SEATTLE – Mapping a future of new behaviors for data sharing and building better medicines from the human genome has earned the co-founder of Sage Bionetworks election to Ashoka’s global fellowship of leading social entrepreneurs.

Stephen Friend, M.D., Ph.D., launched Sage Bionetworks in 2009 to enable data-intensive genomics technology to be applied to human biology. Since then, Sage Bionetworks has expanded to over 30 core employees and secured over US$20m for work with an expanding range of academic, commercial and public advocacy partners. Now, working in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Stephen Friend is working to implement systems that will change reward systems and thus behavior in biomedical research and drug development.

“We live in a remarkable time of technological explosion in medicine and genetics,” noted Dr. Friend. “But we need to establish disruptive incentives for researchers, industry and the public to work together in fundamentally news ways to accelerate meaningful improvements in healthcare.”

“The Community of Ashoka fellows will be a unique opportunity for us to learn from the world’s most effective change-makers,” Dr. Friend added. “And it’s a wonderful recognition of what the Sage Bionetworks team and our partners are accomplishing.”

A global organization, Ashoka supports those who share qualities traditionally associated with leading business entrepreneurs – vision, innovation, determination and long-term commitment – but are committed to systemic social change in their fields. Ashoka Fellows have been acknowledged for their innovative solutions to some of society’s most pressing social problems.

“Stephen works at the nexus of genomics technology and drug development, and maintains a clear focus on the underlying social and behavioral transformations required to achieve real progress that ultimately accrues to patients and their health,” said Amy Clark, who leads Ashoka’s Fellow selection team in the U.S. “We are proud to recognize him as a leading social entrepreneur and an Ashoka Fellow.”

“Stephen Friend has excited and engaged the diverse research, healthcare and advocacy communities,” remarked Ashoka Fellow Sharon Terry, the President and CEO of Genetic Alliance. “Sage Bionetworks is positioned to facilitate major changes in how medical research is conducted.”

Dr. Friend has been an inspirational spokesman for a precompetitive research ecosystem that can empower the public and speed the translation of vast amounts of genomes data into healthcare advances. His efforts have posted impressive results, including:

•Creation of the Sage Bionetworks Commons, a partnership with academics, funders, publishers, and industry partners to fundamentally change behavior in the ‘medical industrial complex.’

•Development of an NCI Center for Cancer Systems Biology and the LSDF Washington Partners Program to create a new public platform for sharing genomic data and to train researchers in the application of advanced computational methods.

•Initiation of CTCAP, a groundbreaking partnerships with Genetic Alliance and the healthcare industry to re-define the competitive landscape for early drug development and the sharing of clinical data.

•Formation of a “Federation” of five laboratories sharing data, tools and disease models that serves as a pilot for assuring that inter-lab data sharing is as rapid as intra-lab data sharing.

Dr. Friend received his B.A. in philosophy, Ph.D. in biochemistry and M.D. from Indiana University. He was trained as a pediatric oncologist and was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital before joining the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s Seattle Project, an advanced institute for drug discovery, where he helped develop a method for examining large patterns of genes that led to the formation of Rosetta Inpharmatics. After Merck & Co. Inc. acquired Rosetta, Dr. Friend became Senior Vice President and Franchise Head for Oncology Research at Merck, where he led their basic cancer research efforts before leaving to form Sage Bionetworks.

Ashoka Fellows work in every area of human need, including learning/youth development, the environment, health, human rights, economic development and civic participation. Selection criteria include the social impact of the idea, demonstrated creativity in problem solving, the newness of the idea, and the entrepreneurial quality of the founder.

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—individuals with innovative, large scale ideas for addressing social problems. They address every area of human need—from human rights to the environment, from full economic citizenship to empowering young people. Since its founding in 1980, Ashoka has enabled more than 2,700 leading social entrepreneurs in over 60 countries. Ashoka’s modest investments in early-stage entrepreneurs consistently yield extraordinary returns. Its inclusion and recognition of later-stage social entrepreneurs are catalytic to the community. Working in partnership with Ashoka Fellows, Ashoka builds communities of innovators who work collectively to transform society and design new ways for citizen-led solutions to become more productive, entrepreneurial and globally integrated. Ashoka does not accept government funding; business entrepreneurs, corporations, individuals, foundations and volunteer chapters finance Ashoka’s work.

usa.ashoka.org ashoka.org changemakers.com

Sage Bionetworks is a nonprofit biomedical research organization creating a new paradigm for addressing the complexity of human biological information and the treatment of disease. Sage Bionetworks and its academic and commercial partners employ global coherent molecular and clinical datasets to create validated disease models that improve the speed and efficiency of therapeutic drug development. Sage Bionetworks’ vision is to create an open access, integrative bionetwork evolved by contributor scientists working to eliminate human disease: www.sagebase.org.