Our Model
Our deep-rooted values, unique constraints, and interdisciplinary strengths enable us to undertake science in distinctive ways that is not widely seen.
In affiliation with, but placed outside, a traditional university system and within a hospital cluster, we enjoy the best of both worlds. The hospital campus also ensures we are open 24/7 for any experiment at any time. We also enjoy access to essential resources that are otherwise taken for granted – 24/7 power, heating, gas, liquid nitrogen and other fundamental supplies. This proximity to clinicians, and patients also fuels our creativity and our drive for impact.
With funding from both public grants and philanthropic contributions, we are again able to leverage the best of both – financial safety for years as well as spending flexibility in emergent situations. This allows us to balance rigorous research goals with bold innovation and educational initiatives.
Finally, we are able to undertake both hard-core rigorous science that is world-class and leverages the best tools of science out there. As well as bold, out-of-the-box experiments and prototyping, that defy boundaries and constraints, and attempt to answer questions that others might shy away from. All of this curated in a delicate medium (or environment) made up of three key ingredients: talent, density and culture.
Our model can be imagined at three different levels.
- The hard core represents extremely rigorous scientific research and technological development including clinical studies under respective IRB approvals. These projects use state-of-the-art methods to enable scientific discovery to enhance our knowledge of the biology underlying disease and cellular processes and to enable us to develop solutions for solving complex problems around us.
- The fluid matrix represents bold, often frugal experiments, which others might shy away from. These experiments defy boundaries and constraints and may involve resourcefully coming up with new methods to test ideas in a wide range of areas from health, agriculture and the environment to space, biodiversity and even bioart.
- The delicate medium which provides a conducive environment to the above has three ingredients: Talent, Density and Culture. These are key inputs that help us curate and sustain our model. First, we are blessed to attract and recruit some of the best talent out there from all corners of the country and from all sorts of disciplines. The Lab is both proud and upset at a less than 1% acceptance rate. Second, our interdisciplinary team benefits from the density and diversity both inside the Lab (all the talent, ideas and collaborations under one roof) and outside the Lab (the unique biomedical cluster of various institutions that we are located in: PhaseV). Finally, the most important ingredient of all, is culture. We espouse a distinct set of values at the Lab that guides how we live and do our work within the Lab and how we collaborate with other groups, institutions and partners. This is culture based on highest levels of trust, integrity and academic rigour. A culture that is open, welcoming, happy and positive in our outlook. A culture that is bold, action-oriented and driven by real impact ton the ground.
