BREAKING THE MOLD

Abstract

SIX YEARS AGO, while heading a neuroscience research program at Merck & Co., P. Jeffrey Conn became concerned about the state of the drug discovery enterprise. Fewer drugs were coming out of the pipeline, and the pharmaceutical industry increasingly seemed focused on the bottom line rather than on innovative science. He began to form a plan for what a well-oiled drug discovery operation could look like. He imagined an organization that would closely integrate basic science and applied research while taking on the high-risk ideas that he thought were too often overlooked by big drug companies. Conn is now trying to bring that vision to life as the director of Vanderbilt University’s Program in Drug Discovery, a group of 60-odd scientists who are shaking up conventional ideas of what a research institution can—or should—do. The Vanderbilt program is a forerunner of what seems to be a growing trend for research universities to push further into ...