innovators pull ideas from biology, of course, but also from high technology, physics, math, and engineering. This “Think Different” mindset has allowed them to originate, recognize, and act on new ideas.

One of the most successful “Jobsian” thought-leaders in life sciences is Jay Flatley. He was a major force in the genomic-tool revolution and has consistently stayed at the forefront. Jay is CEO of Illumina, a company founded in 1998 and with a market cap of ~$5B. Jay has several traits reminiscent of Jobs. He has the same "out-innovate-all-competitors" attitude. And of course, a passion for technology: he’s frequently seen presenting his personal human genome sequence on, naturally, an iPad2. It’s a demo that comes complete with annotated personalized information and a great screensaver shot of his wife.  Significantly, the similarities also include an orthogonal background. Jay has a BS in Economics from Claremont McKenna and an MS in industrial engineering from Stanford. It’s a grounding that lets him see both science and business opportunities others might miss, such as acquiring Solexa and investing in Oxford Nanopore.

An innovator-hero with an even longer history of new ideas and Jobs-like breadth of intellect is Leroy Hood, MD, PhD. Not only has he led in the fields of automated genome sequencing, microfluidics, systems biology, and personalized medicine — he created those fields in the first place. Along the way, he’s co-founded at least 13 companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, and Rosetta Inpharmatics. That might be enough for most of us, but Lee Hood, 72 this month, is still pushing, still inventing, still shaping the future. Even while running his Institute of Systems Biology, he launched Integrated Diagnostics, which is creating blood-based diagnostic tools for the early detection of cancer. There’s a satisfying symmetry to his having led the development of molecular tools decades ago, and his now deploying those tools against devastating diseases such as lung cancer today. It all seems to fall under his ultimate ambition: to usher in a genetic-based era of what he’s named “P4 medicine” —medicine that is predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory. 

A younger innovator in the Steve Jobs tradition of intellectual adventurousness is tenured Stanford professor AtulButte, MD, PhD.  In 2002, I had the pleasure of working with Atul at Flagship to launch Selventa (then Genstruct). Back then, he was completing his PhD at MIT/Harvard and, already a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist, he was running the Computational Biology Group at Children's Hospital. Atul has a wonderful, multifaceted perspective grounded in his background as a physician, scientist, and software engineer. Fittingly enough for this reflection about Steve Jobs, Atul’s software engineering resume includes several stints at Apple. Who knows? Maybe Jobs was a direct influence … In any case, Atul’s career has encompassed seemingly divergent disciplines, and the result, as with Jobs, he has inspired ideas. In the past year, he has launched two separate new companies, Personalis and Numedii, that use genomic data to drive pharma pipeline development and clinical success. As with the idea of using Tagamet for lung cancer, Atul continues to be a source of the unexpected.

Steve Jobs said he “wanted to put a ding in the universe.” Obviously, he did, and it’s an honor to be in a field that allows us to strive to do the same. So thank you, Steve Jobs. And I think your own words speak for all of us today:  Insanely great.

Good Things Come to Those Who Bait

Even if you’ve never pulled on a pair of waders, you know that to hook the right fish you need the right lure. Why do so many people forget this when angling for jobs?  It’s all about specificity. About what sets off your strengths to make it obvious you’re particularly perfect for a particular job.

Think metrics. After many years of placing high-level commercialization people, I still puzzle over why business leaders who live and die by sales and revenue numbers so often leave metrics off their resumes.  In my experience, there is a direct correlation between your showing good metrics, and my clients’ being interested in speaking with you.  Whenever possible, bait your line with numbers: sales numbers, product line revenues, quota achievements. You will get many more call backs.

Tell and show. One of my candidates, a successful marketing director in the medical device field, took his excellent resume one step further by creating a professional-quality website to market himself. The site gave employers a full portfolio of the candidate’s white papers, marketing brochures, and PR pieces. Perhaps as important, however, the site showcased those materials in a way that demonstrated my candidate’s marketing skill – and thus his suitability for the position he sought.  Employers were able give him a virtual test drive. By the way, he got the interview and the offer.

Consider graphics, but stint on the stunts. I have seen a few rainbow-colored resumes in my time, and a few wild fonts, as well. Need I mention that I’m not a fan? There is, however, a place for different kinds of resumes that include thoughtful, well-executed visual information. One mechanical engineer I placed illustrated his resume with CAD designs of next gen sequencers and robotic equipment, and captioned the visuals with just the right amount of descriptive text. This inventive resume allowed employers to see in a glance what the candidate had designed and built, and allowed them to judge for themselves  the candidate’s experience with microfluidics, optics, etc.  Since I’ve placed this engineer in two jobs in eight years, we can safely conclude that resume works.

Next Gen Sequencing Comes Into Its Own – Big Time.

There’s an undeniable excitement when a new technology really hits its stride, and that excitement pretty much sparkled all over John Boyce's third Consumer Genetics Show. There was the A-list of academic and corporate speakers. There was the participation of the full range of stakeholders, from regulatory experts, genomics CEOs, and academic leaders to cancer patients (the affordable $20 entrance fee helped). There was the fact that John is one of the most well-networked people in our business, and he’s got a Midas touch when it comes to anticipating markets and opportunities. Bonus points for the “old home week” feel for former ABI-ers like me. Above all, though, there was the – no other word for it – thrill of witnessing a technology reach wow level. That makes for one heck of a conference.

One huge conference headline is that people are finally making real money off NGS. Jonathan Rothberg was radiant throughout  his presentation. Wouldn’t you be, if you’d sold Ion Torrent to LifeTech for $350-725M (depending on milestone payments)? He dazzled the audience with the story of Ion Torrent’s sequencing the deadly E. coli outbreak in Germany – in two hours. Jay Flatley was justifiably jubilant, too. He’s grown Illumina's market cap from $4B to $9B, and done it in a single year. Outstanding financial returns – and with the MiSeq platform about to be launched this summer, it looks like the rest of 2011 will be bountiful for Illumina shareholders too. Jay continued where he left off last year by loading his entire genome on an iPad 2; then extended the show-and-tell to include a look at the annotations and software for personal genome analysis. He also announced a dramatic drop in whole-genome sequencing prices to only $7,500 for an individual or $10,000 for a tumor and a patient. Incredible.  

This NGS market will drive a great deal of opportunity. George Church, our resident Harvard expert, predicted that very soon there will be hand-held NGS devices with no PCR or special sample prep, and that in-situ 3D/4D NGS for cancer and infectious diseases will be emerging. He predicted, too, that we are hitting the data deluge, which means advances in interpretation and integration software will take center stage. That's good news for Ingenuity, Selventa, GeneGo, DNA Nexus, and lots of those bioinformatics companies poised for just this opportunity. Paul Morrison, our Dana Farber Cancer Institute NGS guru, led a lively panel discussion that included some of the powerhouses in NGS platforms. Illumina was there, as were new entrants such as NobleGen, NabSys, and GnuBio. They’re all hoping to “pull a Rothberg" – and let's hope they can.

What’s really becoming clear is that the power of Next Gen Sequencing and other developments could help shift the traditional balance between the drug industry and its poor stepchild, the diagnostic industry. Randy Scott, CEO of Genomics Health, made the point that oncology drugs are effective in only about 20% of patients. That means that we are usually not providing the correct treatment for patients, and are therefore needlessly over-prescribing chemotherapy when another approach would be better. No wonder, then, that Randy joined Steve Burrill and a chorus of others in calling for a strong independent diagnostic industry not subservient to the pharma industry. Amen.

In closing, let's all hope that our drug costs go down and our access to highly informative personalized diagnostics tests go up. And let's also hope that John Boyce, now CEO of GnuBIO, a new entry in the Next Gen sequencing space, is eating his Wheaties and will still have time to organize a great fourth conference June 2012. Kudos again to you John.

Boston's answer to the JP Morgan Life Sciences Conference

Once again, the Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center scored a direct hit with their Early-Stage Life Sciences Conference VII. Partnering with the Merck Research Labs, they lined up an impressive array of new companies loaded with pedigreed, serial entrepreneurs from Harvard, MIT, Genzyme, Hologics, and other leading academic centers and corporations. Each of the sixteen companies had ten minutes to pitch their newco to investors and the biotech community – which gave the proceedings a kind of mini- JP Morgan Life Sciences Conference feel. Presenters ranged from medical device, Rx, and Dx companies to tools players. 

Donna Ambrosino kicked things off as the keynote speaker and conveyed some riveting examples of MassBiologic ’s successes, including the stellar story of developing an antibody Rx for SARS in only 31 months. There were several platform companies that caught my eye, including NobleGen Biosciences, a single-molecule DNA-sequencing company that has developed an optical nanopore sequencing approach. It looks to give Pacific Biosciences a run for their money and has the speed to sequence an entire genome in one hour, something we never dreamed about during my days at Celera. The winners of the MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition in 2005 presented Pharyx, a novel microfluidic bioreactor platform; and Alexey Wolfson introduced us to an exciting gene knockout RNAi company, Advirna, that could be a great acquisition target for Thermo Fisher, Life Technologies, or others. Optasia Medical and Translational Sciences presented some exciting new solutions to interpret and analyze CT and PET imaging.

In terms of new medical device companies, one of my Flagship Ventures colleagues, Jay Schwartz, presented Acuity Bio, an exciting drug delivery company with a polymer implant for treating non-small cell lung cancer. He also discussed potentially lucrative secondary markets, including colon and breast cancer. As we all know, crossing the blood/ brain barrier is not easy, but Al Kyle showcased Perfusion Technology, which utilizes ultrasound as a non-invasive method for drug delivery to the brain. There was also a new ablative therapy company, Thermedical, that will be able to offer revolutionary treatments for ventricular tachycardia and liver cancer. And then there was eye-opening (sorry!) idea of medication via contact lenses. Dr. Joseph B. Ciolino from Mass Eye & Ear is working with the famous drug delivery wizard Bob Langer to develop a contact lens that can deliver medicine in a time-release fashion to treat glaucoma.

Okay, now for the drugs... On the therapeutic side, two oncology companies presented: Bryan Oncor and OncoPep. OncoPep, developed at Dana Farber, is launching a new line of cancer vaccines to combat a broad spectrum of cancers. Bryan Oncor’s drug is based on a somatostatin peptide and has an imaging diagnostic paired with their Rx for lung cancer. Basically, they run a peptide imaging diagnostic on potential patients. If their cells light up positive for the somatostatin receptor, they are a match for the therapy. A very exciting combo – that yes, illustrates the promise of personalized medicine that I wrote about in an earlier post.

Continuing on with protein-oriented drugs, does the thought of oral antibody therapies seem farfetched? If so, it won’t for long. Avaxia Biologics has developed an oral antibody therapy to combat inflammatory bowel disease, attacking a $3.5B market.

One fun health-techy company that presented was Segterra. It is a web-base personalized path to health, wellness, and performance. They analyze a sample of your blood, and in conjunction with your individual goals for health or athletic achievement, provide the diet, nutrition, and exercise plan best for your signature biochemistry. Looks promising, though I’ll admit that it gives me some pangs of guilt about gobbling down that hot dog for dinner. On the other hand, skipping my morning run to attend the conference was totally worth it!

The personalized medicine market heats up

One of the markets that’s got the industry most excited lately is personalized medicine – the use of detailed diagnostics to determine individualized medical treatments. Little wonder that the approach is garnering attention, as the number of stakeholders seeing new ways to benefit seems to grow daily. Think platform tool providers, whose imaging and genetic tests are going to be relied on in completely new ways. Think pharma companies, who’ll be able to increase their shot at getting drugs through clinical trials by weeding out non-responders in advance. And of course, think hospitals and physicians, who’ll be able to pinpoint treatments that will get patients better sooner and decrease toxicity and other negative side effects. 

Cardiovascular disease is good example of personalized medicine in full swing. In the past, a cardiovascular patient’s newly-prescribed blood thinner often became a mini science experiment. Too high a dosage could mean hemorrhage; too low a dosage, and clots could land patients them back in the OR. Today, a quick (genetic) blood test determines optimal dose and is radically reducing hospitalization rates.  

But where more and more industry people are really expecting to find pay dirt is with the application of this kind of customization to an intractable problem like breast cancer.
We’re thankfully already past the time when the disease was identified and treated almost exclusively according to its tissue of origin – a crude categorization, as breast cancers are not all the same – but we’re far from where personalized medicine will be taking us soon. Today, genetic testing allows several cancers to be typed and paired with individualized therapy, and the area is expanding fast. 

Genomic Health, Agendia and Myriad have diagnostic tests that can help pair patients with the most effective treatment regime, in effect personalizing their treatments. Multi-gene tests, such as Agendia’s MammaPrint™, include more genetic information, and are advancing the field. And that’s just the beginning. 

A guy to watch in personalized medicine is Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.  He is definitely a key thought leader driving this field forward, and he’s a truly lovely person, to boot. He also organizes a great, not-to-be-missed conference through Harvard and Partners every November. 

We expect to be placing more and more leaders and researchers in personalized-medicine-related fields this year. Kind of nice when a big new idea promises a healthy future for us all medically – and financially, too!