Interview with Vicky Avery

Vicky Avery is head of discovery biology and cancer therapeutics drug discovery at Griffith University. Her career has taken her from academia to industry and back again as she researched diseases as varied as HIV, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, cholera and malaria. Her laboratory recently won funding to screen hundreds of potential drugs for schizophrenia, using its imaging expertise and sufferers’ nasal stem cells.

Where and when were you born?
April 1964, Kent, England.

How has that shaped you?
My parents were in their early twenties with three small children when they migrated to Australia and, several years later, decided to see a bit of the country. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, we travelled about Australia in a caravan. My sister, brother and I did correspondence education. I loved the fact that I could get all my schoolwork done in a matter of hours.

How did a caravan childhood lead to an adulthood in drug discovery?
My parents encouraged us to be whatever we wanted, but to do it well. I was very interested in physics, chemistry and mathematics. My parents felt it best to settle in a town so I could attend a school and have formal training. Throughout high school, I became more and more interested in various diseases. I remember watching a television show about parasitic diseases in Africa: schistosomiasis and onchocerciasis. So many pathogens – or cancers – are incredibly clever. They’ve developed methods for persisting in our bodies and resisting drugs. I was very keen on medical research and wanted to make a difference by working on challenging diseases. That was one of the reasons I did my PhD in HIV; it was so new at the time. I became interested in learning new techniques that I could apply elsewhere. I did a postdoc in a completely different area, working on the role of insulin-like growth factor receptors in cancer. That’s when I was approached to join Active Biotech in Sweden.

You were responsible for molecular biology at the company, then became director of business development. Why?
I wanted to understand more about how the decisions were being made. As a scientist, it’s very frustrating to learn that a project is being stopped without understanding why. It may be a strategic decision to redirect finances to a project that’s progressing extremely well and going to expensive trials. I wanted to understand that side of it. I was spending a lot of time with the chief executive and chief scientific officer of the company, helping to present the science to business partners. When I was offered the opportunity to head business development, I jumped at the challenge. It was like learning a completely different language because I didn’t have a business degree. But I learned a lot about negotiating deals.

Australians bemoan how much of their publicly funded research ends up enriching overseas businesses. Is that resentment justified?
We often lack the ability to take our research as far as we want to, so many researchers have to partner earlier than they had planned. When you’re making a business deal, the more knowledge you have – the more intellectual property you’ve generated – the greater your share of the proceeds. If I’m only 20 per cent along the pathway towards a new drug, and a large pharmaceutical company offers to take all the risk going forward, of course they are entitled to a greater share of the rewards. Drug discovery and development is high risk. If you are 40 per cent of the way along rather than 20 per cent before you sign over the risk, you may get a better deal. A lot of people manage the early steps, but it’s a lot more challenging to take something further along the path, which is really where the value increases.

If universities help develop medications for horrible diseases, and industry partners end up pocketing most of the profits, does it really matter?
Yes. While there is no question we’re all going to benefit, directly or indirectly, credit must be given where it’s due. Also, how can I contribute to tackling the next disease if I don’t have an income? One of the hardest things is to retain expertise and capability. If we don’t maintain our funding, who’s paying for the people and experimental work? My lab is completely funded by the money I bring in.

Are academics getting better at business?
Most people I know would be negotiating quite hard nowadays. Not so earlier on. People weren’t necessarily as wise as they needed to be. Most academics were very keen to publish, and that was sometimes a mistake, because once it’s published, it’s anybody’s. I don’t think too many researchers just hand over all their secrets these days. We’ve gradually become better at handling relationships with industry partners as well.

What do you like about academia?
The freedom to work how I want to work. I’m not a nine-to-five person, and nor is the sort of work I do. I’m incredibly fortunate that I have a team of people who are as interested as I am in what we do and are willing to put in the time and effort.

What do you dislike about academia?
Process inefficiencies. The requirements are too many, or too slow, or lack relevance, or five people need to see something that only two people really need to see. I understand that it’s difficult to align higher education institutions and departments with an industry way of doing things, but I find that there’s not enough of a sense of urgency. Having said that, there’s a great deal of effort being made to improve all the processes.

If you were universities minister for a day, what would you do?
Stop and listen to people. I would explore funding options and platforms to allow greater flexibility and security for researchers, and find a way of depoliticising funding, which should be independent of political objectives. I’d have a really busy time as minister, if I had to do it all in one day.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com

CV

1982-86 bachelor of science, University of Adelaide
1987 bachelor of science honours, Flinders University
1991-94 PhD, Flinders
1995-98 NHMRC postdoctoral fellowship, Adelaide
1998-2002 section head and director of molecular biology and biochemistry, Active Biotech, Lund, Sweden
2002-04 director of business development, Active Biotech
2004-07 head, lead discovery biology, AstraZeneca/Griffith University collaboration, Brisbane
2004-11 associate professor, Griffith Sciences, Griffith University
2007-present head, discovery biology, Griffith
2007-present head, cancer therapeutics drug discovery, Griffith
2012-present professor and principal research leader, discovery biology, Griffith
2016-18 deputy dean, research, Griffith
2017 acting dean, research, Griffith

Appointments

Bashir Al-Hashimi has been appointed vice-president (research and innovation) at King’s College London. Currently executive dean of the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences, he will succeed Reza Razavi in January. A distinguished computer engineer, before joining King’s Professor Al-Hashimi was executive dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton. He said he was “delighted by this opportunity to contribute to the university’s future research and impact development and success and to make a positive difference worldwide”.

Steve Rothberg is joining Manchester Metropolitan University as provost and deputy vice-chancellor, overseeing academic planning and resources. Succeeding Stephen Decent, Professor Rothberg joins from Loughborough University, where he has spent most of his academic career, including as professor of mechanical engineering and dean of the Faculty of Engineering. Professor Rothberg said he felt “privileged to assume leadership of a talented academic team and to take a key role in enhancing its standing nationally and internationally”.

Laura Chaubard has been appointed director general of France’s École Polytechnique, overseeing the administration and military leadership of the engineering-focused grande école under president Eric Labaye. Previously director general of Établissement Public du Parc et de la Grande halle de la Villette, she also joins the executive committee of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris.

Deborah Buszard will be interim president of the University of British Columbia, following the departure of Santa Ono to be president of the University of Michigan. She was deputy vice-chancellor, and principal of UBC’s Okanagan campus, from 2012 to 2020.

Phil Clare is the new chief executive of Queen Mary Innovation, the knowledge exchange and commercialisation arm of Queen Mary University of London. He was previously director of innovation and engagement at the University of Oxford.

Jennifer Nazareno has been appointed interim associate dean for academic affairs and innovation in Brown University’s School of Professional Studies.