Editor’s notice: This sequence profiles six of the Seattle area’s “Unusual Thinkers”: inventors, scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs reworking industries and driving constructive change on this planet. They are going to be acknowledged Dec. 11 on the GeekWire Gala. Unusual Thinkers is introduced in partnership with Higher Seattle Companions.
Earlier than he launched a venture-backed biotech startup, prior even to touchdown a analysis function in one of many world’s premier educational labs, Anindya Roy arrived within the U.S. with two suitcases and $2,000 within the financial institution.
Roy grew up in rural India in a house that lacked electrical energy and working water throughout his childhood. A ardour for science fueled his ambitions, main him to earn levels on the College of Calcutta and the Indian Institute of Know-how in Kharagpur.
Then he made the daring leap in 2008 to pursue his PhD at Arizona State College, which led to a postdoctoral fellowship with David Baker, a College of Washington professor who final yr gained a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In 2023, Roy co-founded Seattle-based Lila Biologics, which makes use of the AI-powered protein design know-how developed within the Baker lab to pursue cutting-edge medical therapies.
“Anindya is an excellent and decided scientist and innovator who has made key contributions throughout numerous areas of science,” Baker mentioned, “and is charting a most enjoyable path ahead with Lila.”
Dr. Sheila Gujrathi, a biotech government and chair of Lila’s board of administrators, described Roy as “a considerate and inventive problem-solver who approaches every problem with real humility. He stands out not only for his progressive pondering, but additionally for his honest kindness and integrity.”
Unlocking potential
Within the lab at ASU, Roy centered on protein engineering for sustainable power sources, however he was keen to use these abilities to medication. He despatched an e mail to Baker who invited him for an interview and tour of his protein creation lab, which delivered a kid-in-a-candy-shop sort of expertise.
“That was probably the most thrilling factor as a result of it was such an amazingly numerous set of computational protein design issues, aiming to unravel so many various sorts of issues,” Roy recalled.
He jumped on the postdoc alternative, becoming a member of the lab that’s a part of the UW’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD). There he started exploring the groundbreaking instruments for creating proteins from scratch, in the end pursuing a molecule that confirmed promise in most cancers care and the remedy of fibrotic ailments that kind scar tissue in numerous organs.
Roy ultimately entered the IPD’s Translational Investigator Analysis Program, which provides entrepreneurial scientists the assist and coaching to start commercializing their discoveries. Two years in the past, he and Jake Kraft, a fellow IPD postdoc, licensed the molecule they labored on on the UW and launched Lila.
Whereas Roy has discovered success in his analysis, scientific inquiry might be slow-going and irritating. To unwind he turns to intense weight coaching and goes to reside reveals — he caught Woman Gaga this summer time and loves home music. Roy additionally whips up French pastries and tortes worthy of “The Nice British Bake Off.”
And generally he displays on the unlikely journey that led him to launching his personal firm.
“At any time when I get sort of discouraged or depressed about issues, I look again at my profession trajectory and the way far I’ve come,” Roy mentioned. “That does give me a number of energy.”
The ability of science
His startup can also be making confidence-boosting progress. Lila has raised $10 million from buyers and launched two AI-powered platforms for creating therapeutic proteins. One is concentrated on focused radiotherapy, producing proteins that exactly bind to tumors and carry radioactive isotopes that zap cancerous cells. The opposite platform is used to construct long-acting injectable medication that slowly launch medication over weeks or months.
In September, the seven-person startup introduced a collaboration with pharmaceutical large Eli Lilly to develop therapies for treating strong tumors.
Roy is grateful for U.S. assist of the essential analysis that underpins the work being finished at universities, establishments and corporations nationwide. He’s additionally fearful about federal funding cuts being pursued by the present administration that threaten America’s management in scientific innovation.
As a result of whereas he has been doing de novo protein design for greater than a decade, Roy remains to be amazed by what the know-how can do and how briskly it’s evolving.
“That is virtually like science fiction,” Roy mentioned. “Years in the past, you by no means imagined what we’re doing proper now. You’re designing molecules within the pc, and you’re placing them in precise residing methods, and it’s doing what it’s purported to do. It’s pure science fiction.”
