Thanks for Visiting

Thanks for Visiting Retronyma

As of today (November 19, 2011), I have churned out a posting weekly for more than two years, so please feel free to search my past posts for your topic of interest.  Your comments on past, current, and future posts are welcome as are suggestions for topics.  And please come back; I put up a new post on Thursdays.

Why am I Blogging?

Over the past several years, it’s become increasingly clear to me that only a small fraction of our economic effort, technology, and science is being applied to providing the majority of the world’s citizens the human right to a minimum level of health.  And I have also come to think that I may be able to do something about it, or at least be a better person for trying (hey!  I’m an aging boomer).  Having spent my working life putting together and managing relationships between people and their entities in the life sciences academic/medical/industrial complex, I think I may have some useful skills in adapting and applying its strengths to the challenges of global health.  Not a novel idea, but one with a lot of growth potential.  I am hoping that this blog will help me identify similarly-minded people and generate some interesting work.  I welcome inquiries about collaborative projects.

The Name, Retronyma

Retronyma is relatively new word made up by academics (linguists) for a new name or modification to a name of an existing object that needs to be changed to distinguish it from a newly-invented similar object.  Example:  guitar became “acoustical guitar” when electric guitars came along.  I liked the idea of linguists, who study language and words, making up words and creating a language of linguistics and that “retronyma” uses Greek roots, a language that seems to have a lot of names for ideas.  And I thought it would be easy to find by search engines.

Short Biography

Chris is a consultant in strategy and business development for technology-based companies and not-for-profit organizations developing innovative products for the US and global health care markets.  His current clients include a vaccine start-up, a diagnostics company, and a mhealth company based in India and is a mentor in MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service.  He was a principal of First Founders, Ltd., a non-profit venture that connects start-up companies with experienced entrepreneurs, has served as an adviser to the MIT/Harvard graduate course, HST 939 Technology for Global Health Practice and to several international development non-profit organizations, and chaired a panel on global health product development at BIO 2009.

Chris’s ten years in the biotech/pharma industry include positions as a consultant to Dragonfly Sciences, Inc. (Wellesley, MA) and in business development and alliance management for Modular Genetics, Inc. (Cambridge, MA), GlycoFi, Inc. (Lebanon, NH), and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA).  Chris has also worked for more than ten years in licensing and program management in academia as Director, Technology Transfer, New England Medical Center; Senior Technology Transfer Officer, Boston Children’s Hospital; Project Manager, Office of Technology Licensing and Industry-Sponsored Research, Harvard Medical School; and Senior Officer, Industrial Liaison Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He holds an undergraduate degree in biology from MIT and graduate degrees in physiology from the Universities of Kansas and Idaho.