The CIRM Board is pretty big, 29 members, all of whom have very different backgrounds and experiences. That’s one of its strengths, the diversity of members and the sheer range of expertise they bring to this work.

David Martin

Our newest member, Dr. David Martin, is the Chair and CEO of AvidBiotics Corp., a biotech company in South San Francisco. He has a very impressive resume including leadership roles at Genentech, DuPont Merck and Chiron. You can read more about that in our news release.

But we wanted to go beyond the obvious reasons why he was appointed by California State Treasurer John Chiang (who celebrated Dr. Martin’s “very distinguished career in both academics and the biotech industry”) and find a little bit more about him as a person.

We began by asking him how he got interested in science:

“When I was in junior high school, my father, a pediatrician, managed for me to witness at close-hand several surgical procedures in the O.R. When I was in high school my biology teachers were disasters, but I really enjoyed math and physics so I went to an engineering school.  After a year I rejected carrying a 14-inch slide rule on my belt like the other geeks and switched my major to biology. The biology lab excited me, and I changed my courses to prepare for medical school.  There I took off a year for a research training program and a real research lab experience.  I was hooked.”

What have been some of the biggest influences in your career?

“Jim Wyngaarden’s research training program (supported by the National Science Foundation – as a precursor to the National Institute of Health’s  Medical Scientist Training Program) and working in Jim’s lab at Duke.  I then had nearly a decade of direct exposure to Gordon Tomkins, first when I was as a post-doc at NIH and then as a faculty member at UCSF.  Third was my many years exposure to Bob Swanson at Genentech.  Each was a remarkable and quite unique mentor.”

You have been a part of some of the biggest players in drug research and development – Genentech, DuPont Merck, Chiron – what are the biggest advances you have seen over the years?

“The discovery, early development, and nearly explosive expansion of recombinant DNA technologies and of their broad applications in the life sciences. Today one can already see on the near horizon a similar, very rapid expansion of stem cell applications to regenerative medicine, and it will not be limited to regenerative medicine.”

Dr. Martin says he feels privileged and enthused to be joining the CIRM Board and hopes his experience will be valuable to the agency:

“Fortuitously, I’ve been in the right place at the right time more than once as a physician-scientist—in both academe and industry; hopefully those experiences and perspectives may be of benefit to CIRM.”

Like many people fortunate enough to live in the San Francisco Bay Area he likes to get out of the lab/office as much as possible to enjoy all that the region has to offer:

“I enjoy bicycling, hiking and fly fishing—when I can find the time.”

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Martin to the CIRM team.