Tomer Yaron-Barir has the restless spirit of an explorer, always looking to new sights that set his mind awhirl. That’s probably the best explanation for why, with a 10-month-old baby at home, he’s launching a biotech startup while also starting a pediatrics residency and conducting research.
“I do get bored when something is clear,” he said while discussing his interest in rare cancers and, in particular, the challenge of deriving insights from the small pool of data.
Yaron-Barir spent the last several years working in Lewis Cantley’s and Olivier Elemento’s laboratories at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He’s been building a first-of-its-kind computational library of hundreds of protein kinases with his best friend Jared Johnson. It details the mechanisms by which kinases alter proteins, providing avenues for drug developers. Yaron-Barir’s interests have now migrated: “To me, personally, I like to just go and explore uncharted territories rather than try to nail down that last 5%,” he said.
Yaron-Barir never wanted to be a doctor — he quite literally stated that at the beginning of his personal statement in his medical school application. But when Covid hit, he struggled to rectify learning so much about the virus without helping people in real time. That feeling extends to his original passion: cancer research.
On a brief break from his ICU rotation, Yaron-Barir laid out how he hopes to meld his computational biology background with his new startup, which will develop treatments for rare pediatric cancers. High up on the list are desmoplastic small round cell tumors, which are found in the abdomen and pelvis. Only about 200 cases have been recorded since the cancer was first described in 1989.
It’s impossible to say where Yaron-Barir’s drive will take him next. But Cantley expects great things from his pupil: “Tomer is one of the most driven persons I have met,” he wrote in a letter recommending the young scientist. “I fully expect that he will someday lead a major medical school or research institute.”
— Allison DeAngelis
