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Venture science: climbing the ladder to telomerase, cognitive therapy and in situ hybridization

Nature Medicine volume 12, pages 1129–1132 (2006)Cite this article

Lasker Awards are given to scientists who open new fields of biomedical research by carrying out bold, high-risk experiments that have a high probability for failure. But if the experiments are successful, the rewards for advancing science and medicine are mighty. In many respects, this type of science resembles venture capital, a phenomenon in which a small group of investors puts up money to finance a start-up business that has no previous track record but has daring ideas.

Venture capital had its origins in 1957 when a professor at Harvard Business School, Georges F. Doriot, convinced several of his Boston colleagues to invest in a start-up computer company founded by two MIT engineers with no business experience. Doriot named the start-up Digital Equipment, which became the anchor company for Boston's famed Route 128 and the first of Doriot's launch of more than 200 start-ups. Digital Equipment soon became IBM's biggest competitor, producing the most popular mini-computers in the 1970s and 1980s. Doriot's initial $70,000 investment in 1957 had a market value of $400 million in the early 1970s—the best return on money ever seen at the time.

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Figure 1: A climb to the top.

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  1. Chair, Lasker Awards Jury,

    Joseph L Goldstein

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  1. Joseph L Goldstein
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Goldstein, J. Venture science: climbing the ladder to telomerase, cognitive therapy and in situ hybridization. Nat Med 12, 1129–1132 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1006-1129

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