'SBS at a Crossroads,' Theme of Member Meeting
 Offering a "view of the Society beyond the annual conference," the 2002 Meeting of the Society focused largely on what new president Robert Hertzberg, PhD, described as an association "at a crossroads." Said Dr. Hertzberg, "SBS has been around for eight years. We need to decide where we are going from here." Succeeding Thomas Chung, PhD into office, Dr. Hertzberg affirmed "the role of the president is to represent the members. This is not the president's society or the Board's society. What do the members like about the Society? We need feedback." To elicit that feedback, SBS has contracted with Kerr & Downs to conduct focus group research to be followed by a broader quantitative member survey.
Two concepts for debate immediately emerged from the focus group phase of the study. The first topic for debate: should SBS expand/diversify or "stick to its knitting," as one member said in a focus group. The argument for expansion centered on reaching out to disciplines upstream and downstream of HTS. The advantages being "new members translate to new ideas" along with the increased opportunity to impact new fields. Conversely, those arguing that SBS "stick to its core" point to other scientific societies that currently address upstream/downstream HTS issues; the dilution of the membership that comes with growth; and the loss of community that could result.
The topic evoked a lively point-counterpoint from the audience. Some voiced concern about "leap-frogging natural growth." While one vendor claimed "a lot of throughput issues have been solved, so expansion downstream of HTS makes sense," other members made the case for "expansion" in other areas. Ricardo Maccaron, PhD of GlaxoSmithKline viewed expansion in terms of more standards development. Jim Marks, PhD, of Pfizer, urged more academic involvement in SBS. Others in the audience viewed expansion in the context of geography-citing Japan and Europe as potential growth areas-and in the context of educational programs focused on high-level vs. junior scientists.
The second topic opened to the floor focused on "drawing the line between scientific and commercial talks." Those arguing against commercial speakers point to the need for focusing on science, not product, and make the case that science should drive the talks. However, those taking the commercial side contend that not all vendor talks are commercial. Moreover, vendors are a vital part of the membership, enjoying equal membership status and providing solutions to end-user problems.
Indeed, Al Kolb, PhD, The Automation Partnership, pointed out that "vendors are on the cutting edge; labs can take two to three years to gain permission for their talks, which by then could become obsolete." Others from the audience noted that "new concepts and relevance" are the keys, regardless of who the messenger is.
|
New President, Robert Hertzberg, to Guide Society Through Next Stages of Growth
Much like a government leader preparing to steer a nation during a critical time of transition, new SBS President Robert Hertzberg, PhD assumes the presidency of a professional society that has clearly moved beyond its infancy, but at eight years of age, has yet to reach full maturity. In the days leading up to this year's conference and the official start of his presidency, Dr. Hertzberg, Vice President, Molecular Screening at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, took a few moments to talk about his professional challenges at GSK, the transitional state of the Society and some of the leadership principles that guide him.
What Is A Typical "Day In The Life" At GlaxoSmithKline? Is Your Position Split Between Science/The Lab And Management/Administration?
R.H.- Much of my job is helping GSK to plan strategy for lead discovery activities and early drug discovery research. Questions such as "which targets (and how many) should we screen," "what level of capital investment should we make and where" and "what actions can we take to speed up the drug discovery process" are issues we wrestle with often. Another important role for my position is to plan the transition from today's lab-based screening approach to industrialized factory-like screening facilities. A big part of this job is guiding our three screening sites in their pursuit of the best ways of doing HTS-encouraging each department to share its best ideas and adopt new ways of working by taking ideas from their colleagues and other industries.
While I don't spend a lot of time directing the day-to-day science, I try to remain as close as I can to the lab and let data drive our strategic decisions. This can be difficult at times, but I try to keep a balance between the big picture while remembering that the devil is in the details.
One of the most interesting parts of my job is learning about new technologies and trying to judge those that are most promising and important for GSK. We have great people in our company, but there is also a tremendous amount of creativity outside of GSK. Part of our success depends on collaborating with key biotechnology companies and our partners in the HTS vendor community. Being able to take advantage of the best ideas from both within and outside GSK is one of my favorite things about this job.
What Is Your Company's Biggest Challenge? What 'Keeps You Awake At Night'?
R.H.- In a word: compounds. I am a firm believer that high-quality compound collections are the key to success in HTS. We and others have had good success at finding lead compounds for many important disease targets. But there remains a large percentage of intractable targets-even a few amongst the so-called tractable target classes like GPCRs. I'm convinced that the key to solving these difficult targets is having a large diverse and dynamic collection filled with "developable" compounds. The industry is improving in this area, but we are not there yet and we shouldn't be satisfied until we learn how to find leads for 100% of important drug targets.
What Accomplishment In Your Career Are You Most Proud Of?
R.H.- My proudest accomplishments are the people that I've hired and developed throughout my career. I've been extremely fortunate to work with outstanding scientists over the years, and most of them have stayed with the company and contributed to our success. People are the most important resource for any company, and I take enormous pride in my accomplishments in this area.
What Is Your Favorite Proverb Or Saying?
R.H.- I love John Lennon's comment about life: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." In business as well as one's personal life, it's critically important to think about the future, decide where you want to be and aim in that direction. But things happen along the way, and a key to success is being flexible and reacting in a positive way to the bends in the road. Certainly the challenges facing the healthcare industry today represent one of those times when plans can go awry. As an industry we need to adapt in response to the current environment, but we shouldn't change our long-term goals-just modify the route to getting there. I'm also a big fan of George Carlin, and one of my favorite Carlinisms is apropos: "A pear is a failed apple."
What Two Or Three Things Would You Like To Accomplish As SBS President? What Are You Looking Forward To The Most? Is There A Particular Challenge You See On The Horizon As President?
R.H.- The Society has grown dramatically and is now the major forum for scientists to advance the field of biomolecular screening. Our membership is diverse and has been growing each year. But the Board has been wrestling with opposing viewpoints regarding our rate of growth and breadth of coverage. Some feel it's important to broaden our horizons further into disciplines such as genomics, target identification, high-throughput chemistry, lead optimization, ADME-Tox and other drug discovery activities that can be considered under the umbrella of "high-throughput technologies." Others feel that we should remain focused and true to the core of HTS. The Society is at a crossroads, and I'd like to drive further discussion amongst the members regarding this aspect of our strategy. We are beginning to engage the members on this topic via focus groups and surveys. Taking steps on the Board toward resolving this strategic dilemma will be an important topic of my tenure.
Secondly, I believe that we have uneven representation amongst the various pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and minimal representation from academia. One of my goals is to tap into those companies and universities, which are underrepresented in the Society. This is especially important for the SBS committees, where the same hardworking and dedicated faces keep turning up year after year. These long-standing volunteers have performed a great service, but I'd like to encourage more new faces coming into the committees with fresh new ideas.
I Would Have Given Anything To Meet ____________?
R.H.- Martin Luther King. I've always admired his commitment, charisma and, importantly, courage. In a time when many people (on both sides) called for violence, Dr. King took an exceptional stance for peace.
|
Advancing The Science of Drug Discovery
Stories in This Issue:
