IBRI IN THE NEWS: IBRI's new CEO brings experience from industry, academia

March 19, 2021

Source: BioFutures

Dr. Alan Palkowitz spent 28 years in industry before becoming an academic research scientist. Those two experiences were perfect preparation for his new role as the leader of an organization that serves as a bridge between industry and academia.

Palkowitz is the new president and CEO of the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, an organization now poised to benefit from Palkowitz's 28 years in drug discovery at Eli Lilly and Co. and his recent work as a senior research professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

"I was intrigued with the idea that there was an opportunity in the middle [between industry and academia]," he said in describing why he accepted the job of leading the IBRI as it establishes itself as a top, industry-inspired research institute.

"In academia you sometimes don't have the infrastructure to take an idea to the trial stage," he said. In industry, on the other hand, there isn't much room for the kind of risk-based research found in academic settings, but the resources exist to see an idea through to commercialization. "The unifying desire is to work on something that gets to an answer for patients," Palkowitz said.

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