Developing Treatments for Infectious Disease

Biologist Larry Gold, an internationally regarded DNA and RNA researcher, co-founded Synergen in 1981, when biotechnology was still an emerging field. In 1992, he founded NeXagen, now part of Gilead Sciences, which develops treatments for infectious disease. And in 2000, he founded SomaLogic with the goal of transforming how diseases are detected and diagnosed.

Enabling Genetic Exploration

Ryan Gill, founder of Inscripta, has launched multiple successful technology startups. Gill was a key inventor of Inscripta's foundational technology, which enables rapid exploration of the genetic landscape at the whole genome scale, unlocking every cell’s fullest potential.

Fighting Cancer

Tin Tin Su’s innovative work with fruit flies led to the patenting of a compound that keeps radiation-treated cancer cells from re-growing. Her startup, SuviCa, develops cancer therapeutics that exploit a cellular mechanism critical to cancer re-growth after treatment with standard therapies.

Helping Alleviate Chronic Pain

Linda Watkins strives to understand how to control pathological pain states. Her work has yielded 300-plus peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Nature, Science and Journal of Neuroscience. A co-founder of Xalud Therapeutics, she is a world-renowned authority on the neurological applications of glial attenuation, focusing on alleviating chronic pain.

Making Chemotherapy Safer

Marvin Caruthers co-founded Amgen in 1980 to apply his work with RNA synthesis, DNA synthesis and analogues. Today, Amgen’s therapies help prevent infections in patients undergoing chemotherapy.