Howard Chang wasn’t looking for a change from his job at Stanford, where he worked as both a genomic researcher and a dermatologist. His busy lab there was focused on understanding how regulatory programmes drive disease — unveiling for example how long-non-coding RNA (lncRNA) underpins autoimmunity in women and how extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) fuels cancer. And with five biotech startups already under his belt, Chang saw a path to transform these big ideas into drugs. But when he got a call from Amgen’s head of R&D Jay Bradner about joining the big biotech team, he couldn’t resist the change.
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Interviewed by Asher Mullard
The interview was edited for length and clarity.