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Name of Submitter:
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Daria Mochly-Rosen
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Title of proposed idea:
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SPARK progressing academic research breakthroughs to the clinic with industry experts
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What is the major obstacle/challenge in the biomedical research field? What is needed to overcome this obstacle/challenge?
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• Academic discoveries often do not raise commercial interest (too early & lacking PoC, data not at industry standard, too out-of-the-box)
• Faculty career advancement misaligned with applied research
• Applied research is not valued
• Lack of training of students and fellows for jobs in the commercial sectors
• Current translational research is in isolation, providing patches for small gaps and missing an opprotunity to change the field of translational reseach
What is needed to overcome this obstacle/challenge?
Partnership between the university and local biopharma and ex-pharma employees to:
• Educate faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and medical and graduate students in drug and diagnostic discovery and development
• Hands on work with experts to advance promising research discoveries to the clinic as drugs, biologics, or diagnostics
• Innovate efficient, and cost-effective approaches to discovery and development - experiment with out-of-the-box approaches |
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What emerging scientific opportunity is ripe for investment by the Common Fund?
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A six year experience at Stanford tells us that academicians are highly motivated and adaptable to move their basic research to the clinic or commercial sector, when a clear process is outlined.
• Counting on the vast knowledge and experience of ex-pharma and biotech – they are eager to share their knowledge on failures and successes
• Counting on the ‘risk taking’ approach of academicians to break the stalemate in drug discovery and development |
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What are the potential Common Fund investments that could accelerate scientific progress in this field?
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• About $1.5M/institute
• Support consortia in translational research that will enable combining technologies and inventions between institutions
• Support projects addressing innovations to the regulatory process (clinical trial design, population sciences, approval process, data collection and dissemination, etc)
• Support of a yearly conference with the pharma industry to show case projects ready to be handed over
• Support a yearly mtg with the FDA to discuss lessons-learned |
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If a Common Fund program on this topic achieved its objectives, what would be the impact?
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• New drugs and diagnostics to improve patient health
- Work on 26 projects in four years in SPARK at Stanford resulted in 10 projects licensed (5 are in clinical trials) and 5 additional projects are in clinical trials:
• Education – SPARKee students and fellows are better prepared for jobs in industry
• Jobs creation
• Better process for drug and diagnostics discovery and development to improve patients health |
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