When Science Speaks

Vikram Mansharamani, PhD is a globally recognized leader whose expertise includes detecting and describing trends before they emerge. He shows people how to anticipate the future, manage risk, and spot opportunities.

Vikram first gained widespread attention with the release of his first book, Boombustology, which provided a framework for spotting bubbles BEFORE they burst. We're fortunate to have him here as his second book - "Think for Yourself" - is on the verge of release - June 16 is the release date.

Vikram is a thought-leader whose ideas and writings have appeared in Fortune, Forbes, The New York Times and a long list of other publications. Vikram also has been named the #1 Top Voice for Money, Finance and Economics by the entire 500 million-plus LinkedIn Network for both 2015 and 2016, and Worth Magazine profiled him as one of the 100 most powerful people in global finance.

Currently a lecturer at Harvard University where he teaches students to use multiple perspectives in making tough decisions, Vikram also has taught classes at Yale University on business ethics and governance, financial bubbles, and economic inequality.

On the show, Vikram discusses:

• How fluctuations in actual infection and fatality rates from the COVID-19 epidemic may shape attitudes about the economy and financial markets in the Fall and beyond
• How should everyday Americans decipher often conflicting public health directives about COVID-19 when they may lack the ability to make the right decisions on their own
• Whether the public's faith in experts is going to be degraded as a result of the pandemic, with a backlash against scientists who are calling for more stringent public health precautions than some members of the public are unwilling to accept, for example.
• Does public confidence in scientists and other subject matter experts fluctuate over time. Are there factors that tend to trigger such fluctuations.
• Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing emphasis on standardized testing, which has created the dynamic of "teaching to the test" rather than actively encouraging critical thinking. Does this trend contribute to the dynamic Vikram analyzes in "Think for Yourself"?
• Conformity and social proof are hard-wired into human thinking - perhaps because we don't have the brainpower to personally experience and understand everything we need to move through life. How should we determine the things to outsource to others and the things we should analyze and decide for ourselves?
• Looking ahead, we've heard that post-COVID-19 world won't be a return to the way things were before, but perhaps a "new normal" will emerge. As an expert in detecting trends before they're visible, what could this new normal look like - in terms of work, the economy, the financial markets, etc.

The CoVent-19 Challenge

The CoVent-19 Challenge is the creation of 13 anesthesiologists and advisors from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston-area who have come together to help overcome the ventilator supply crisis during the devastating the COVID-19 pandemic. As experts in mechanical ventilation and frontline workers fighting COVID-19, they seek to develop low-cost, rapidly manufacturable solutions to support heavily burdened modern medical facilities. CoVent's goal is to close the gap between our actual resources and those in need around the world.

The CoVent-19 Challenge is an open innovation 12-week Grand Challenge for engineers, innovators, designers, and makers. The Challenge launched on the GrabCAD Challenges platform on April 1, 2020. The general admission round resulted in over 213 entries from 43 countries. Seven teams were invited to participate in the invite-only finalist round (details below). The Baxter Academy team is one of the 7 finalists. The invited teams are receiving access to additional resources for completing their ventilator designs and support in creating functional prototypes, including test kits, test lungs, and testing protocols. The prototypes will be evaluated using a test bed to determine which design provides the best combination of performance, safety, reliability, manufacturability, affordability, and simplicity. The final ventilator designs are due to CoVent on June 21st and will then be evaluated by a team of expert medical and technical panelists.

Team Name: fuseproject + Accenture + CIONIC

Team: The overall fuseproject + Accenture + CIONIC team is led by Senior Industrial Engineer Daniel Zarem and a team of 8 designers and creatives from the design consultancy fuseproject, based in San Francisco. Other team members include Dan Semo, Judy Leung, Jayati Sinha, Jaehon Jung, MC Abbott, Eric Oesterle, Qin Li and Harriet Zhou.

Members of the extended team include 3 engineers from Accenture's Seattle office, Brad Laird, Eric Spaulding and Jonathan Schreven. Two team members from ICONIC include Jeremiah Robison and Tyler Smith.

The three groups are operating as a virtual team from their lockdown locations in San Francisco and Seattle, conducting all of their work, including user interviews, remotely. Much of their work was conducted asynchronously, using remote design collaboration tools like Miro, Interestingly, the core fueproject team approached this global innovation tournament with a different orientation than the other finalists in that they are designers first and foremost. I think you'll get a clear sense of this mindset if you watch the video and listen to Daniel and the fuseproject's CEO Yves Behar.

Here is a 6.5 minute video that introduces you to the team and the interim design https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trMOjdNOIuI&t=5s

The commercial entity, fuseproject is a San Francisco and New York based design and branding firm established by Yves Behar in 1999. He has also simultaneously served as Chief Creative Officer at Jawbone, where his work helped the company become a leader in wearable and audio consumer electronics. Behar is also the Creative Co-Founder of OUYA, an open sourced gaming platform, and is Co-founder of start-up August, a next generation home entry system. Yves' has had other collaborations with renowned partners such as Herman Miller, GE, Puma, PayPal, SodaStream, Samsung, Issey Miyake, Prada and many others.

Mark Bayer: [00:00:39] Hey, everyone. This is Mark Bayer. And thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of When Science Speaks. Today's episode is brought to you by Bayer Strategic Consulting in Washington, D.C., which helps scientists and engineers get funding, gain influence and build relationships with the stakeholders who matter most.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:00:58] It is such a great pleasure to have Lorraine Marchand on the show today. Lorraine is a life sciences consultant, speaker and educator. She's held executive roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Covance, Ocular Proteomics, and Cognizant Technology Solutions and currently leads global R&D at IQVIA.

Mark Bayer: [00:01:15] She knows the world of startups firsthand, having founded four companies, and is an expert at showing scientists how to communicate the value of their innovations. Lorraine has helped numerous entrepreneurs successfully commercialize their technologies. I've invited her to be my guest today because of her proven method for successful innovation. It's based on data driven problem solving, followed by solution prototyping. And then, and this is what people very often neglect, it's punctuated by specialization and contingency planning and what she has termed the art of the pivot. "You never fail. You always learn" is one of Lorraine's mantras. And today she's gonna share her insights and best practices. And we're really so fortunate to have her with us to do that. Lorraine holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and the London Business School, Master's from the American University and a Bachelor of Science in Science and Journalism from the University of Maryland. Lorraine, welcome to the show! Thank you so much for setting aside the time in your busy schedule to be with us.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:02:22] Oh, Mark, thank you. It's my pleasure because we're going to be talking about my very favorite topic. So this is an easy one for me to get excited about.

Mark Bayer: [00:02:32] Great. Great. And, you know, you are an expert in storytelling and effective communication in the startup environment. And many of our listeners are very interested in both of those aspects. You know how to put together a strong narrative, tell the story and in results oriented, jargon-free language of their research. And then also interested in startups, potentially entrepreneurship. And you combine both of those things. And so I'm wondering if to start off, you could provide an example of strategic, well crafted communication of scientific information or technical information. One that sort of is well done and one that's maybe not so successful.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:03:14] Mark, I get this question a lot. So thank you for the question. And let's look at a couple examples. First, let me use a simple one everyone can relate to and I'd like to turn things around for just a couple of minutes and ask you a question. OK. Good. Yeah. Mark, what do you like about your smart phone?

Mark Bayer: [00:03:40] Well, I think one of the things is that it actually makes me smarter because I can carry in a small package so much information that, you know, I need at my fingertips and then just things that, you know, come up that I want to know a quick answer to. So it's I know people sort of think of it sometimes as some sort of like peripheral like a peripheral brain. And I kind of see it that way, too, like in a small package. I can just, like, have so much information. And that's not even the phone part, which most people don't even you know, it's a kind of almost an afterthought. It's just I just love the fact that I'm able to get so much information and keep in touch with people, too. I guess mostly, you know, by text now. But it's just a great compact way to carry with you the biggest libraries in history.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:04:36] Mark, with that answer, you told us a little bit about who you are. What do you care about? And the features and benefits of your phone that matter most. Now, let's examine what you didn't say.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:04:52] You didn't open up by saying that you have an iPhone A11 that weighs six point eight four ounces and is six five three inches in size with a six point one inch screen powered by Apple's new A13 bio I.C chip with one hundred and twenty eight gigabytes of storage and dual ultra wide cameras.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:05:17] Did you know none of that? No, not at all.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:05:20] Why not?

Mark Bayer: [00:05:23] It's just that to me sounds like so kind of like just dry and like it's not maybe, you know, like it's not really results oriented. So then the question is so what can you do with that stuff. And that's what I care about.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:05:37] Exactly. The technology description fails to communicate what you love about your phone. What kind of experience it gives you and why you chose it over competing products and how you use it. Let's look at a Lifesciences example. I want you to listen to these two pitches and tell me which one communicates the value and attributes of the technology. Here's number one. My lab has been studying the vitreous proteome for 15 years. We have filed patents on our discovery of 10 biomarkers in the vitreous that we believe are associated with wet macular degeneration known as wet HMD. This eye disease causes bleeding in the retina and can eventually lead to blindness. We've developed an assay that demonstrates changes in the levels of these biomarkers before and after the injection into the retina of drugs used to treat this disease. We plan to develop a diagnostic test to predict response and non response to therapies used to treat this eye disease. OK, Mark. Did you get all that?

Mark Bayer: [00:07:00] I heard it. I heard some words that I recognized and some that I didn't. I know macular degeneration is very, very bad. And then I heard a lot of other things like assays that I don't usually use or completely understand.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:07:15] OK, now let's try this version of the pitch. Eleven million people over age 65, including my mom, have an eye disease called what HMD, which can eventually cause blindness. Doctors have five different drugs to treat that HMD. But the problem is 70 percent of patients don't respond to their treatment. And doctors go through a process of trial and error over many years, trying different drugs to see which one works better. Our solution? We've developed a test used in the doctor's office to help determine whether a patient is responding to their therapy so they can get on the drug that works. I'd like to tell you more about how our technology works and how you can help us get it to the market. Mark, what was different about the two message tracks?

Mark Bayer: [00:08:16] You know, it really told the story, and I think it's so important. I love it, Lorraine, that, you know, a lot of times scientists should say, because we're talking about this and obviously our audience, they're told to tell a story or a narrative. It's not necessarily like a story from beginning to end, but it follows like what you were describing, first of all, very accessible language and and using, you know, vivid types of descriptions that everyone can understand, starting with mom but also on top of that talking about the doctor's office. And I just I was able to follow you step by step the entire way rather than getting diverted by words I didn't understand drifting off when you started talking in the first example of some vitreous something or other that really was way over my head. And so I just enjoyed your description - I wanted to get to the end because I was following you every step of the way. I wanted to hear how the story was going to end.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:09:21] And that is the point. The first example describes the research and the technology. But it wasn't until the last sentence that we learned something about the application of the technology.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:09:34] It is what we call burying our lede. Keep in mind that because of the digital communication world in which we live, the time we now have to capture someone's interest is seven seconds, seven seconds for that investor or strategic partner to decide if they want to tune into our message in the first example. We used our seven seconds to communicate that we've been researching the vitreous proteome for 15 years and have filed patents, 10 biomarkers.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:10:15] Is that enough to keep someone's attention? No. Maybe not. Yeah, right. Right, right. Right. Now, in the second example, we learned that 11 million baby boomers have a potentially blinding eye disease, including Mom. So read skin in the game and most don't respond to drugs on the market. We described a problem. We gave it a name, a number, a face and explained our solution in lay terms. So to sum it up, the way we communicate our scientific advances in a way that's compelling and impactful is to start by describing the problem, the unmet need in human terms, using numbers and details for impact. Number two, we explain the solutions in simple terms, people can understand the new iPhone lets me take amazing photos creating memories every day or what the HMD Test may help doctors determine who will respond to treatment and who won't. So they can get patients on the drug that will work for them. And third, the investor. Now that you understand the problem and I've defined our solution. Let me tell you how and why you should invest in helping us bring this differentiated technology to market.

Mark Bayer: [00:11:47] What am I supposed to do? Like, what do you want me to do? And it was it's so interesting to have to say, Lorraine, because when I was on Capitol Hill, you know, for during a big part of my career, you know, we always needed to know, OK. You've described the problem. Then what? What do you want us to do? You know, it's that call to action that is just so vital. And it was really interesting and crisp the way that you got to that.

Mark Bayer: [00:12:14] Exactly. The call to action? I couldn't have put it better.

Mark Bayer: [00:12:18] Now, let me ask you this question that follows sort of from your example. And this is a question that I get a lot. And I'm really interested. I know it would inform our audience to get your perspective on this, which is, you know, the idea that I want to communicate the real world results of my innovation. But I need to be accurate. And I don't want to overhype it. You know, in working in this community of these these amazing, talented, inspiring researchers who are looking to really push the bounds of what's possible and uncovering these discoveries. And it's so exciting at the same time, this training that at the same time this cohort of folks received, to follow the data. Don't overhype, you know, maybe use the passive voice, you know, and always leave open the possibility that what they're working on is not going to turn out the way that they hope. And it's sort of leading down that trail. How do you balance that tension?

Lorraine Marchand: [00:13:30] Well, Mark, we all appreciate that every opportunity has a challenge. Every pro, a con, and it's no different in the business of science. Well, we need to clearly state the benefits of our technology and communicate a reason to believe. We also need to address risks proactively and provide fair balance. But we don't stop there because there's always risk. We need to present a mitigation, a contingency plan B. So drawing on our example about the wet HMD diagnostic after our opening pitch, we acknowledge that our program has some risks.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:14:18] For example, the samples used to date have been from a sample bank of frozen vitreous. Yet for FDA approval for our test, we need to run a prospective clinical trial to demonstrate that the biomarker changers are consistent and the changes are statistically significant in a large sample size. But we're going to manage this risk, right? So we've got the risk. But now we're going to talk about how we're going to mitigate the risk. We're going to manage this risk in the trial by developing a profile of responders and non responders and then targeting patients subtypes, who we believe will clearly benefit from the test.

Mark Bayer: [00:15:03] Yep - you're demonstrating how thoroughly you've got your mind and your arms around this issue and looking at it from all these different angles. So interesting. And so, so specific and helpful and actionable for listeners. I want to shift a little bit to the next question, which is, you know, we know this term alternative facts. You know, it was born in twenty seventeen. Kellyanne Conway first said those words on Meet the Press, but the virus - it's the latest variant of a mutation of a virus that's been with us for centuries and centuries. But when I talk about that sort of meaning, I'll turn to facts or pre-existing biases, they could be based on incomplete or incorrect data, you know, kind of maybe drawing conclusions from a small data set and kind of applying them more broadly when that's not called for. Do you feel like maybe given your extensive experience, expertise in being in these rooms on both sides and teaching about this? You know, when you first of all, when you're thinking about an alternative fact as a kind of a pre-existing bias that your listener may have, is that, you know, how do you see that as an impediment to innovation? And then how do you recognize that you're in that kind of dynamic, kind of facing that sort of belief system, if you will? And how do you recognize it? And then how do you address it? How do you try to overcome it?

Lorraine Marchand: [00:16:48] Well, Mark, whenever I'm communicating science or technical content to an audience, especially a lay audience, because as you pointed out, even in my teaching, I often have students who are what I might call tourists of health care, medicine, science. I first do what I call a perception audit. And in a perception audit, I identify with the attitudes, knowledge, biases, perceptions of the audience might be. And then I get them into the open. At the beginning, I worked them into the talk.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:17:27] Why? Well, first, by dealing with the perceptions upfront, I reduced distractions during the talk or in the Q&A. Sometimes the perceptions and biases sound unfounded. When you say them out loud, they lose their sting. And secondly, I create through this method empathy with the audience. They feel understood and much more tuned in to my explanation or the facts that I'll present. And I'll give you you an example of a recent example. I was giving a talk a day after the coronavirus story broke. There was a lot of confusion, misinformation and hype at the time. Some of the misinformation was around the origin of the virus. And I knew members of the audience had heard rumors that the virus was manufactured in a lab and might be a terrorist tactic. I opened the talk by pointing to the rumors and speculation given we knew so little about the virus.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:18:39] I said it was completely understandable, but I then went on to reference the data that the Centers for Disease Control had gathered at that point, isolating the virus to the bats sold in the food markets in Wuhan. I explained animal to human transmission of viruses. I reminded everyone of the Saar's outbreak, which is also a coronavirus. I explained how vaccines were developed, why it takes so long, and I could almost see people in the room breathe, relax, nod their heads.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:19:16] And afterwards, many came forward to thank me for that simple lesson in virus transmission because I had actually reduced some of their anxiety around this misinformation and these misperceptions that had been in the rumor mill.

Mark Bayer: [00:19:34] I have to say, Lorraine, that she's I mean, it's so skilled, sophisticated.

Mark Bayer: [00:19:41] I mean, it's what I would expect from a person of your caliber. It's so beautiful to hear and elegant to hear you doing that.

Mark Bayer: [00:19:50] And underlying what you said and even the way you described it is you did all these things with genuineness and authenticity, taking these at face value and suspending any sort of judgment about them. And, you know, getting them out in the open, as you point out, you're taking some of the sting out of these things. So well done! And and brilliant, I have to say. And then, of course, you got this response. And I think, you know, just underlying it, the sort of empathy that you were showing as far as taking these concerns seriously must have gone a long way.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:20:44] Well, I do believe, Mark, that when you display empathy and people feel understood, you have a much better opportunity of having a dialogue of having influence over them and having a more positive outcome.

Mark Bayer: [00:21:02] People need to feel heard. And that can be, you know, that's really a prerequisite that often is ignored. I'm just going to dictate to you or maybe even imply how stupid these things are, how crazy. And perhaps they may be, but you can't, you have to take them seriously to open up that channel, as you pointed out.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:21:32] Exactly. Exactly. Otherwise, you have people sort of challenging you throughout the talk and you just don't have their attention because you haven't been able to settle their mind and recognize and honor the view that they have. Whether it's misguided or not, they still need to be recognized.

Mark Bayer: [00:21:55] Thank you for that example. So, so important. Now, you're a veteran of launching companies. And so what are the essentials that you feel every entrepreneur should know and should be doing and if possible, things that she should be avoiding in starting a company?

Lorraine Marchand: [00:22:17] Sure. So, Mark, the essentials that every entrepreneur needs to know in starting a company. You know, first and foremost, you need to start with feasibility. And the feasibility is an assessment of the risks, the risks of your technology, the financial risks and the market risk. Those are the main large categories.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:22:45] And after an honest assessment of those risks, the entrepreneur needs to make a go or no go decision. And so I think that's sort of the first inflection point is to really understand those risks and determine whether it makes sense to continue with a pursuit of this technology and trying to transition it into a company.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:23:11] That's essential. Secondly.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:23:18] And entrepreneurs, especially scientists, entrepreneurs, oftentimes make this mistake.

Lorraine Marchand: [00:23:25] You have to have a strong management team and that management team has to have a track record of success. So I think the scientist has to keep that principle of staffing to your weaknesses in mind and knowing that while you have the scientific acumen, you likely don't have market investing experience or

Lorraine Marchand: [00:23:51] financial regulatory acumen. And you have to find the best talent to bring into your entity or into your project so that you are getting as much benefit as you can from having a very talented, well-rounded team, and preferably one that has been down this road before and has been successful. That's number two. Number three. And again, I see physician entrepreneurs make this mistake, too. But having experienced this myself, my guidance is to raise as much money as you can. Early on, too many entrepreneurs are afraid of giving away too much equity early on, and they therefore undercapitalize their enterprise and then find they can't raise the money later. And we have so many examples of that happening around the 2008 recession, depression that we had when the markets were very much opened up. You know, going into twenty nine, 09, 2010, a lot of entrepreneurs held back on maximizing that. And then we went into the Valley of Death for several years and we really saw a spike in the number of ventures that just were not able to get the capital to move forward. So you always have to evaluate the pros and the cons. But my guidance is get the capital while you can.

Mark Bayer: [00:25:27] One question about this and really such valuable advice, Lorraine, in the early stages when you are looking, as you point out, you really should be raising as much capital as possible. On the other side, you explain why people can sometimes be hesitant to do that. Are there ways of you know.

Mark Bayer: [00:25:49] So would an idea sort of be to try to raise the capital without sort of the dilution, maybe going after grants or other programs, funding from other federal programs, for example, or other things that don't require equity in exchange?

Lorraine Marchand: [00:26:04] Yes, absolutely. You want to go from the the mildest form of capital or the non dilutive forms of capital up the ladder, if you will. So to the extent that you can apply for a small business innovation grants from the NIH or the SBA or the other federal agencies, that you have high net worth individuals in your circles or if not high net worth individuals, family and friends who are willing to be early angel investors. Those are obviously the first two forms of capital raise that you want to try to achieve because they are non dilutive or at least with the angel investing, mildly dilutive impact on, you know, once you get up and running, if you're successful, then you're going to need to transition to venture capital and the various levels of venture capital. And yes, you can progress on this ladder in a way that is phased and tranched and appropriate for the growth of your enterprise and also feels comfortable to you.

Mark Bayer: [00:27:17] Sure. So I really love how you added that at the end, because that is so important. You know, you've given us so much actionable information and specific information. I'm wondering in the next question if is there anything just thinking about communicating your message to investors now taking that sort of tranche of the communications pie, the audience, you know, segment, that audience segment, let's put it that way. Is there anything that you think either bears re-emphasis from what you talked about previously or maybe something that's a little bit different in degree or kind when you're talking about messaging to investors in particular?

Lorraine Marchand: [00:28:04] Yes. And some of it's going to reinforce some of the messages that we've already discussed. But in terms of talking to investors. Number one, remember that investors are looking for a commercially viable product that the market wants that a buyer will pay for, and they want to see a business plan that minimizes exposure to financial, technical and market risk. Number two, they want to see a solid technology that is solving a real problem based on research with the key stakeholders. I always tell my students we don't do innovation in a vacuum. Sitting in the office, we need to get out and talk to at least one hundred customers or other stakeholders that are going to be impacted by our technology in order to prove its merit and to prove that we have somebody who wants our solution. And importantly, that decision maker or that buyer needs to be willing to spend money to fix the problem. And they need to want to spend money on your solution, at least potentially really, really important. If you ask somebody if you'd like this feature or this app on the iPhone, they'll say, sure, if you ask them the question, are you willing to spend fifty dollars a month for this feature, for this app on your cell phone, you might get a different response. Number three, we talked about securing a management team that has succeeded before. And one of the reasons that I emphasize this is because after the solidness of the technology and the de risking, the second thing that investors look for that's the most important to them is investors like management teams who've had a series of successes. So they're going to look at the talent and the track record of the team for be objective and pragmatic decision. Entrepreneurs need to demonstrate that they're not in love with their technology.

The CoVent-19 Challenge

The CoVent-19 Challenge is the creation of 13 anesthesiologists and advisors from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston-area who have come together to help overcome the ventilator supply crisis during the devastating the COVID-19 pandemic. As experts in mechanical ventilation and frontline workers fighting COVID-19, they seek to develop low-cost, rapidly manufacturable solutions to support heavily burdened modern medical facilities. CoVent's goal is to close the gap between our actual resources and those in need around the world.

The CoVent-19 Challenge is an open innovation 12-week Grand Challenge for engineers, innovators, designers, and makers. The Challenge launched on the GrabCAD Challenges platform on April 1, 2020. The general admission round resulted in over 213 entries from 43 countries. Seven teams were invited to participate in the invite-only finalist round (details below). The Baxter Academy team is one of the 7 finalists. The invited teams are receiving access to additional resources for completing their ventilator designs and support in creating functional prototypes, including test kits, test lungs, and testing protocols. The prototypes will be evaluated using a test bed to determine which design provides the best combination of performance, safety, reliability, manufacturability, affordability, and simplicity. The final ventilator designs are due to CoVent on June 21st and will then be evaluated by a team of expert medical and technical panelists.

Team Name: Team Baxter Academy

Product Name: The Baxter Ventilator

About the Team:

The team is based at Baxter Academy for Technology and Science and is composed of teachers, students, and alumni from Baxter Academy who live predominantly in Portland, Maine and across New England.

Members:

Jonathan Amory, Team Leader, Engineering Teacher, Baxter Academy

Emmalyn Armstrong

Ben Bernard

Josef Biberstein

Casey Burhoe

Rowan Connor-McCoy

Norris Dale

Zackary DiCelico

Olivia Fowler

James Heffernan

Travis Libsack

Emily Mickool

Nick Nelsonwood

Amanda Palma

Alexander Willette

Jack Yebba

Toby Roy

Bodhi Wilkins

Caden Theriault

Gordon Fream

The Baxter Ventilator was designed specifically to address a shortage of ventilators during a pandemic. The ventilator provides volume control continuous mandatory ventilation (VC-CMV). The tidal volume, respiratory rate, inspiratory to expiratory time (I/E), positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP), and fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) can all be set on a touch screen or through manual controls. For the patient's safety, the maximum Peak Inspiratory Pressure (PIP) will not exceed 40 cm of water. To allow for use in field hospitals, the ventilator can use ambient air, high or low pressure oxygen. When evaluated on a Gaumard HAL S3201 simulator, the prototype met the target criteria and produced results similar to industry-standard ventilators. In a pandemic mass production and supply chains for ventilators may be disrupted, while surges in demand for medical device components and market failures may limit availability. The Baxter Ventilator was therefore designed to be built by individuals with limited skills in distributed locations, as well as at scale. A single person can assemble a ventilator a day with an only an Allen set and crescent wrench following Ikea type assembly instructions and videos. Using readily available industrial COTs components costing only $1,500, the ventilators are not dependent on specialized equipment or parts and are cost-effective. The design features tried and true mechanisms for long life cycles in harsh environments. The Baxter Ventilator also provides a robust platform for expanded capabilities. Additional sensors and controls are currently being added to the Baxter ventilator to allow features like pressure control continuous mandatory ventilation (PC-CMV) and pressure-support ventilation (PSV).

Press Release from Baxter Academy

PORTLAND, Maine — Engineers like to solve problems and there is no exception in Baxter Academy's engineering teacher Jon Amory. In March, when Amory saw the critical shortage of medical ventilators facing hospitals as they try to help patients afflicted with COVID-19, he started doing research.

"I drew up some schematics, did some calculations and said this is something that I could produce," Amory said.

Although he was quickly convinced he could build one, he wanted to create an emergency ventilator that even under dire circumstances could be built and used by almost anyone. To do that he decided it needed to be built inexpensively, using over-the-counter parts, and only a few tools. It also had to be simple to build. "Anyone who can put together something from Ikea, has a basic knowledge of putting things together, can build it."

"It's one thing to produce one ventilator in one lab, it's another thing to produce something anyone can build."

Amory knew that he could put the machine together most efficiently by himself bouncing ideas off his colleagues but he wanted to include his students. He reached out to them about the project. It wasn't required and there would be no grade. Dozens of students wanted to help.

Maine teacher and students create working ventilator

Working remotely, through virtual meetings a group of about twenty current and former students began to meet and work on the ventilator, including Junior Dennis Slobodzian who has been working on the controls. The ventilator is built on what looks like an iv stand and is controlled with a touch screen pad. It has a motor that controls a belt that goes up and down.

"Basically my job was to make sure that the motor could move in the correct way that we wanted it to," Slobodzian explained. He needed to work on the device in person but is not leaving his home, so his Amory brought it over to him so he could work on it for a few days.

"I was working from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on that thing making sure that it would work for a demo," Slobodzian said.

"It was definitely a worry that we need to make it the best product that we can to make sure it's reliable so we don't harm anyone and once that sunk in it was definitely something that is kind of crazy to think about what these things can do in the real world," Slobodzian said.

Also working on the controls from his apartment in Cambridge, Mass. is MIT graduate student, Baxter Academy alumni Josef Biberstien. When he heard through the grapevine about Amory's project he said he had to help "because it's the right thing to do."

Biberstein, from Freeport, explained when the patient needs to breathe a piston pushes air into the patient's lungs. When the patient needs to be allowed time to breathe out, the piston is drawn back.

"We designed this so that if it fails it fails benignly. It's designed so that it will fail in a way which it doesn't hurt the patient," Biberstein explained.

Students have started called the emergency ventilator OSV, it stands for open source ventilator because they intend to share the plans with the world.

"We're going to put together like an Ikea pamphlet on how you'd assemble this thing," teacher Jon Amory says. Sophomore Emily Mickool is part of the documentation group that is working on that Ikea-like assembly pamphlet. She says she doesn't want to see the emergency ventilator have to be used.

Amory started his initial plans and drafts on March 21, by Thursday, April 9, the machine was being tested at the University of New England with a simulation specialist and Dawne- Marie Dunbar, a clinical professor of nursing and the Director of the Interprofessional Simulation and Innovation Center. The emergency ventilator was hooked up to a patient simulator.

"What was very exciting was the data that we got from the patient simulator very much mimicked what we would see if it was on a real ventilator," said Dunbar.

Baxter Academy ventilator tested at UNE

"To take parts that are readily available and basically put them together with three tools and to come up with a prototype that worked as well as it did on our patient simulator we were fascinated," Dunbar explained that UNE is committed to allowing Jon Amory to continue to test his emergency ventilator at their facility.

In less than three weeks, Amory and his students build an emergency ventilator for $1,500 - a medical-grade ventilator costs anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000. The machine requires a set of Allen keys and a crescent wrench to put it together. All the parts can be purchased from three different suppliers and all the supplies are in stock.

Amory may have built the emergency ventilator for a worst-case scenario but it has been an amazing learning experience for his students.

"I think where it's really important is to see that they (students) can put their skills to use right away. That when there's a crisis or a challenge that comes up, they can rise to the occasion... implement the skills that they've learned so far and see themselves being relevant to help find solutions to the problem," Amory said.

The emergency ventilator still needs to undergo continuous testing and Amory says his students

The CoVent-19 Challenge

The CoVent-19 Challenge is the creation of 13 anesthesiologists and advisors from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston-area who have come together to help overcome the ventilator supply crisis during the devastating the COVID-19 pandemic. As experts in mechanical ventilation and frontline workers fighting COVID-19, they seek to develop low-cost, rapidly manufacturable solutions to support heavily burdened modern medical facilities. CoVent's goal is to close the gap between our actual resources and those in need around the world.

The CoVent-19 Challenge is an open innovation 12-week Grand Challenge for engineers, innovators, designers, and makers. The Challenge launched on the GrabCAD Challenges platform on April 1, 2020. The general admission round resulted in over 213 entries from 43 countries. Seven teams were invited to participate in the invite-only finalist round (details below). The Baxter Academy team is one of the 7 finalists. The invited teams are receiving access to additional resources for completing their ventilator designs and support in creating functional prototypes, including test kits, test lungs, and testing protocols. The prototypes will be evaluated using a test bed to determine which design provides the best combination of performance, safety, reliability, manufacturability, affordability, and simplicity. The final ventilator designs are due to CoVent on June 21st and will then be evaluated by a team of expert medical and technical panelists.

Team Name: SmithVent

Product Name: SmithVent

About the Team: The SmithVent team is a group of 30 Smith College engineering alumni and friends who joined together to collaborate on something meaningful that they could contribute to the COVID-19 amelioration efforts. They are currently operating as a virtual team, conducting all of their work remotely, and much of it asynchronously. While having limited time to contribute, they are making fast progress working together.

Location: United States + Canada + Germany

Co-leads: Susannah Howe, Astrid Landeau

Adrienne Horne, Alex Widstrand, Alyssa Tham, Angelica Vargas, Beatrix Dalton, Chelsea Hinds-Charles, Claire Dudek, Dan Lin, Devin Carroll, Eleanor Claire-higgins Ory, Emily Dixon, Eric Jensen, Farida Sabry, Ha Phuong Le, Kalifa Clarke, Katie Wood, Laura Lilienkamp, Mandira Marambe, Naylani Halpern-Wight, Nick Howe, Nora Paul-Schultz, Phoebe DeGroot, Sangye Kazi, Sarah Chu, Shuying Zhen, Taylor Beall, Vivian Nelson, Yuting Ren

Smith College News Article

In a recent Zoom meeting, members of a Smith engineering design team came dressed in their college finery: blue-and gold-sweatshirts, t-shirts and hard hats sporting the Smith logo.

Team members had gathered from locations spanning the globe to mark a milestone: the successful completion of their design for a mechanical ventilator for use during the coronavirus pandemic.

Less than a week later, they had even more reason to celebrate, as they learned that the SmithVent design is one of seven finalists chosen from among more than 200 entries in the CoVent-19 ventilator challenge. The next round will identify a device for rapid manufacture and use on the front lines of the pandemic.

"This has been the best example of any project I've ever been involved with showing that many hands make light work," said Susannah Howe, director of Smith's Engineering Design Clinic, who put out the call for a Smith team in early April. "You've gone above and beyond what I expected with this amazing work, which we now want to share with the world." The month-long, open-source CoVent-19 competition was launched by a group of anesthesiology residents at Massachusetts General Hospital in partnership with Ximedica medical device company. When Howe—who is on sabbatical this semester—heard about the challenge at the start of April, she immediately reached out to the Smith engineering community. In less than 48 hours, she had a group of 29—including two Smith staff members and a member of the class of 2020—eager to work on designing a ventilator.

Operating on such a tight deadline and at a distance from each other was challenging, said Astrid Landeau '15, co-leader and project manager for team SmithVent. "But it wasn't as difficult as I thought because people were so motivated."

At the Zoom celebration, Landeau shared slides showing how work on the project was broken down into five-day "sprints" and meticulously documented on Google Drive so that team members could easily pick up tasks where others left off.

"Twenty-five days ago, Sprint 1 started and we pretty much didn't know what a ventilator was," Landeau reminded the group. "Our medical research team soared into action, asking those hard questions and figuring out what we needed to do."

From there, the team reviewed design options, settled on a plan for a pneumatic ventilator, and documented the complex system requirements for their toaster oven-sized device. Their submission also included 34 multiple design improvements that could be taken up in a second round of competition.

"It's not just our collaboration that's been amazing," Landeau said. "It's also our output."

SmithVent members brought a variety of skills and experiences to the design challenge.

· Shuying Zhen '19, who is an engineer with GE Renewable Energy in South Carolina, came with programming and 3D printing skills. "SmithVent was the perfect opportunity to reconnect with the community and contribute to a well organized effort to meet the current ventilator shortage," she said.

· Phoebe DeGroot '13, a project and technical coordinator for the Center for Research and Robotics at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, championed the team's complex computer-aided design work.

· Kalifa Clarke '14, a research and development engineer for a Florida-based medical equipment company, "jumped at the chance" to work on the ventilator project as a way to support frontline healthcare workers during the pandemic.

· Emily Dixon '15, who teaches math and computer science at the Putney School in Vermont, took on the task of contacting medical researchers to ensure that the team's design aligned with healthcare needs.

Paying close attention to evolving knowledge about COVID-19 was one of the keys to the team's success in the first round, Howe said.

"We did a lot of research as a group on the pros and cons of existing ventilators and the needs expressed by the medical community," she noted. "In COVID situations, it's not always the case that ventilators have to do all the breathing. But people can also be on them for a long time. We weren't just trying to make something that works, but something that works for people."

At the Zoom celebration, team members sent each other virtual sticky notes with messages of gratitude for a challenge well met. Several said they plan to share the SmithVent design with co-workers as a model for how to successfully accomplish a deadline-driven challenge.

For Naylani Halpern-Wright '15, who is studying for a master's degree in the Netherlands, being on the team helped her feel connected during a time of unprecedented isolation.

"I have rediscovered what I learned during my Design Clinic experience at Smith: That Smithies are uniquely good at working together and communicating with one another," she said. "I'm amazed and full of wonder at what we've been able to do together."

How do you talk about science in a manner that engages the general audience? For so long, scientists have been separated from the public through confusing dogma and research papers that do not translate well to everyday life. Public opinion and policies depend heavily on scientific studies, and people are drawn to those who can relay scientific information to them in an honest, clear, and understandable language. Because when scientists communicate well, the world tends to stop and listen to what they have to say as policies and procedures are affected by new discoveries and ideas.

Lauren Robertson, Ph.D., is a Worldwide Medical Ph.D. Post-doctoral Industry Fellow at Biogen, where she uses digital strategy and science to connect with findings in clinical studies and take charge of digital projects in response to high priority Biogen assets. She is also currently a Science and Media consultant at iQ360 Inc., a PR communications and digital reputation management firm. where she developed and sourced original scientific content for social media posts along with interviews with leading academic scientists.

She previously served as Program Coordinator at Emerson College for the innovative Ask for Evidence public awareness campaign about the need to question the credibility in sourcing and public information related to science. Lauren also taught students and selected faculty at Emerson College about the best ways to incorporate the evidence-based curriculum into their classrooms and manage the artistic design and promotion of Boston subway ads related to the Ask for Evidence campaign. She has also served as a research assistant and lab manager at Harvard University where her work included performing independent research on calorie restriction and surgical stress relevance while managing the daily operations and ordering of the lab. Lauren has authored three publications, two of which she was the first author while at the lab.

Lauren Robertson, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Philosophy and Biological Sciences from Harvard University and she received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Government with a minor in Spanish from Smith College.

Lauren Robertson, Ph.D., talks about the factors that attributed to her interest in public and science and how these fields interact with each other

Lauren shares her insight on how world facts can change the narrative we have sympathized with on sociological and economic levels

How saying yes when taking on a new path and being willing to build connections allowed Dr. Robertson to move from one field to another

Lauren discusses the different ways to tailor scientific content in a digestible and interesting way

How communication is iterative and is dependent on preparatory work and why it's a prerequisite for building understanding and trust within a community

The power of science and its ability to change and improve government policy and in shaping public opinion

Lauren shares her tips and strategies for making science relatable and understandable without sacrificing accuracy

Why are scientists having difficulty in communicating to the general audience and why is it important for politics and society

Lauren Robertson, Ph.D., on LinkedIn

Facts govern our society and help us to connect to others despite having differing opinions on certain issues. We rely on facts in order to address the discrepancies that we see in how information is absorbed and understood by the general public, encompassing socioeconomic backgrounds, cultural standards, and other factors that affect public perception and policy. Whatever platform you decide to utilize, it is imperative for science and politics to find a common ground so that society can benefit from studies and policies that come from these two fields.

Lauren Robertson, Ph.D., aims to equip scientists with the right ventricular to connect with the general public. While scientists may have the research that effectively backs up their claim, giving just the essential and relatable facts is not something they are taught. Dr. Robertson has seen the need for scientists to be able to communicate effectively in an engaging manner so that their findings can help assuage fears, uncertainty, and misunderstanding of scientific findings that impact everyday living.

What makes you say yes to opportunity? How do you know if a particular event in your life will push you forward and closer to where you need to be? People are offered different opportunities each day and while it can be overwhelming, choosing to say yes to opportunities can open gateways for you in fields that you wouldn't have considered entering otherwise. By saying yes, you allow yourself to explore possibilities that can help you determine which future is right for you.

Lauren Robertson, Ph.D. learned for herself the power and opportunities that come with saying "yes". She explains that while not all doors that have opened for her were meant to make her stay, it has allowed her to learn things that helped her in the fields that she has decided to be a part of. It was through the opportunities that she said yes to that she learned the importance of interaction and communication and how these play a vital role in different aspects of society. She realized that her method of communicating her research finding was ineffective and often confused the individual rather than enlightening them on the subject. She found out that if we are to bridge gaps in society and properly address issues, the way facts and studies are communicated should be given importance.

Learn more about Lauren Robertson, Ph.D., on this week's episode of When Science Speaks.

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Human-centered design thinking has always been a widely applicable field of study and implementation. Design thinking has begun to change how we approach research and data analysis from facilitators to design sprints and creating conversations that promote change and understanding of an issue. Caleb McKinney, Ph.D., utilizes the power of design thinking to track the progress and success of graduates while integrating methods on how to help them thrive in a postdoctoral world.

Caleb McKinney, Ph.D., is the Assistant Dean to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Training and Development at Georgetown University Medical Center. He also serves as the Assistant Professor for the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and the Director of Academy for Transferable Management Skills at Georgetown University. He previously worked as a Training Specialist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, and as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, where he planned, managed, and executed an independent laboratory research project under the program of the DNA Tumor Virus Section Chief.

Caleb McKinney, Ph.D., received his doctorate in Philosophy and Microbiology with a specialization in virology from the NYU School of Medicine Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. He is currently working on his Masters of Professional Studies in Design Management and Communications from Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies, and he received his bachelor's degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Cornell University.

Caleb McKinney, Ph.D., shares his perspective on the current pandemic as a Ph.D. in microbiology specializing in virology

Making use of qualitative and quantitative measurements of engagement to weave data and narrative together in marketing communications

Caleb gives an overview of the Academy of Transferable Management Skills, A.T.M.S. and how they bridge the needs of stakeholders in career development and graduates

Using design thinking as a tool for improvement and refinement.

Caleb McKinney, Ph.D. on LinkedIn

Caleb McKinney, Ph.D. at Georgetown University

How do you gauge the impact of your marketing campaign at a university level? What metrics are you using to measure and translate your data about students and their academic careers, and how are you using these data to help them in their plans after graduation? It isn't as simple as pressing a button but with the right questions on demographic, social channels, and defining objectives, the results will be able to provide useful and reliable data that can help address the concerns and needs of graduate students.

Caleb McKinney, Ph.D., uses a human-centered design thinking approach to gauge effectively how graduate students relate to transferable skills and the importance of their desire to pursue postdoctoral outcomes. His data allow him to craft programs that help students grow in their essential professional skills in multiple areas.

Data have always been incredibly helpful in creating a convincing narrative that allows others to draw inspiration and insight from someone else's experience. It concretizes the possibilities that come after the conclusion of their doctoral studies and gives them an idea of how these options can turn out for them should they choose to pursue them. These data points provide a significant amount of resources to track and measure how the narrative impacts the student's overall development. By providing relatable stories for students and generating a response from them, it becomes possible to create programs that will enable them to use their transferable and marketable skills in broadening their horizons post-graduation.

Weaving a narrative that utilizes qualitative and quantitative methods of measurement has allowed Dr. McKinney to navigate the barrier that separates students from the world beyond postdocs. He is able to connect graduates with an overview of what employers look for and they are able to get a better grasp of how they apply their skills in their field of study to further their career growth.

Learn more about Caleb McKinney, Ph.D.on this week's episode of When Science Speaks.

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Virologist Warner Greene, MD, PhD is studying how the COVID-19 virus enters cells, and will screen a library of FDA-approved drugs to identify those that could be rapidly repurposed as a treatment to stop cellular entry and spread of the virus.

Before the emergence of the pandemic, Dr. Green and his team focused on understanding the interactions between the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the cells it infects with the goal of providing new approaches for therapy and prevention. Using a combination of molecular, biochemical, cell biological, and immunological techniques, the lab pursued two main goals. First, to mitigate the inflammation and loss of immune cells that are the hallmark of HIV infection, and second to overcome the persistent obstacles to curing HIV/AIDS by controlling or eradicating the pool of HIV virus that hides in a subset of cells known as the latent reservoir.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gladstone scientists have rapidly pivoted the focus of their research labs to the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, they are leveraging their established tools, unique infrastructure, and diverse expertise in virology to develop improved diagnostics, identify targeted treatment strategies, and invent preventative approaches.

Gladstone scientists were instrumental in converting HIV/AIDS from a uniformly lethal disease into a chronic condition and are now bringing the same urgency and focus to combatting COVID-19 in a comprehensive manner.

Breast cancer is preventable and yet, many women all over the world still get it. The question now is, how can you prevent and reduce your risks of developing breast cancer? Laura Esserman, MD is determined to change things through the WISDOM (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk) study.

Laura Esserman, MD is a Professor of Surgery and Radiology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and she is also the Director of the UCSF Breast Care Clinic. Her work in breast cancer spans the spectrum from basic science to public policy issues and the impact of both on the delivery of clinical care.

Dr. Esserman is recognized as a thought leader in cancer screening and overdiagnosis, as well as innovative clinical trial design. She led the creation of the University of California-wide Athena Breast Health Network, a learning system designed to integrate clinical care and research as it follows 150,000 women from screening through treatment and outcomes.

The Athena Network launched the PCORI-funded WISDOM (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk) study, which tests a personalized approach to breast cancer screening in 100,000 women. Dr. Esserman is also a leader of the innovative I-SPY trial model designed to accelerate the identification and approval of effective new agents for women with high-risk breast cancer.

Dr. Esserman earned her MD and MBA from Stanford University, and her Bachelor's in the History of Science from Harvard University.

Laura Esserman, MD talks about her work in personalized medicine

Why personalized medicine is crucial for breast cancer treatment

What is the WISDOM (Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk) study and what does it hope to accomplish?

Dr. Esserman talks about the current protocol for mammograms and why the approach needs to change

The challenges that the WISDOM study has faced so far

How Dr. Esserman and her team have been communicating the value of the WISDOM trial and how they encourage women to enroll in the study

What are the implications of personalized medicine from the patient, government, and public health standpoint?

The lessons that Dr. Esserman has learned in the process of putting together a coalition for successful trials

Laura Esserman, MD on LinkedIn

WISDOM Study

Laura Esserman, MD has built her career around trying to deliver optimal care to everyone, and this includes designing care based on biology, patient preference, and clinical performance. Personalized care revolves around the recognition of the different risk factors for every person and acknowledging the fact that the treatment procedure for diseases varies from person to person. It allows patients to get the care they need based on their own profile, reducing the risks of overtreatment. She is particularly interested in diagnosing and identifying the various risk levels of breast cancer in diagnosed patients, thereby giving them the help they need to feel better and get better.

This is the reason why Dr. Esserman's work with the WISDOM study is focused on how to right-size breast cancer treatment. She says that there is a wealth of study around breast cancer and treatment options for those who need it and being able to zero-in on the right treatment plan for a patient risk level is crucial to optimal and efficient health care.

The screening process for breast cancer has pretty much remained the same over the past four decades. Initially, breast cancer was considered a single disease and it was noticed by doctors that late diagnosis often had worse outcomes than those who were diagnosed early. Though screening has been helpful, it hasn't had the kind of impact that medical professionals were hoping for which is why Dr. Esserman is intent on making the process for diagnosis and treatment better.

The PCORI-funded WISDOM study intends to address this issue and it has zeroed-in on two things: proper screening of how malignant or how advanced the cancer is, and determining which type of breast cancer the patient has. This shifts the idea of treatment from being a uniform approach to a more personalized treatment plan. By retrofitting the process of diagnosis and treatment, WISDOM is able to properly address the needs of women with breast cancer.

Learn more about Laura Esserman, MD and the WISDOM study on this episode of When Science Speaks.

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The biotech industry is dominated by highly educated and skilled professionals with a background in science. This poses an entry barrier for some but not for Danielle Silva. Despite her economics background, she was able to bootstrap her startup in the biotech industry at 22 years old and has been on an impressive upward trajectory ever since.

Danielle Silva is the Assistant Vice President of Capital Advisors Group where she focuses on business development efforts for life science and tech companies in New England and the Mid Atlantic.

Previously, Danielle led Silicon Valley Bank Analytics' national life science business development. She is one of the founders of Life Science Nation where she helps life science companies raise capital, and she is a board member of The Deal Mak(her)s, an educational and networking group for women involved in deal-making.

She received her BA in Economics and Policy Studies from Syracuse University.

Danielle Silva talks about how she built Life Science Nation at 22 and gives an overview of the work they do

How Danielle managed impostor syndrome as a young founder

Danielle talks about the challenges she faced as a woman executive in a biotech startup and how she overcame them

Danielle talks about The Deal Mak(her)s and what they do

Communication strategies and techniques for early-stage founders

Danielle discusses some tips on how to break into the biotech space and how willing members of the community are to help each other

The Deal Mak(her)s

Life Science Nation

Danielle Silva on LinkedIn

When shifting into an industry that's different from the one you're used to, it's not uncommon to come down with impostor syndrome at some point. Especially in a highly critical and precise industry such as the science industry, how you get ahead of things and manage yourself internally plays a key role in your potential success.

Danielle Silva realized early on that no one has all the answers and that you don't have to have ready-made answers for every question thrown your way. Based on her own experience, she says that the most important thing was being a problem solver, having the flexibility to adapt, and surrounding herself with a team or network of people with deep expertise in the industry so that you can have a better understanding of the industry. Because the only way for you to feel genuinely that you are a part of something is to engage, to learn, and to embrace everything it has to offer.

One challenge many entrepreneurs face when breaking into a new industry is the issue of perceived inexperience. As a newcomer in the science industry, Danielle knew she had to take the necessary steps to showcase what she has to offer and she was able to address the challenge posed by her coming from a different academic background by building her network within the science industry.

She was able to gain credibility in her new field by staying on top of the information flow in the industry. She was able to prove that she has the necessary skills and expertise to make a mark in the field of science. Danielle not only made a mark, but she also made it possible for other women in the science industry to band together and support each other specifically in the biotech industry.

Learn more about Danielle Silva on this week's episode of When Science Speaks.

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