b'Driven to BreakBarriersFINDING SOLUTIONS IN COLORADOBY TODD NEFFD espite federal funding cuts, tradeinfection-detection technologies movingit will be. If you need to pivot, dont delay just uncertainties, and high interestforward. Here are their stories. because its hard.rates,ColoradoslifesciencesSecond, pivots often bring layoffs and exec-leaders continue to push science forward.Stan Lapidus Offers a utive departures. Its important to clarify the With the power of AI and other advancedMasterclass: The ThinPrep Pivot details of possible future separations up front, tools, discovery is accelerating. BreakthroughStan Lapiduss contributions to life scienceshe says.technologies and new capabilities are openingentrepreneurship and patient care are historic. doors of opportunity, even in a challengingOneofthehardestsituationsiswhen economic and political climate. For thoseLapidus founded Cytyc, the company behindagreements are written in perpetuity on the willing to take on the risks, stress, and hardthe ThinPrep pap test that revolutionized theassumption that were going to remain friends work, the rewards are the chance to deliverearly detection of cervical cancer; and, later,and colleagues forever, Lapidus says.therapies, devices, and healthcare solutionsExact Sciences, the maker of the CologuardThird, make sure the board is on board with that change lives. colon-cancer screening diagnostic. And hesthe pivot, he says, because, otherwise, you not done yet. get a lot of board blowback, and you get killed.Stan Lapidus founded companies that pro- Lapidus, who came to Colorado in 2017 to be duced two household-name diagnostics.closer to family, is entrepreneur in residenceFourth, pivot in parallel, with Lapiduss greatest Kari Caos RenewRx aims to revolutionizeat Catalio Capital Management, a member ofpivot being a case in point. He had cofounded care for women with gestational diabetes.Cytyc in 1987 with the idea of using digital NickTraggissAmbrosiaBiosciencesisseven biotechnology company boards, and aimage analysis for evaluating pap smears. turning Pfizers loss into potentially extraor- business advisor to Boulders Think Bioscience. Given the limits of 1980s-era AI, progress was dinary gains through the development ofPivoting is the rule, not the exception, forslow, and the variability of the samples that AI a small-molecule obesity and metabolichealth-innovation startups, he says, but youwas to analyze compounded the problem. So, therapies. And Nick Meyerson is pursuingcan make them more palatable in a couple ofLapidus launched a side program to make a various pivots to keep Darwin Biosciencesways. First, the earlier the pivot, the less costlybetter pap smear with cells evenly distributed 16 BIOSCIENCE COLORADO 2025-2026'