GUV Powerlist 2018: D Lansing Taylor

GUV Powerlist 2018: D Lansing Taylor
The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): D Lansing Taylor, director, Pittsburgh Revolution Fund

Having been director of the University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute since the start of the decade, D Lansing Taylor was the driving force behind the launch in mid-2017 of the organisation’s $200m Pittsburgh Revolution Fund.

The fund has been set up to create a unique approach to the way the university “discovers and develops therapeutics”, according to Taylor. It aims specifically to help researchers at the Drug Discovery Institute to improve efficiency and reduce costs in therapeutic development, as well as to encourage a collaborative approach to quantitative systems pharmacology – the process of using computer modelling to replicate drug and disease progression.

This will be done through grants as well as investments, and the fund is being led by Bill Newlin, chairman of the seed-stage investment firm Newlin Investment.

Before becoming director of the Drug Discovery Institute, Taylor was CEO of biotech firms Cellumen and Cellomics.