Dominic
Senior Director of Discovery Technology
A career that has encompassed academia (where he created one of the first graduate courses in molecular modeling), big pharma, and small pharma brought Senior Director of Discovery Technology Dominic to Cubist. Recently, he talked about his varied career and personal interests.
Q: What led you to your current position?
Dominic: Many scientists have some moment of inspiration early on and for me it came from my grandfather (William R. Thompson). He was a famous entomologist in the 1930s and ’40s. We would go on walks in the woods and he would pick up various things and say, ’smell this, taste this, look at that’ and I think that is what got me interested in science. From there I stayed more or less on that track. I pursued an undergraduate degree in chemistry and graduate degree in physical organic chemistry at McGill. During that period I got married and we started a family and I moved on to a post-doc position at Cornell.
My work as a post doc was rewarding, but it was during that period that I felt I wanted more. A job search back in Canada yielded very little, so I approached the department chairman and curriculum committee at Cornell with an idea I had for a new graduate course in molecular modeling. The idea was enthusiastically received and they hired me to teach it. I spent the next year mostly assembling and teaching this course — that was 1988. Students were eager to incorporate the course into their thesis research projects. At the conclusion of the course I decided the students really needed some perspective on the industrial use of computational methods, so I invited in speakers from several major pharmaceutical companies.
When I left Cornell in 1989, I ended up going to work for SmithKline Beecham in their computational chemistry group. That was a bit of an unexpected change in direction, but I stayed there for about 12 years. Next, I was recruited by Millennium Pharmaceuticals to build a computational group as the company was growing significantly. Subsequently, I started a business and worked as a consultant for small pharma companies and some software companies and some venture capitalists. I did a lot of due diligence around smaller startups for venture capitalists. That led at one point to a call from Cubist, I was asked if I would like to help in a computational area. I came in and talked to some folks here and little-by-little my involvement with Cubist kept expanding — finally they said, ’why don’t you stay?’ So here I am.
Q: What did the computational work involve?
Dominic: Initially it was a job focused on database infrastructure. At the time, there were limitations regarding the usability and suitability of the database for future work. I provided some recommendations for a path forward, and that evolved into the current database infrastructure project. Parallel to this, other computational work was becoming needed on selected projects. I provided some guidance on an important project in the works. I provided some guidance around structure-based design and computational tools. It kept expanding with more and more projects.
Q: What is it about Cubist that kept you interested and helped in your decision to become a full-time employee?
Dominic: The main interest for me was the focus on antibacterials. It is an area of acute medical need and an area where many companies have experienced frustration. I felt it was a tremendous opportunity to be able to have such a direct impact in an area of growing need. It is nice to be able to advance one’s career and at the same time know that you are making a difference — who could ask for more than that? For me, the decision to come to Cubist was driven in very large measure by the company’s overarching mission. Beyond that though, it was a successful company with a highly regarded antibiotic on the market and with today’s market turmoil that was an important factor in the decision to land here, too.
And arguably the most important part of the decision to come to Cubist was based on the people here. It’s the best of all possibilities — a good place to work, good people to work with, and a mission that is important and that we have the resources to carry out.
Q: What is the most satisfying part of your job?
Dominic: There are two things that immediately come to mind. I am leading the way in helping to build a block of technologies for Cubist that I firmly believe has an enormous potential to make a difference and therefore make a difference in the mission to deliver novel antibacterials to market. I also place a high priority on developing people, and the department I am in charge of is currently growing. I have an opportunity to take my experience and help people hone their drug discovery skills.
Q: Is the molecular modeling room we have here unusual in companies of our size?
Dominic: It is becoming increasingly common and, of course, big pharma has had the technology in place for some time. I have built several of these rooms in the past.
We have an excellent facility. Our facility is currently better than many, and that is not just because it is brand new. It’s not just the projection equipment and the latest technology that makes a good facility; it is also the design of the room. Our room is a very functional room for a team of people. Fortunately, we were able to create it from scratch, and we did not have to retrofit into an existing space. I have had to do that in the past and it is suboptimal.
Q: You have a black belt in Judo — how did you become interested in Judo?
Dominic: It is something I have pursued most of my adult life. My interest was sparked by television shows in the ’70s. When I went to college, a friend had been doing Judo for a long time, and one day he convinced me to come and check it out. That led to a pretty intense year of Judo, but eventually I had to let it go because school became just too much. I picked up a little bit here and there throughout graduate school, but I did not continue in any serious way until my wife, Heidrun, saw a sign for a Judo dojo in the area and said I should check it out. I went and realized I still enjoyed it, but I also quickly realized the sport is a lot harder on a 30-year old body than a 20-year-old body. But I stuck with it since the early ’90s until recently when a bad knee caused me to stop.
Dominic’s favorite book: I am reading a lot of history books right now about feudal Japan. Shinsengumi: The Shogun’s Last Samurai Corps by Romulus Hillsborough.
Dominic’s favorite movies: The Sting and Hopscotch.