Introduction
Dr Darrin M Disley, CEO of Mogrify, knows his way around a football field. A serial biotech entrepreneur, Darrin was once told that he wasn’t good enough to study chemistry, so he momentarily chose football. Fast forward to 2020 and Darrin is an incredibly respected member of the drug discovery community, and was even a keynote speaker at the European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group (ELRIG)’s Drug Discovery Digital event – the biggest drug discovery event in the UK.
Darrin’s untraditional career path from footballer to academia and entrepreneurship is filled with moments of self-discovery, resilience, reflection and reciprocity. At ELRIG, we’re passionate about connecting the drug discovery community and sharing invaluable insights. After speaking with Darrin, we knew that we needed to share his story and top tips with the rest of the community to ensure as many people as possible could benefit from them.
An unconventional path to academia
“My career has very much been nonlinear,” says Darrin. Raised in East London, his journey into academia seemed improbable. “Pursuing science wasn’t something we did in the East End,” he quips. Darrin’s serendipitous entry into academia began with a three-year apprenticeship as a laboratory technician while still playing semi-professional football. It was during this apprenticeship that one of his former teachers Brian Carline encouraged him to further his studies at university. “I grew as a person at university. In my first year, I ranked 55th out of 57 in the BSc Honours Chemistry program. By the end of my third year, I placed second,” he recalls. “This gave me the confidence to realise that I could actually succeed in academics.” Darrin then went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Biotechnology at Cambridge under the mentorship of one of UK’s most entrepreneurial scientists, Professor Christopher Lowe. He had now arrived at the intersection of research and entrepreneurship.
Taking a multidisciplinary approach to drug discovery
“Even before universities had tech transfer offices, we were working in a multidisciplinary way, merging hardware, wetware and software to solve emerging challenges in clinical diagnostics and drug screening,” Darrin describes. “I learned that having a breadth of knowledge rather than a deep focus in one area could actually be my strength.”
Working in an interdisciplinary environment uncovers the broad applications of research projects, enabling researchers to perceive the societal impact and gauge the commercial value of their findings. Darrin’s entrepreneurial journey began towards the end of this postdoc by way of setting up his first business specialising in product design and development. Since then, he has built start-ups and grown numerous businesses securing over $525 million in funding. “Bringing diverse minds and skill-sets together to solve complex problems has been a common factor in commercialising technology,” he comments.
A vision for economically feasible healthcare models
Darrin believes that the drug discovery community can strongly influence healthcare outcomes. “The biggest challenge facing humankind is how we’re going to feed, fuel and heal a population that is already critically aged in the west,” he notes. Darrin’s keynote address at Drug Discovery Digital took an in-depth look at what an ideal healthcare system could look like in the future – what it would comprise of and how it would be more accessible, affordable, and beneficial to the aging population. Monitor the ELRIG website for more information on how you can access some of the talks from the event.
“Currently, we mostly treat illness with a one-size-fits-all approach,” he notes. “This is economically unsustainable because with longevity comes increased healthcare costs.” Darrin’s hopes that this episodic nature of healthcare is replaced with a more holistic approach towards sustainable health. “Our healthcare goal should not be to just prolong life but to foster an aging population that is healthy and societally productive,” he says.
The drug discovery community is already starting to address this challenge by developing targeted molecular therapies and companion diagnostic tests. “With precision therapeutics, we can get the right drug to the right patient. By gathering relevant patient data over time, we can create new economic healthcare models,” Darrin explains. “This means, even small decisions made in a drug discovery laboratory can significantly impact our healthcare in the long run. Scientists can, therefore, benefit from looking at the field with an entrepreneurial eye to help make informed decisions in research.”
The importance of having an entrepreneurial mindset in drug discovery
“Knowing how your science fits into the big picture and how it can be applied to benefit the community is an incredibly important trait,” says Darrin. “We have a real need in biotech and life sciences to train scientists on how to navigate boardrooms. Scientists are fundamentally curious, resilient, and passionate. But, understandably, they often don’t realise that their skills are transferable from bench to boardroom.”
Persevered efforts during a Ph.D. and postdoc and the ability to outline clear research goals, troubleshoot and course-correct are invaluable qualities that scientists inherently bring to any career path they choose. Darrin continues: “By giving scientists – who are already lateral thinkers and problem-solvers – the necessary tools to write a business plan and create a strategy, they can develop the confidence to operate in an entrepreneurial setting.”
Too often, however, early career scientists have a finite vision of what an ideal career should look like, missing out on opportunities that directly match their skillset. Needless to say, Darrin knows a thing or two about crafting a unique career path.
Why researchers need to frame their own definition of success
“It can be tempting for younger scientists to always compare their own success with others. Under hierarchical structures and social pressures, I’ve typically seen three common measures of success: fame, fortune and peer review,” shares Darrin who has mentored over 300 scientists. “My advice to early career researchers is to start by asking, ‘What does success feel like to me?’ and then align future career journey based on a personalised definition of success.”
Darrin offers wise words for those of us still finding our professional paths, his passion for mentoring clear: “Whether your future is in a lab or a boardroom, showing up to work every day knowing why you’re there, what success looks like and how to measure it will ultimately lead you towards a rewarding career. Rather than a job title, it’s about finding an environment, culture and set of functional roles that is aligned to your fundamental drivers as a human being.”
The current challenges in drug discovery can only be resolved when diverse groups of scientists with unique talents and ideas collaborate to solve a problem. “Working in silos can actually hold us back,” says Darrin. “But bringing our individual expertise to the table – from academia, pharma, or business – will help us achieve major milestones in drug discovery much faster.”
Darrin’s path is as inspirational as it is unconventional. He is clearly passionate about helping the next generation of drug discovery scientists succeed and can clearly see how their unique skills will benefit the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
To hear more invaluable insights from Darrin, and other key opinion leaders, be sure to visit the ELRIG website and sign up to our email list. We routinely speak with drug discovery experts at the cutting-edge who share unique insight with us, that we in turn share with you, our community via events and written content. 2021 promises to be an exciting year for ELRIG, with new offerings on the horizon.
About ELRIG
ELRIG is a not-for-profit organisation serving the life science and drug discovery communities. ELRIG does this by providing outstanding, leading edge knowledge to the community on an open access basis, via virtual and face-to-face events, as well as via engaging and interesting content. The organisation provides an open communication forum for users and vendors, within which members can be educated, share information and experience and network with other members.
Visit elrig.org for our full event calendar for 2021 and to discover our blog, where you can find information on the hottest scientific topics, from world-renowned experts.
This article was adapted from a blog published on ELRIG's website earlier this year.
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