Academia vs. Industry: Tale of two roommates as they reflect on their career paths

Following Ph.D. studies at Yale in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry with Joe Coleman (1989-1995), Kevin Gardner postdoc’ed at the University of Toronto and established his independent lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 1998.  In 2013, he moved to New York to found and direct the Structural Biology Initiative of the new interdisciplinary CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and serve as the Einstein Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the City College of New York.  Combining techniques from different areas of science, ranging from biochemistry to drug discovery, his group has solved atomic-level pictures and mechanisms of proteins used by cells to sense and respond to changes in the environment around them.  His studies have led not only to better understanding of fundamental biology, but also established novel routes to artificially control protein activity.  Practical applications of this through two companies spun out of his group, Peloton Therapeutics, Inc. and Optologix, Inc., have led to new clinically approved cancer therapies (belzutifan, Merck) and novel optogenetic tools used in academic and industrial settings.

Arikha is an experienced medical device executive and entrepreneur whose companies’ developed products that have been implanted in millions of patients worldwide.  She was the Founder and CEO of Galatea Surgical (now owned by Becton Dickinson), guiding the company from inception through clinical studies and commercial release of GalaFLEX© for soft tissue reinforcement.  She was also the Founder and CSO of TyRx (now Medtronic Infection Control), which commercialized antibiotic eluting products for the prevention of infection associated with indwelling devices.  Arikha currently invests in and advises early-stage companies.  She is a Board member of Melodi Health and a Scientific Advisory Board member of Establishment Labs.  

Arikha’s Yale volunteer leadership includes serving as a Yale Alumni Service Corps Board member, a Class Agent for the Yale Graduate School Alumni Fund, and a Regional Director of Yale Day of Service.  She has a PhD in Chemistry from Yale and a BA in Chemistry from Brandeis University. 

Vic is President and Chief Scientific Officer at Chroma Medicine and an Advisor at Atlas Venture. He also serves as an Independent Board member at KromaTid, Inc., an advisor to the NIH SCGE, and an SAB member at both Obsidian Therapeutics and Life Edit Therapeutics. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer of Editas Medicine where he led the genome editing platform, CMC and chemistry departments. Vic also led a large, technology-focused target discovery, target validation and lead finding group in the Developmental and Molecular Pathways Department at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research for 11 years. Prior to Novartis, Vic focused on industrializing and using ‘omics technologies at Millennium, Akceli and Corning. He has B.S. from Cornell, a Ph.D. from Yale and completed his post-doc at the Whitehead Institute at MIT.