Fusion › Disciplines › Science › 2009–10
2009–10 Scientific Focus · The pilot year
Genomics and Genetic Diagnostics
The first cycle, and the one that established the pattern everything since has followed: a leading researcher teaching their own field to students who are not specialists in it, and teams building commercial arguments around discoveries nobody had yet evaluated.
In the pilot year, Dr. Joseph Nadeau, then chair of Genetics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and later Director of Research and Academic Affairs at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, guided students through the science and the applications of human genomics.
Working with Nadeau's understanding of a fast-moving field, student teams cultivated product concepts and business models to commercialize diagnostics related to HIV and cancer.
Teams were also given access to clinicians, start-up companies, venture capitalists, and intellectual property attorneys, to broaden and deepen their sense of what was practically achievable with the discoveries in front of them. That access, practitioners sitting with students, proved irreplaceable and has been part of every cycle since.
In 2009 the science of genomics was outrunning both the regulatory framework and the business models, which made it a demanding place to build a commercial case and a good place to learn how.