Collaboration in Action: Kim Midwood
Kim Midwood is a Professor of Matrix Biology in Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS). In her story, Kim shares her experience of different scales and types of collaboration, from small spinouts to large pharmaceutical companies. Kim also emphasises why she encourages anyone to start talking with industrial partners about possible collaborations sooner rather than later.
Can you tell us a bit about your experience working with industry and how it started?
Absolutely! My journey into industry collaboration began in the early 2000s with the spin-out of my postdoctoral work at Princeton University. Later, in 2011, we founded Nascient Ltd based on research from my group at Imperial College London. Currently, my team is engaged in translational work sponsored by companies like Continuum Life Sciences Ltd and Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). Each collaboration has been unique, involving different scales and types of collaboration, from small spinouts to large pharmaceutical companies.
What motivated you to pursue these collaborations with industry?
The primary motivation has always been to translate our academic research into real-world applications that can make a significant impact. Working with industry provides access to resources, technologies, and expertise that are often not available within academic settings, as well as valuable insight and wide-ranging discussions with our industrial collaborators that really add value to the work.
How has collaboration with industry helped you and your group?
Collaborating with industry can be really powerful. It allows us to take our research beyond the confines of the laboratory and into the realm of real-world application. With BMS, we were able to move our research on fibrosis forward significantly by leveraging their chemical inhibitors, which we couldn't have developed on our own. This partnership not only provided the necessary tools and compounds to progress our studies, but also gave us insights into the drug development process from a commercial perspective. Learning how to aggressively target the killer experiment to move drug development forward, and balancing this with careful mechanistic mode of action studies, has been a great skill set to learn. This kind of collaboration accelerates the pace of our research and opens up new possibilities that benefit both the academic and commercial sides.
What advice would you give to researchers starting to collaborate with industry?
I would encourage anyone to start talking with industrial partners about possible collaborations, it will be a fun and enriching experience, and to have these conversations sooner rather than later – you may be surprised how early on in project development it is useful to engage with.