24 Apr Summit’s “Icons” Fireside Chat Series To Feature IU Professor Richard DiMarchi in Conversation with David L. Johnson
On Friday, May 16 at 11 a.m., IU Venture Summit participants are invited to an IU “Icons” Fireside Chat with Richard DiMarchi, IU alumnus and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Gill Chair in Biomolecular Sciences at Indiana University. A former Group Vice President at Eli Lilly and later at Novo Nordisk, he is recognized for his contributions to the discovery and development of rDNA-derived Humalog®, rGlucagon®, and Forteo®.
Professor DiMarchi will be in conversation with David L. Johnson, president of Regional Growth Strategies LLC, a consulting practice working with communities, universities, and foundations seeking to grow and sustain technology-based regional economies. Johnson has been involved in the hands-on work of economic development for nearly 25 years, including co-founding Indiana’s life sciences initiative, BioCrossroads and serving as its CEO.
Registration for the IU Ventures Summit, available on the IU Ventures website, is limited to 300 people and is expected to sell out.
Richard—tell me about your involvement with IU Ventures.
IU Ventures has been a persistent participant in the multiple start-ups for which I have been part of initiating at IU. It’s been a win-win historical relationship as it has helped validate the importance of our translational research, and brought recognition and reward to the university.
David—what about you?
I have been involved with IU Ventures and the IURTC for many years. That involvement includes serving for more than a decade on the IURTC’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee during my tenure as the leader of BioCrossroads.
How did you meet and how long have you known Richard DiMarchi?
I first met Richard in 2002, when he was a senior scientific leader at Eli Lilly and Company and I was a community volunteer working to help put together the life sciences collaboration that ultimately became BioCrossroads. Richard was also committed to seeing these kinds of collaborations happen. He contributed an enormous amount of knowledge, insight and good will to the collaborative process, right from the start, and gave it the kind of credibility that encouraged others to participate.
How do you plan to tailor your Fireside Chat questions for Richard to the IU Ventures Summit audience of founders and funders—as well as IU faculty, students and staff?
Richard is one of the world’s most successful biotechnology innovators EVER, going back more than forty years to his pioneering development of new synthetic insulin treatments for diabetes. That groundbreaking work has led directly to the development and commercialization of today’s game-changing GLP-1 medicines for diabetes and obesity. We are beyond fortunate to have Richard in Indiana. Here, he has also become the state’s greatest star in the life sciences innovation ecosystem—not just because of one accomplishment, discovery or company, but through a long history of invention, innovation and entrepreneurial success. My job in this fireside chat will simply be to help others begin to get a sense of some of the remarkable and unique things that Richard has done. We’ll explore why and how he has done so much for our innovation ecosystem in Indiana (and at Indiana University).
Richard—can you share a preview of the thoughts you plan to share during the Fireside Chat? What about your background do you think the audience will find most interesting?
This is a special time in the history of life sciences with unprecedented accomplishments, and the promise of much more. My collaborative research in metabolism and body weight has demonstrated transformative outcomes and efficacy in related diseases commonly associated with excess body weight. We remain committed to further advancing the field and exploring how much of the performance can be extended to diseases not commonly associated with excess body weight. I think I have touched all of these dimensions at some point in the last half century, and complimented it with a sizable amount of entrepreneurial activity across the globe.
Your work at Eli Lilly led to Humalog, a form of insulin for treating diabetes. But despite success you wanted to pivot your focus on obesity. Why?
Humalog was a first in demonstrating that natural rDNA-derived peptides could be optimized for medicinal purposes. It was a relatively small step, starting forty years ago and evolved to be Lilly’ largest selling product at peak. Despite the emerging epidemic of obesity, it was not formally recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association until 2013. I have spent the majority of my career aiming to deliver a medicine that could directly address the excess weight and the increased risk it represents for multiple other diseases. That objective has been the priority of my academic work at Indiana University and it’s been a phenomenal period.
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro are surging in popularity – but getting to this point took decades of research. Is it true that much of this research for these pharmaceuticals (GLP-1 agonists) traces back to your own research at IU?
The success of these GLP-1 based drugs has its beginning associated with the cloning of the preprotein that produces three peptide hormones. That accomplishment occurred in 1983 and with it I began synthesis and study of the hormones at Lilly Research Labs. The initial focus was exclusively on maturity onset diabetes but with time we learned that there was potential for use in treating obesity. Such work led to a patent application in 1996 that demonstrated successful use of GLP-1 to lower body weight in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Starting in 2003, at Indiana University, my collaborative research demonstrated the importance of integrating multiple mechanisms of biological action to achieve breakthrough performance. This approach is now the frontier of current medicinal approaches in treating the disease and the search for superior drugs.
As a member of the IU faculty you have helped launch several successful biotechnology companies. Do you recommend academia as a pathway for budding entrepreneurs?
There is no single path to success and there are hundreds that fail. Academics have a preferred position in the value chain that eventually leads to successful drugs. The independence that we cherish is a vital ingredient in inventive, breakthrough research. Biotechnology companies largely serve to translate these discoveries to human study and large pharmaceutical companies are best positioned to complete the large-scale work necessary for drug registration. My historical association across all the organizational components has provided me with an informed perspective on how to address the integration of the parts to achieve the ultimate objective.
You received your PhD from IU in 1979. What were your interests while at IU (personal, academic, professional)?
That question reaches back a half century. It was a different world and I was no different than most of my peers in being focused upon the academic discipline that has evolved to be my professional life. This training coincided with the emergence of the industry we know as biotechnology and I have been a fortunate participant in what did not exist at the time I made my initial career decision. I have always been a great believer that our security resides less in our employment and more in our employability. As such, I have sought to surround myself with world-class mentors and collaborators to maintain currency and relevance in a field that has changed so very much since the middle years of the 1970s.
How did your time at IU, as a student and now as a professor, influence who you are today?
In more ways than I suppose I fully appreciate. I joke that I must have been a Hoosier in an early life to have resided as long as I have in Indiana. It is a terrific place to call home, although I must admit that the profession is an international one that keeps me connected externally to all parts of the world. Diversity matters and these connections foster new ways to think about the problems we confront, and to recruit top-talent to address them. Bloomington is a special place and I have continued to flourish and enjoy my time today as much as I did when I first arrived.
David—you are one of the few non-IU-alumni participating in the Summit, yet you have done much for the state of Indiana through your work with the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and BioCrossroads. What is your Indiana connection?
I grew up in Indianapolis, and then went away for college and law school, and overseas for graduate school as well. My wife (also a lawyer, later an executive at Eli Lilly and Company) and I returned to Indiana in the mid-1980s. Both of us ended up building strong careers and a great family here. Along the way, we have each been deeply committed to serving this community and state through a variety of engagements.
Richard—what is your top piece of advice for budding IU entrepreneurs?
People want to know how much you care, before they care how much you know. Find something for which you are passionate about the technology and what it potentially can do for society. The reward is the opportunity to do it again, and again.
How do you want to be remembered?
As someone that delivered a return on the investment made by those in educating me, collaborating with me, and trusting me to do something honorable with the lifelong opportunities they have provided to me.
Registration for the IU Ventures Summit, available on the IU Ventures website, is limited to 300 people and is expected to sell out. Registration is $100 and includes all Summit programming. IU Ventures also offers a limited number of full scholarships (offered first come, first served) for current IU students to attend all Summit activities.