ISB Post Doctoral Fellow Joshua McBee, center, discusses the merits of a business proposal with members of the Accelerator team, including President and CEO Carl Weismann, left.
Apparently the topic is of interest to immune researchers, because the paper quickly achieved a "highly accessed" designation from BMC. Highly accessed papers are those that are frequently opened and read relative to their age and the journal in which they were published, according to BMC.
Initially ISB scientists developed the database to help in their innate immune system research. During the process investigators realized that, if the database was valuable in ISB research, it would likely be useful for other researchers as well.
"Our culture is very collaborative and we wanted to make this information available to the entire immunology community as a resource to help them advance their research and speed discovery," Rust said.
The IIDB can be accessed for free at http://db.systemsbiology.net/IIDB. UNIQUE VC FELLOWSHIP AT ISB LINKS SCIENCE AND BUSINESS
Here's one headline you'll never see:
"Researchers discover a slower, more expensive way to produce a new drug that's completely ineffective at treating a disease no one has."
Generally researchers, certainly those at ISB, seek to gain new knowledge that people can use to significantly improve their lives. The most effective way to impact the most individuals in our society is to discover something sufficiently desirable that people will pay money to access the idea or product.
The problem is that the vast majority of scientists have never heard of Milton Friedman and their knowledge of markets extends as far as the corner grocery. Doctoral education programs focusing on science do very little to remedy this lack of perspective. Enter the ISB Venture Capital Fellowship for scientific researchers.
Accelerator has launched seven startups since it formed in 2003, three of which, Allozyne, Spaltudaq and VLST Corporation, raised approximately $115 million in series B financing in late 2006 and 2007.
"There's clearly a shortage of both scientists with a working knowledge of how to turn research findings into products and companies, and of opportunities for researcher to learn the skills necessary to do so successfully," said Tim Galitski, PhD, associate professor at ISB and founder of the Fellowship program. "It seemed appropriate to take advantage of the unique relationship between ISB and Accelerator to facilitate the link between science and business."
"Having this unique program also allows us to recruit very talented entrepreneurial young scientists, the kind that help us stay at the leading edge of science globally," Galitski said.
"It has been amazing," said Joshua McBee, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at ISB and the current VC program fellow. "The fellowship has really opened new doors for me."
McBee applied for the fellowship because PhD programs groom students to work in academia or in large corporations, but he was looking for other alternatives. Initially he thought his role would be to assess the science of proposals presented by scientific entrepreneurs to the Accelerator. In reality, however, he's been involved in virtually every aspect of determining the likelihood of success for proposed business ventures, including proactively scouting for new technologies, bundling complementary technologies from different entrepreneurs, negotiating licenses, developing budgets and more.
"There really aren't many people out there who can serve as a bridge between the science and the business," McBee said. "The opportunity to participate in this program has made me a very happy member of a pretty small club."
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