Shoulders of Giants

Portrait of Sir Issac Newton, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1701

There is a famous quote from Isaac Newton:

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

I love this humble quote, particularly because it comes from someone who made some of the biggest advances in math and science. That idea has always been part of the romance of science for me – using the discoveries of hundreds of previous generations of scientists and explorers to try to climb one step higher, knowing that the next generation will build on top of what we accomplish.

When I was a younger scientist, I imagined standing on the shoulders of giants meant reading the papers and hearing the seminars of the previous generations of luminary scientists, before toiling on your own ideas in a dark basement somewhere, to finally emerge 10 years later with your treatise on how to cure malaria or the mating dance of bumblebees. I’ve learned this is not how it works in real life, at least not for me. The giants are not just in the past, working in gas-lit labs using homemade microscopes and communicating with us through old manuscripts and sepia photographs. The giants walk among us today, and the key is finding them, bringing them together, and working shoulder to shoulder with them.

I recently traveled to California to talk about Remedy Plan research with our scientific advisors. While I was thinking about the journey we are on today with Remedy Plan — chasing down a new and exciting idea for making cancer drugs — I couldn’t help reminiscing. I was lucky to get my graduate training in an amazing lab at the University of California, Berkeley. The co-founder of Remedy Plan was a fellow graduate student at Berkeley, and some of the scientific advisors for our company today were our first mentors and collaborators back then.

This company wouldn’t be possible without a collaboration of ideas. Whether these are a product of working side by side with colleagues in the lab every day or the seemingly random spark of inspiration that arises over sips of beers after work or phone calls on your walk home, it is only possible if you surround yourself with giants. One of the greatest lessons I learned in my time in the Bay Area is to bring together the smartest people you know whenever you can. I’m grateful that many of the same mentors and colleagues from my graduate school years are a part of Remedy Plan today. Because when you’re trying to reach up just a little higher, to see just a little further, it sure helps to have a team of giants* backing you up.

* I realize that I’m talking about the Bay Area and a team of giants – but just so we’re clear, any perceived plug for the San Francisco Giants is unintended. I’m from Chicago, for God’s sake.