Innovation....with a little help from the Yente

Yael Weiss calls herself a Yente. Only instead of matching couples, she scouts for promising biotech innovation then marries it to opportunity at pharma giant, Merck, where she serves as director, licensing and external research. Here she’s infusing the old drug discovery R&D model with new flair by providing Merck with early access to brilliant ideas from the outside to accelerate their product development initiatives.

Weiss was the spirited warm-up speaker at the Women in Science luncheon held earlier this month by the Bay Area Chapter of Israel’s Weizmann Institute. She didn’t just graduate from the Institute with a Ph.D. in molecular genetics, she also grew up on its campus, shadowing her scientist parents as they pioneered their own inventions. She holds an M.D. as well. And although she practiced medicine briefly, she found a more fulfilling path at Merck where she blends her passion for new therapeutic discoveries with her love of medicine.

The drug discovery process remains frustratingly long and expensive so it’s no surprise to see Merck exploiting all avenues to augment its R&D. But, by turning to expert scouts like Weiss, Merck is vastly expanding its talent pool while simultaneously providing opportunities to emerging entrepreneurs.

It’s a model supported by serial entrepreneur Judy Estrin who delivered the keynote address at the lunch. Today, said Estrin, the world is harvesting the innovation seeds that were planted 15-20 years ago—by entrepreneurial scientists like Weiss’s parents. But, in a sobering assessment of the current landscape, Estrin worries that we’re not planting nearly enough seeds to keep our edge. She fears an innovation deficit that will seriously impact future generations by diminishing our global competitiveness. To Estrin, there are several types of innovation: breakthrough innovation, like the discovery of DNA; incremental innovation—inventions that enhance existing technologies, and orthogonal innovation, applying existing discoveries for use in a different way.

While Estrin’s concerns are shared by many, it’s impossible not to be optimistic. Certainly we could benefit from an innovation “Marshall Plan”. But it’s hardly likely in today’s acrimonious political climate. Meantime, organizations like Weizmann are marching ahead with their own Marshall Plans. They’re incubating innovators who are seeding invention across the world—scientists like Orna Man—the Institute’s 2008-2009 Postdoctoral Fellow who was recognized at the lunch for her ground-breaking genetic research. And at the other end of the pipeline, Yentes like Weiss are linking the innovators and their research to commercial opportunities.