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n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m | S e p t e m b e r / O c t o b e r 2 0 1 9 | n e w h a v e n B I Z 45 trials, Crews says. And there's more: Arvinas last month announced that its researchers had succeeded in in- ducing the elimination of a critical protein believed to be involved in Alzheimer's — a protein known as tau. "I lost my father to Alzheimer's; it's a terrible disease that doesn't have good clinical options," Crews says. "So if I could help to offer clinicians therapeutic drugs [for Alzheimer's], I feel I'd be making an important impact." Down the road, Crews says Arvinas is "interested in applying my technology to neurodegenera- tive diseases like dementia, Alzhei- mer's, Parkinson's. Many of these diseases are the result of a critical protein clumping together," he explains. "If we can eliminate these protein aggregates that are causing disease, that hopefully will have a positive impact on that disease. Crews is asked what it would mean to him if these drugs reached the commercialization stage, proved successful and in the end save people's lives. Continued from Page 21 Crews began selling a sequencer called the Personal Genome Machine, representing a dramatic diminu- tion in size and price of sequenc- ing machines. In writing about the new device the New York Times said its inventor "fancies himself the Steve Jobs of technology. He wants to do for DNA sequencing what Mr. Jobs did for computing — spread it to the masses." e next year he sold Ion Torrent for $375 million in cash and stock plus up to $350 million in future payments based on revenue milestones. Timothy M. Shannon MD, who in 2007 succeeded Rothberg as president and CEO of CuraGen aer heading R&D for the company, calls Rothberg "one of the most brilliant people I've met — a one-of-a-kind entrepreneur. He sees things five years before other people see [the same] possibilities." He describes his entrepreneurial track record leading up to, and now including, Butterfly and six other new business ventures he's working Rothberg Continued from Page 25 on with a fervor that is almost messianic. "Each one of the companies I start is because I need to help somebody I love," Rothberg says. "It's not seven bets and one pays for the other six; it's seven things that I need in the world to be there when someone I love needs it." Rothberg started Butterfly aer seeing a talk about artificial intelligence by MIT physicist Max Tegmark. He recruited one of Tegmark's smartest students, Nevada Sanchez, as a co-founder; Sanchez was on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in 2015. To grow Butterfly, in addition to investing $20 million of his own money, "We found investors [such as the Gates Foundation] that were aligned with our mis- sion. Our first goal is to maximize societal impact — not profits. e profits will follow." And when his career draws to a close some day down the road, "I want to have no regrets," he says. But while he's still around, Jona- than Rothberg has another goal. "I want to change the course of history," he says. n "It would mean a lot," he says. "For me, it's about impact. For me to be able to escort some of these [discoveries] out of my lab into the clinic would be really wonderful." But he is realistic. Crews under- stands that the probability of any of Arvinas' compounds reaching commercialization is "statistically low. Only a small minority of drug candidates are actually approved," he acknowledges. Which is a major factor in why drug-development is so breath- takingly costly in the U.S. — and why the stakes are so high for Crews and his team. "It's a difficult process that is ex- pensive, and all those failures and [financial] losses have to be in- corporated, if you will, when you have a successful drug," Crews explains. "at's in part why drugs are so expensive — because of the low success rate. When one is suc- cessful, there are a lot of failures behind that [one success]." Beyond that, "Our understand- ing of biology is imprecise," Crews notes. "Our understanding of how the human body deals with drugs is imprecise. And we want to make sure as a society, as the FDA, that they're safe. "So we need to prove that." n ability to solve difficult problems in aeronautics and space explora- tion, such as mission planning and system diagnostics. Today Schoelkopf is back teaching full-time at Yale, but he is focused on quantum computing while there. He acts as a consul- tant for the company and over- sees its scientific direction, and he regularly goes back and forth between teaching and his work at Quantum Circuits. Clearly at ease speaking before crowds, he spends a lot of time traveling to Washington, D.C. and Schoelkopf Continued from Page 30 around the world to talk about his research, including at the World Economic Forum. Schoelkopf seems equally pas- sionate about his research, physics, teaching, his company and what it will all mean for the future. "To me, the best thing about the success of the company will be to see the field we started, and the efforts of many students, scientists, and engineers over the years, translate into a whole new industry that makes a difference in the world," Schoelkopf explains. His Yale office in the Becton Center on Prospect Street has a globe marked with pins to show where his graduates are all over the world doing quantum comput- ing-related work, including places such as China, Germany and Switzerland. He also keeps empty Champagne bottles in his office, which are covered with signatures and le over from celebrations for his former students earning their doctoral degrees. Schoelkopf chose a different career path from his parents, who worked as art dealers. Instead, he wanted to be a scientist since he was about five years old. When he was in high school he considered marine biology, geology and chem- istry as possible career paths. But he recalls how physics held a par- ticular mystique because it was the last and most "advanced" science class students in his school could take. As a high school junior, he attended a science program at Yale which included a low-temperature physics demonstration. Schoelkopf was hooked — and he never looked back. "It was really cool and sparked my interest," Schoelkopf says. "Life is too short not to have fun." Frunzio, who has worked with Schoelkopf at Yale for 20 years, describes his colleague as someone who works hard to reach his goals. "One of the reasons I stuck working with him is he is a natural leader — he has bright ideas and is committed to what he does," Frunzio says. "He puts in a lot of hours. Why? Because he loves it. He is frequently traveling pitching for the company. "at tells you the passion he has for the field." n T H E L O O P

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