how active Lifton will be in New York biotech. While running Rockefeller, Tessier-Lavigne, a former head of R&D at Genentech, was an ever-present figure at local events and had his fingerprints on a number of the initiatives that have spurred on biotech in the city. He championed partnerships between the city’s local institutions and industry, and played a key role in bringing together things like the New York Genome Center, the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute, and the NYCEDC’s $150 million biotech fund. He pushed the NYCEDC hard to help increase lab space in the city. He also helped “galvanize biotech activity in New York City,” raising the area’s profile to the venture community, says Susan Solomon, the CEO of the nonprofit New York Stem Cell Foundation.
“There is definitely a sense that there is a vacuum caused by Marc’s departure,” says Carlo Rizzuto, a partner at Versant and the head of the venture firm’s New York biotech outpost, known as Highline Therapeutics. “Many of us are curious how Rick will engage with the community.”
While Lifton doesn’t have Genentech roots, he does have a starry resume and a history of working with industry. Lifton has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1994, and was one of the key decision makers behind President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative, co-chairing its planning committee. He started at Yale as an assistant professor in 1993, and worked his way up to heading the university’s genetics department in 1998. He’s won several prestigious science awards, such as a $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2014, for his work on the genetic underpinnings of hypertension. On the industry side, he’s served in advisory roles: He chaired Merck’s scientific advisory board and is currently a Roche director. He was also the founding chair of the scientific advisory board of Curagen, a Needham, MA, cancer drug developer that went public in 1998 and was acquired by Celldex Therapeutics for about $95 million in 2009.
“I have a pretty good idea of what kinds of projects are likely to be fundable for biotech [or] pharma,” he says.
Lifton became Rockefeller president on Sept. 1, and as he says, is just “starting to get to know” the university. Afterwards he’ll begin familiarizing himself with the city, which includes the New York biotech community, and feel his way around to figure out what his role will be. But while he’s “interested in helping to promote and advance” the city’s biotech interests, his day job is “to make sure that Rockefeller remains [one of the top] biomedical research institutions in the world.”
A few projects from Rockefeller have become funded startup biotechs in New York of late, such as Lodo Therapeutics, which raised $17 million in January with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and cancer drug developer Rgenix, which got a $33 million Series B round in June. And Lifton says that the tangible benefit of having a strong local biotech community, one consisting of many more startups that grow and thrive in New York, is that postdocs are more likely to see it as a career development destination, a place to settle down, grow a family, and have job opportunities.
But Lifton is quick to point out that science—the university conducts both clinical and basic research in areas like genetics, molecular biology, neurosciences, and immunology—is Rockefeller’s mandate, not creating companies. It’s a “work in progress,” he says, to strike the right balance between company creation and early research, given that there are now more funding opportunities for biotech in New York since the arrival of venture firms like Versant, Arch, and Flagship.
“It’s critical that we [stay] close to our core strength and values of doing science for its own sake,” he says.
Does that mean Lifton will be less active than his predecessor in taking on a leadership role, campaigning for lab space, and ultimately changing New York biotech? “My impression is the city is a willing partner and we just need to work with them [on lab space],” he says, though at this point it’s too early to say how active he’ll be in those discussions.
The NY Stem Cell Foundation’s Solomon called Lifton a “leader and broad, team-science oriented thinker” who will help push life sciences in the city forward. But Lifton himself made it clear that he will pick his spots.
“An important aspect of leadership is being able to assess the condition and being able to figure out where your contribution is going to make the biggest difference, and that’s what I want to work my way into,” Lifton says. “So I don’t want to say out of the box ‘here’s what I’m going to do,’ because I want to make sure that I’m making a contribution where it’s going to be most valuable. And I don’t know exactly where that will be as of yet.”
Some feel the hardest part—getting the ball rolling in New York—is already done thanks to the work done by Tessier-Lavigne and many others. That lessens the pressure on someone like Lifton, and amps it up on everyone else. As Versant’s Rizzuto says, “it’s up to the rest of us to maintain the momentum.”
