Genomics For All: Empowering healthcare and science through the power of genomics

Intense efforts of a new startup (miBiome Therapeutics) integrating diverse skills of scientists, engineers and business professionals, to enable genomics for all.

About

Dr Gautam Das is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of a genomics company ‘miBiome Therapeutics LLP’ (https://mibiome.com/), specializing in healthcare, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and biotechnology, he is the Chief Scientific Advisor of Microbiome Research Pvt. Ltd. He did his Masters in Animal Sciences from University of Hyderabad, PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and post-doctoral research in genomics and cancer at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA. He has won several awards, including the ‘Special Recognition Award for Genetic Modification Efforts’, ‘Team Excellence Award’, ‘Leadership Excellence Award’ and ‘Synthetic Biology Catalyst Award’, at RIL.

Interview

Tell us about yourself.

I am a scientist by passion and profession, now a startup entrepreneur working to enable ‘Genomics For All’.

How did you come up with this startup idea?

#GenomicsForAll: A co-incidental meeting with my present co-founder Mr. Ravi Shroff about numerous possibilities to take benefits of genomic science to the common man led to bring into shape my inner passion for genomics as a startup.

“Empowering people to use the organization as a platform to maximize their full potential is something which is very important to me.”

What was it about a career in healthcare/pharma/biotech that appealed to you?

Being curious: I have always been a very curious individual and I strongly believe that curiosity and creativity drives scientific innovations and being bio-curious (curious about human biology) happened just naturally to me.

At what point did you realize you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

The first attempt: It was during my college days, wherein I made an effort towards being an entrepreneur with my brother and a couple of close friends, but the undivided dedication towards science took over that early entrepreneurial spirit.

The second attempt: This was during my corporate career in Reliance Industries Limited when I became serious about taking this path. I ran into my present co-founder Mr Ravi Shroff who fueled this idea and together we made it a reality.

What would be your alternative career choice if you weren’t as a CEO/Founder?

Science and only science: I would have continued doing science in either an industrial or an academic setting, with a strong emphasis towards translatability of research to reach masses globally. In addition, I have a strong interest in teaching and motivating young students to pursue science.

Who were your inspirations and mentors, both professionally and personally?

Professionally, I have been extremely fortunate to be mentored by some amazing mentors, starting from my school science teachers Mr. Babu Rao and Mrs. Vijaya, college genetics teacher Prof. Dwarkanath Murthy, my Masters’ teachers Prof. Pallu Reddanna and Late Prof. Aparna Dutta-Gupta; my Ph. D. guide Prof. Umesh Varshney, my post-doctoral research mentor Prof. Eric Baehrecke and my industry mentors Dr Santanu Dasgupta, Dr Ajit Sapre, Dr Makarand Phadke and some super-supportive friends Dr. Bhaskar Bhadra, Dr Sreenath Kadreppa and Dr. Sunil Malonia. All of these people have shaped my career in a big way.

My initial inspirations and the love for science came from the legendary work of Gregor Mendel which shaped the science of genetics, thus forming the foundations of modern day’s genomics science. In recent times, the completion of the ‘Human Genome Project’ and James Watson’s work inspires me a lot to contribute more to this field.

Personally, the inspirations are derived from a lot of fellow-scientists in India and the USA, who became life-time friends.

I have been fortunate to receive immense support from my wife Dr Aparna Oruganty-Das who is the Founder-CEO of another startup and a very understanding friend. My parents, siblings, in-laws and my best friends with whom I share this contagious passion and magic called ‘science’ have been a pillar of support during my journey.

I am happy to pass on this budding legacy and passion to my 6-year old daughter Ms. Ananya Das, who wants to skip school education to become a scientist.

Last, but not the least, my late father who had no background in higher education but always inspired me to deep-dive into education which led to my highest education degree (PhD). In his own words: ‘Vidya’ (knowledge) is the biggest currency in life.

Do you have any fond or interesting memories from your professional life you would like to share?

The curiosity and the anxiety of results, these aspects of science are something I would like to share with everyone. During my early PhD days, I would stare at bacterial cultures for hours to see if they have grown.

Another very important aspect of my professional life has been helping people. I would go to any extent to develop people’s careers and better lives for them. I feel happy and proud to have influenced many careers along the way, making highly skilled molecular biology scientists who started with zero background in molecular biology.

What were the most important, funny, or weird things you have learned over the course of your career?

Business in the pursuit of science: While pursuing science, I never really thought that I could learn the requisite skills to do business as I never focused on that. However, during my corporate career, I gradually learned skills on the way and finally entrepreneurship happened to me.

On-the-job learning key business tactics has been very rewarding and I would like to thank my Co-Founder Ravi, my senior colleagues Sachin, Sandip, Nikhil, Dr Nandini and all my outstanding colleagues at miBiome for always challenging and motivating me to perform better every passing day.

Consistently working hard and prioritizing things to stay focused is something I learn every day.

A passion for people management: Empowering people to use the organization as a platform to maximize their full potential is something which is very important to me.

What is something your friends and colleagues don’t know about you?

Work hard, party hard: Being a scientist somehow gives everyone an impression that I have a very serious personality, which in my case is not true, I really believe in working hard and partying hard. Celebrating life and career’s little things keeps me going.

What my friends and colleagues may not know about me would be my interests in literature (especially poetry and story-writing), adventure, space, sports, travel and patriotism (to the extent of clearing the CDS exam but not joining it finally).

What’s something unique you keep on or around your workspace?

My daughter’s precious gifts and innovative products coming out of new-age startups.

What advice personal/professional have you received that has stayed with you?

Excellence with empathy: Technical excellence and scientific integrity must never be compromised for anything. Empathy for people and creating opportunities for inclusive growth of everyone in the organization is also crucial for success. And once again, my late father’s advice on reading till that last line of any book to maximize knowledge.

What were your greatest professional challenges along the way and how did you get past them?

Academia vs. industry dilemma: Deciding between academic and industry career was really one of the toughest challenges I went through. Fortunately, Reliance Industries Limited, where I joined for my industry career, had a very clear and ambitious plan to take high-quality science to commercial applications, which really appealed to me and I took the plunge into industry career. Reliance leadership always encouraged and supported innovation and creativity in science to the core. Being agile to cultural differences between academia and industry and the willingness to continuously learn helped me a lot. Again, I have been fortunate to get some amazing mentors and colleagues who have become great friends. Skills like networking, team-work, leadership, people-management, project management, timelines, milestones, expectations, deliverables etc. are the rewards of an industry career.

Tell of some situations in which you have had to adjust quickly to changes over which you had no control. What was the impact of the change on you?

Startup in a pandemic: A startup having built a genomics lab to be inaugurated and pandemic happens!

Me, my Co-Founder, and all my colleagues have had to quickly adapt to this big change that completely came as a surprise to us. We began research on COVID-19 and published manuscripts of our computational biology findings, we wrote book chapters, we applied for intellectual property and we were able to get bioinformatics-based projects that was possible to execute from home till the lab operations started five months later into the pandemic.

This situation made me very confident and strong and the routine challenges seem easier now.

Looking back, are there any career moves or decisions you’ve made for which you’d like a second chance, so to speak?

Yes, I should have started entrepreneurship early in my career. I waited longer for several reasons, fear of the unknown, waiting for a concrete business plan with a clear path to commercialization, investment and balancing personal life. I realized that you learn these things on the way.

Do you think networking helped you in finding the right career opportunity? If yes, can you explain how you approached it?

Network, network, network: Definitely yes in my case. My current startup is the result of a chance networking dinner hosted by a very good friend Dr. Nishaki Mehta for her common friends. This is where I met my current Co-Founder Mr. Ravi Shroff, whose passion for science, willingness to experiment with new technologies and his overall friendly personality resonated with my own grit to build an organization and make a big difference in the society. I thank Nishaki and Ravi for their trust and support. Many of my other career moves like bagging a post-doc position or my industry job, all are result of strong networking opportunities that I was fortunate to get.

What advice would you give to others looking to get into the industry/entrepreneurship or move up the ranks?

Passion is fashionable: Think long-term, follow your passion, take calculated risks, learn continuously, acquire diverse skills, work very hard and everything else will follow.

What do you think are the challenges associated with this career?

It’s a startup: Startup career comes with huge responsibilities involving generating revenue, scale-up, operations, marketing, attracting and retaining the best talent, providing the best opportunities for everyone’s career growth while maintaining highest standards of products, services and platforms along with the best customer engagement, very consistently.

How do you cope with the challenges and keep your passion afloat?

Blurring the temporary: I always try to look at the bigger vision and treat the day-to-day challenges as steps to reach that destination. Enjoying the journey of entrepreneurship is very important to me where I am building a strong organization with the best people in business. A ‘state-of-the-art’ genomics lab in the heart of Mumbai engaged in some strong science-driven products, services and platforms and a strong revenue pipeline for growth.

And the passion keeps increasing every passing day!

Copy Editor

Pragya Gupta

PhD Scholar, University of Melbourne, Australia

Beside being a passionate stem cell researcher, Pragya Gupta is trained in Indian classical music, enjoys baking, inventive craftwork and learning about different cultures. She is currently doing her PhD at the University of Melbourne in Australia, where she is researching new ways to treat brain cancers.

Meet the communication managers

Oindrila Bhattacharjee

Oindrila Bhattacharjee has done her Masters in Biotechnology and is working as a Project Associate II in Dr.Srikala Raghavan’s Lab at inStem Bangalore following the submission of her Ph.D. thesis. Her Ph.D. was in the field of immunology and cell biology. She takes interest in reading, writing, and communicating science to a large audience. In her free time, she prefers to engage in dancing, writing, sketching and clicking photos.

Kavita Rani Malik

Kavita Rani Malik is an enthusiastic person with determination and consistency in her work. She has done a Ph.D. in Animal Biochemistry from ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute Karnal Haryana. Currently, she is waiting for her Ph.D. final defense and searching for jobs in the R & D sector in private or govt. organizations.