The recent appointment of Yuri Nikolsky at the Skolkovo Foundation’s biomed technologies cluster appears to be bearing fruit already: The pharmaceuticals guru says several new companies are about to join the group’s 200-strong residents.
Nikolsky, 49, became the cluster’s Director of Sciences in June, ending 20 successful years in the United States, where he took GeneGo from a five-man startup in the systems biology sector to a market leader that was bought out by Thomson Reuters in 2010.
“We expect a very interesting company will arrive soon to become a Skolkovo resident and apply for grants. It’s one of our Moscow genomics startups", Nikolsky told sk.ru.
Nikolsky at Skolkovo offices earlier this year
The biomed cluster is one of five research groups under the Skolkovo Foundation. The others are in the fields of IT, nuclear, space and energy-efficient technologies.
Nikolsky is a renowned expert in the sphere of biological data, systems biology and drug discovery, holding a PhD in molecular biology from Moscow State University and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago.
He rose to prominence during his time as CEO of San Diego-based GeneGo from 2004 to 2010, when he continued at Thomson Reuters as a vice president for research and development who was responsible for new technology and consulting services in personalized medicine and knowledge management.
At Skolkovo, Nikolsky has barely dipped his toe into the ocean of startups he is to oversee.
“I’m still finding my feet,” he said. “We have about 200 companies. I’m working closely with scientists, I have a lot of meetings lined up with the companies in the biomed cluster and the venture investors that support them,” he said.
Nikolsky’s role is as the cluster’s main consultant on how to turn raw R&D results into marketable products. As to the cluster’s makeup, he already sees a familiar pattern.
“The spectrum of companies, the spectrum of products that they make, reflects the general global trend,” he said. “Most of the companies are drug discovery – possibly up to 60 percent,” he added.
But in Nikolsky’s specific sphere of expertise, the biomed cluster is still young, he said.
“There are also companies producing medical devices, but companies that deal with genome medicine are relatively few. They’re only starting to appear.”
Nikolsky has left Thomson Reuters in January due to global restructuring, prompting the marked turn in his career path.
Having met Skolkovo Foundation Vice President Kirill Kaem, the executive director of the biomed cluster, at a conference in California, Nikolsky’s mind was made up.
“What he told me about Skolkovo seemed interesting. So now, here I am.”