STRM.blog

In a recent interview with the Harvard Innovation Lab, STRM.BIO’s founder and CEO, Dr. Jonathan Thon, shared the inspiration behind STRM.BIO and how it’s grown into a network of people who share a collective commitment to treating and curing some of humankind’s most devastating diseases.

“What motivates us is the vision of what the world could look like if we’re successful! The idea that we could enable gene therapies to become viable therapeutic options for people is transformative. For many people, it’s going to change the landscape of medicine by curing diseases as opposed to treating their symptoms,” says Thon.

STRM.BIO is not just innovating the delivery of gene therapy; it’s doing so by implementing new approaches to operations and collaboration.  Like with most innovations, there was a time when such a way of working was a hard sell in the field. Then came COVID-19.

“When I first began pitching the operational idea behind STRM, in the fall of 2019 (pre-COVID), it was met with little enthusiasm. Frankly, it was very hard to get investors even to return my calls. A couple months later, in February 2020, COVID became our new reality. The premise that we could leverage existing infrastructure and work remotely suddenly became a lot more exciting and attractive. […]STRM was able to move a lot faster than any of us expected in our first year of operation and accelerate while others were slowing down.”

Thon shared that the most important conditions for a positive work environment are trust and collaboration. Like many other companies, STRM.BIO is addressing the challenges of a hybrid model. “There are instances when we benefit from bringing people together,” Thon said.

Thon and the rest of the STRM.BIO team are hard at work to build a culture and team united around values of “simplicity, purpose, collaboration, and people,” in order to maintain a strong ethos and synergetic work environment.  “At our core, this is the most transformative element of STRM.BIO,” Thon shares.

Learn more about Jonathan Thon’s perspectives on leadership and STRM.BIO’s plans for the next fiscal year by reading the full interview here.