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Introducing EUGENe: an easy-to-use deep learning genomics software

New technology developed by UC San Diego scientists aims to make deep learning more accessible to genomics researchers around the world

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

Deep learning — a form of artificial intelligence capable of improving itself with limited user input — has radically reshaped the landscape of biomedical research since its emergence in the early 2010s. It’s been particularly impactful in genomics, a field of biology that examines how our DNA is organized into genes and how these genes are activated or deactivated in individual cells. Despite this synergy, genomics researchers wanting to employ this technology are often challenged by the actual coding necessary to analyze vast pools of dense data.

Now, researchers at University of California San Diego have simplified this task for scientists by creating a new deep-learning platform that can be quickly and easily adapted to suit a wide variety of different genomics projects. The newly-developed software, named EUGENe, is detailed in a study published November 16, 2023 in Nature Computational Science.

“Each of our cells has the same DNA, but the way that DNA is expressed changes what our cells look like and what they do,” explained Hannah Carter, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Deep learning can provide valuable insights into the biological machinery driving this variety, but it can be challenging to implement for researchers without extensive computer science expertise. We wanted to create a platform that can help genomics researchers streamline their deep learning data analysis to make predictions from raw data."

Although genes coding for specific proteins make up only about 2% of our total genome, the remaining 98% of our DNA sequence, often referred to as "junk" DNA with no known function, plays a crucial role in determining when, where and how certain genes are activated. Unraveling the functions of these non-coding regions of the genome is a longstanding goal of genomics researchers, and deep learning has proven to be a powerful tool for achieving this goal — at least when researchers can figure out how to use it.

“A lot of existing platforms require many hours of coding and data wrangling to use,” said first author Adam Klie, a PhD student in the Carter’s lab. “Most projects require researchers to start from scratch, which takes expertise that not all labs interested in this stuff have access to.”

Klie designed the new software to address the computing challenges he faced in his own work.

“With EUGENe, you give an algorithm a sequence of DNA and ask it to make predictions about anything you’d expect that DNA could predict, such as whether a particular DNA sequence is functional or whether it regulates a gene in a certain biological context,” Klie said. “This lets you explore properties of the DNA sequence and ask what would happen if I modified this piece here or moved this piece there. This is particularly relevant for researchers studying complex genetic disorders where many different sequences are implicated.”

The researchers tested EUGENe by attempting to reproduce the results of three existing genomics studies that utilized several different types of sequencing data. Ordinarily, analyzing these different types of data would require mixing and matching multiple technology platforms. However, EUGENe proved adaptable enough to reproduce the findings of each of these studies.

“Being able to reproduce results is critically important in all scientific research, but can be very difficult in genomics studies that use deep learning,” said Carter. “EUGENe is already showing a lot of promise in how adaptable it is to different types of DNA sequencing data and supporting a lot of different deep learning models. We hope it will evolve into a platform that can support collaborative tool development by the research community and accelerate genomics research.”

While the current version of EUGENe works on many types of genomic data, the researchers are working on expanding its scope to include an even wider variety of data types, such as single-cell sequencing data, which looks at the genomics of individual cells instead of in a whole tissue. They also plan to make EUGENe available to research groups around the world.

“One of the exciting things about this project is that the more people use the platform, the better we can make it over time, which will be essential as deep learning continues to evolve so rapidly,” said Carter. “We hope that our platform will open many doors for researchers in this field and help them answer new questions about the complex molecular machinery that’s inside all of us.”

Full link to study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43588-023-00544-w

Co-authors of the study include: David Laub, James V. Talwar, Joe J. Solvason and Emma K. Farley at UC San Diego, Hayden Stites at Daniel Land High School and Tobias Jores at University of Washington.

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JOURNAL

Nature Computational Science

 

Pushing the boundaries of eco-friendly chemical production

CABBI team uses light-powered enzymes to modify azaarenes — molecules crucial to many everyday products — laying the groundwork for a sustainable future

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY, ENERGY, AND ENVIRONMENT

 

IMAGE: 

THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS RESEARCH TEAM INCLUDED, FROM LEFT: POSTDOC YUJIE YUAN, PH.D. CANDIDATE WESLEY HARRISON, CABBI CONVERSION THEME LEADER HUIMIN ZHAO, POSTDOC MAOLIN LI, AND POSTDOC ZHENGYI ZHANG

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CREDIT: CABBI COMMUNICATIONS

A team of pioneering researchers from the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) has made a significant leap forward in the complex world of molecular chemistry.

Their focus? Azaarenes, unique molecular puzzle pieces crucial to many everyday products, from eco-friendly agrochemicals to essential medicines. The CABBI team demonstrated an innovative way to modify these molecules, a groundbreaking discovery that holds promise for new industrially relevant chemical reactions and sustainable energy solutions.

Central to their research is the use of photoenzymatic systems. In simpler terms, it’s akin to supercharging nature’s tiny workers, enzymes, with a flashlight, enabling them to assemble or repair molecular structures in unprecedented ways. By harnessing the power of light, these scientists have unearthed novel chemical reactions that were previously thought to be out of reach.

The study, published in Nature Chemistry, was conducted by researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The lead authors are CABBI Conversion Theme Leader Huimin Zhao, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE), biosystems design theme leader of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB), and Director of the NSF Molecule Maker Lab Institute at Illinois; and Maolin Li, a Postdoctoral Research Associate with CABBI, ChBE, and IGB.

Azaarenes, seemingly minuscule in the vast universe of chemistry, nonetheless play a monumental role. They are the building blocks in a plethora of compounds, influencing even the DNA in our cells. But the challenge has always been in their manipulation.

Thanks to the team’s development of an ene-reductase system — a specialized molecular toolkit using the ene-reductase enzyme that Zhao’s lab has deployed in previous studies — researchers found a way to intricately modify these molecules without collateral damage.

One of the standout achievements of their work is mastering the enantioselective hydrogen atom transfer. Molecules often come in left- and right-handed versions, or enantiomers, much like gloves. The team’s method allows them to selectively target and adjust either version with unparalleled precision. Moreover, through remote stereo control they could make those precise adjustments from a distance.

For CABBI and the bioenergy sector, this discovery is a game-changer. Biofuels and bioproducts — energy and products derived from plant material instead of non-renewable resources like petroleum — represent a greener and more sustainable future. The team’s research has expanded the range of chemical reactions and bioproducts that can be made efficiently.

The study also introduced the concept of asymmetric photocatalysis, a revolutionary technique that ensures consistency in these reactions. That can open up new avenues for producing biofuels and bioproducts from a broader range of biomass feedstocks, which directly aligns with CABBI’s goals and the broader DOE mission to advance sustainable energy and product solutions.

“With our novel approach to azaarenes and the use of enzymatic hydrogen atom transfer, we’re not just pushing boundaries in chemistry,” Zhao said. “We’re laying down the foundations for a more sustainable and innovative future. Our research has broadened the toolkit available for eco-friendly production and has the potential to catalyze breakthroughs in agrochemicals and beyond.”

Beyond the lab, the potential for real-world applications is immense, from leading the charge in sustainable energy to spearheading safer agricultural chemicals. Advancements in bioenergy and bioproducts can lead to economic growth, with new industries, jobs, and products for consumers and potentially more affordable energy sources. By promoting sustainable and efficient production methods, the research can reduce pollution and environmental degradation, resulting in cleaner air and water for communities.

As the world grapples with environmental challenges and the pressing need for sustainable solutions, discoveries like these light the way forward, Li said.

“As a postdoctoral researcher on this project, I’ve been deeply immersed in the intricacies of azaarenes and their potential. Unraveling the challenges of remote stereo control and witnessing the transformative possibilities of our findings has been truly exhilarating. This research isn’t just about the nuances of chemical reactions; it’s about the future of sustainable energy and more. I’m excited to see where this journey takes us next,” Li said.

Co-authors on the study included Ph.D. candidate Wesley Harrison and Postdoctoral Researchers Yujie Yuan and Zhengyi Zhang of CABBI, ChBE, and IGB.

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JOURNAL

Nature Chemistry

DOI

10.1038/s41557-023-01368-x 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Remote stereocontrol with azaarenes via enzymatic hydrogen atom transfer

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Nov-2023

Cognitive and emotional well-being of preschool children before and during the pandemic

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: Pandemic-exposed children (assessment after March 11, 2020) had significantly higher problem solving and fine motor skills at 24 months of age but lower personal-social skills compared with non-exposed children in this study including data from the Ontario Birth Study. At 54 months of age, pandemic-exposed children had significantly higher vocabulary, visual memory, and overall cognitive performance compared with non-exposed children. 

Authors: Mark Wade, Ph.D., C.Psych., of the University of Toronto, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.43814)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.43814?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=1116          23

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

Social determinants of health and perceived barriers to care in diabetic retinopathy screening

JAMA Ophthalmology

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: This study of 11,000 participants with type 2 diabetes found that food insecurity, housing insecurity, mental health concerns, and the perceived importance of practitioner concordance were associated with a lower likelihood of receiving eye care. Such findings highlight the self-reported barriers to seeking care and the importance of taking steps to promote health equity.

Authors: Sophia Y. Wang, M.D., M.S., of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.5287)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullarticle/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2023.5287?guestAccessKey=1a6ec4f0-e9b3-4729-9957-4b638065fec8&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=111623

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JOURNAL

JAMA Ophthalmology

 

Environment and wallet benefit from redispensing cancer pills

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RADBOUD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

Redispensing cancer drugs reduces both environmental impact and medical costs, according to research from Radboudumc pharmacy published in JAMA Oncology. The annual savings could amount to tens of millions.

 

Cancer drugs as pills are not always used up by patients. The drugs are mostly expensive and environmentally damaging, both in production and (waste) disposal. In her PhD research, Lisa-Marie Smale of Radboudumc investigated whether these unused drugs can be collected and reissued. Does such an approach ultimately lead to lower environmental impact and costs?

 

Redispense medication

When redispensing medications, the quality must be guaranteed. Therefore, in this study the medications were packaged separately and fitted with a sensor, which registers whether returned medications were kept within the required temperature. Smale: "If packaging, temperature and expiration date are in order, the returned medications can be redispensed. For two years we investigated this procedure in cooperation with the pharmacies of four Dutch hospitals; Radboudumc, UMC Utrecht, Jeroen Bosch hospital and St Antonius hospital. Over a thousand patients who were taking oral cancer medications at home participated in the study during that period."

 

Saving tens of millions

The results, published in JAMA Oncology, look promising. The investment in the method, such as packaging with a temperature sensor, amounts up to 37 euros per patient per year. This is offset by savings of 613 euros. Annually, this results in a net saving per patient of 576 euros. Smale: "In the Netherlands, we can save between 20 and 50 million euros annually with this redispensing of medication. Meanwhile, we have further optimized the process, making a net saving of 655 euros per patient possible. In the Netherlands, we have relatively low drug prices. If you look at the U.S., where the price of new drugs is over 300 percent higher, in principle much more money can be saved there."

 

Large-scale consequence

Of all wasted medicine packaging, two-thirds could be reissued. Project leader Charlotte Bekker of Radboudumc says, "Based on the results, the study will be expanded to 14 hospitals. Again, we are looking at cancer pills. Reissue is only allowed in the context of a scientific study because of European rules. We hope that the approach can eventually be used nationwide, as well as for other drugs."

 

Sustainability and social impact also benefit

"This approach is cost-effective for expensive drugs”, Smale says, "but ultimately there are other factors you want to consider, such as sustainability or social impact. Think of the environmental impact you can reduce by not destroying drugs but redispensing them; this can also be beneficial for drugs that are in short supply."

 

Broad interest

The study published in JAMA Oncology is, to our knowledge, the first to examine drug redispensing with guaranteed quality. The topic is attracting strong interest, not only in the medical community but also beyond. Several parties are committed to make further expansion possible. In addition to the participating hospitals, the Dutch Association of Hospital Pharmacists (NVZA) is also closely involved. And it is part of the Green Deal objectives to make healthcare more sustainable. Smale: "We are happy to work with all parties to address and reduce the cost and environmental impact of wasted medicines."

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JOURNAL

JAMA Oncology

DOI

10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.4865 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Cost Savings and Waste Reduction Through Redispensing Unused Oral Anticancer Drugs. The ROAD Study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Nov-2023

 

Vitamin B12: a key player in cellular reprogramming and tissue regeneration

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN BIOMEDICINE (IRB BARCELONA)

 

IMAGE: 

ON THE RIGHT, CELLS IN THE PANCREAS UNDERGOING REPROGRAMMING; ON THE LEFT, REGULAR PANCREAS TISSUE.

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CREDIT: IRB BARCELONA

Barcelona, 16 November 2023 – Vitamin B12 is a well-known micronutrient that has long been acknowledged for its essential role in maintaining nerve function, supporting red blood cell production, and facilitating DNA synthesis, all vital processes for overall health. Researchers led by Dr. Manuel Serrano at IRB Barcelona have now revealed that vitamin B12 also plays a pivotal role in cellular reprogramming and tissue regeneration. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Metabolism

The research was focused on an experimental process known as cellular reprogramming which is thought to mimic the early phases of tissue repair. The IRB team found that cellular reprogramming in mice consumes large amounts of vitamin B12. Indeed, the depletion of vitamin B12 becomes a limiting factor that delays and impairs some aspects of the reprogramming process. Considering the abundance of vitamin B12 in the normal diet of mice, the investigators were surprised to observe that the simple supplementation of vitamin B12 significantly enhanced the efficiency of reprogramming.

 

Therapeutic potential in ulcerative colitis

The researchers validated their findings in a model of ulcerative colitis, demonstrating that the intestinal cells initiating repair undergo a process similar to cellular reprogramming and also benefit from vitamin B12 supplementation. Patients with intestinal bowel disease could potentially benefit from vitamin B12 supplementation.

“Our research uncovers a critical role of vitamin B12 in cellular reprogramming and tissue repair. These findings hold promise for regenerative medicine, with the potential to benefit patients through an improved nutrition," says Dr. Manuel Serrano.

 

Understanding the role of vitamin B12 in cellular reprogramming

In this study, the researchers delved into the metabolic requirements of cellular reprogramming and found that vitamin B12 is a limiting factor for a particular branch of metabolism involved in a reaction known as methylation. Precisely, the DNA of the cells initiating reprogramming or tissue repair require very high levels of this methylation reaction and therefore of vitamin B12. The researchers discovered that vitamin B12 insufficiency during reprogramming or tissue repair resulted in significant epigenetic changes, leading to errors in the function of multiple genes.

“Supplementation with vitamin B12 corrected this imbalance, resulting in enhanced gene function fidelity and overall improved reprogramming efficiency,” confirms Dr. Marta Kovatcheva, first author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the same laboratory. Dr. Kovatcheva will open a new laboratory in 2024 at the Istituto Fondazione di Oncologia Molecolare ETS (IFOM) in Milan, Italy, which will be focused on the study of partially reprogrammed cells in vivo.

 

Separate study links vitamin B12 to lower inflammation

The group led by Dr. Serrano has recently published another study, in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Rosa Lamuela-Raventós at the University of Barcelona (UB), and Dr. Ramon Estruch at the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, in which they concluded that people with higher levels of vitamin B12 in blood had lower levels of inflammatory markers (IL-6 and CRP).  The researchers also observed a similar relationship in aged mice. These observations suggest that vitamin B12 exerts anti-inflammatory action by reducing these markers in the body and they provide valuable insights into the potential health benefits of vitamin B12.

 

This research project was conducted in collaboration with the groups of Dr. Guido Kroemer at the Institut Gustave Roussy (in France), the laboratory led by Dr. Oscar Yanes at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Spain), IRB Barcelona's Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core Facility, led by Dr. Camille Stephan-Otto Attolini and the Histopathology Core Facility, led by Dr. Neus prats both at IRB Barcelona and the University of Barcelona.

Dr. Manuel Serrano is presently working at Altos Labs, Cambridge, UK.

The project has received funding from the following agencies: the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST); the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC); the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO); the Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Research Council; the Ligue contre le Cancer; the Agence National de la Recherche (ANR); the Association pour la recherche sur le cancer (ARC); the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM); the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJPRD); the European Research Council (ERC); the Institut National du Cancer (INCa); the Institut Universitaire de France; the Mark Foundation;  the Seerave Foundation; "la Caixa" Foundation; the Milky Way Research Foundation; the Spanish Ministry of Science, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); and the  Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Empresa i Coneixment of Catalonia.

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JOURNAL

Nature Metabolism

DOI

10.1038/s42255-023-00916-6 

ARTICLE TITLE

Vitamin B12 is a limiting factor for induced cellular plasticity and tissue repair

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Nov-2023

Saint Louis University professor named 2024 NIH Climate and Health Scholar

Grant and Award Announcement

SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: 

RICARDO WRAY

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CREDIT: BENJAMEN LOEWNAU

Saint Louis University professor Ricardo Wray, Ph.D., was named a 2024 Climate and Health Scholar by the National Institutes of Health, beginning a year-long research fellowship to combat climate change and its public health consequences. 

Wray is one of seven established scientists with expertise in climate and health selected to be a part of the second cohort of the NIH’s Climate Change and Health Initiative. This class of NIH Climate and Health Scholars will become part of the cross-cutting NIH effort to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan and build health resilience in individuals, communities, and nations around the world, especially among those at highest risk. 

The diverse group of scientists went through a competitive selection process and will begin work with NIH staff this month until September of 2024. 

Wray, a professor of behavioral science and health equity in SLU’s College for Public Health and Social Justice, was selected to work with the National Cancer Institute with a focus on health communication. 

“I'm excited the NCI picked me because, of all of the institutes at the NIH, they are the one that has invested the most in health communication as a topic and as a discipline,.” Wray said. “I made an argument that communication is important to fund because it brings an interdisciplinary perspective and a wide range of inquiries and methods that can effectively contribute to understanding, informing and achieving behavioral, social and systemic change that are central to understanding and mitigating links between climate change and health. I was heartened that they agreed with my argument and that they want to pursue that line of reasoning.”

While each scholar will work with a different institute within NIH, they will also work with staff across NIH to share knowledge and help build capacity for conducting climate and health-related research.

Wray has vast experience working in public health, and has been an instructor with SLU for more than 20 years. His recent foray into environmental health was spurred through his work with Mosquito Alert STL, an app that tracks various mosquito species in the greater St. Louis region and works with local health departments to prevent diseases such as West Nile virus while also educating the public on best practices to avoid these pests.  

“My primary training and area of work has been in health communication,” Wray said. “I've done research in a lot of different areas of public health in terms of health communications, but in the last year and a half, I’ve started to pivot to environmental health. Mosquito Alert STL was a great entry point because it's very concrete. It's local. We have great community partners. There are really interesting outcomes to think about that are related to ecological environmental sensibilities, which are aligned with climate communication outcomes. The climate and health scholar program just fell into my lap; I'd been pursuing this line of work and now this opportunity allows me to continue to do just that.”

Throughout his career, Wray’s work has allowed him to engage in applied public health communication teaching, research, and practice through designing, implementing, and assessing communication programs in the United States, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Funded by NIH-NCI, the Centers for Disease Control, and others, he has conducted interdisciplinary and mixed-methods research to advance community-engaged and social-justice-focused scholarship to address social determinants and health equity and promote reproductive health; emergency preparedness; and prevention of violence, cancer, and chronic and infectious diseases. 

During the course of the next year, Wray will provide consultation to the NCI as they continue to identify health communication research needs aimed at preventing and addressing climate-change-related illnesses and health emergencies. 

“I'm excited to be working with NCI because I think they will be open to a lot of different practices and approaches,” Wray said. ‘For example, cancer outcomes related to climate and health can be linked to increased exposure to pollutants with climate change. The increase of wildfires, weather disasters, things like that. There are concerns about disruption of care for cancer patients. It’s all very exciting and I’m ready to get to work with some of the brightest minds in all these fields for the next year.” 

Being relatively new to the world of environmental health, Wray is ready to get to work and start making contributions. Thankfully, he already sees similarities between environmental health and health communications, and is excited to continue to blend the two.

“Climate change and climate communication, as we say in public health, is really about shifting the curve,” Wray said. “And if there's any place where we need to shift the curve, it’s in climate change. We have to remain hopeful that we can make a difference. So hopefully my work as a Climate and Health Scholar can help leverage and contribute to that hope and can make a difference.”

  

New study suggests corporate culture thwarts efforts to hire innovative candidates

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT SOCIETY

Despite the rhetoric from CEOs about the importance of recruiting for innovation, entrepreneurs face an established hiring bias. According to a recent study in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, recruiters are 23 to 29% less likely to rank a former startup founder as a top candidate against their corporate executive peers. The authors demonstrated that recruiter characteristics can have a lot to do mitigating this bias, as does the size of a company.

The study, authored by Waverly Ding and Debra Shapiro, of the University of Maryland, and Hyeun Lee, of the University of Toronto, asked 275 managers with recruitment experience to choose a top candidate from four resumes: two listing company “founder” as the last-held position and two listing “executive.” The study’s recruiters were also asked the size of their organization and to indicate “How strongly have you considered stating your own company,” on a four-point scale.

“As a general trend, the higher the job recruiter’s own entrepreneurial aspiration, the less severe a penalty they assigned to a post-entrepreneur job candidate,” said Lee.

Why Does The Recruiter’s Aspirations Matter In Hiring Former Startup Founders?

Recruiters are the gateway to the job market: their evaluations determine if candidates even make it past the first stages of the hiring process. Their own perceptions are embedded in how they evaluate job applicants’ data, and those evaluations might be influenced by their knowledge of the startup market, entrepreneurial challenges, or how they view entrepreneurs.

There’s also the age-old similarity bias, which suggests that recruiters are much more likely to positively evaluate applicants whom they identify with. The study suggests that the more a recruiter identifies with candidates, the more they will gauge them as a cultural fit with their organization. This played out as entrepreneurs receiving higher ratings from 1) recruiters who could see themselves founding a company and 2) recruiters working at smaller businesses.

Why Company Size Matters When Recruiting Former Entrepreneurs

Startups are, by nature, small businesses. So, many of their cultural nuances would be more familiar for recruiters from smaller businesses, which might explain why entrepreneurially minded recruiters at these organizations see entrepreneurs more favorably. Some of the cultural similarities include:

• Smaller businesses allow recruiters a greater role in decisions. At larger companies, candidates need to meet more qualifications and be evaluated by more people.
• Entrepreneurs’ generalist skillsets tend to align better at smaller companies who might need coverage across multiple positions. Larger corporations typically have more job specialization.
• Both startups and small businesses are typically nimbler, less hierarchical, with more fluid cultures. Recruiters from larger corporations might evaluate entrepreneurs as a poor ‘cultural fit’ because of the organization’s greater rigidity and bureaucracy.

While the study data suggests smaller companies are more likely to hire former entrepreneurs (if the recruiter has an affiliation for entrepreneurship), it’s important to note that startup founders were still less hireable overall.

Why Are Companies Less Likely To Hire Entrepreneurs?

Multiple studies have found similar biases against former startup founders in the job market. Most explanations revolve around the uncertainties associated with evaluating a post-entrepreneur, including:

Start-up company names are less familiar: It’s harder for recruiters to gauge the quality of candidates’ experience, training, skills, and professional networks at an obscure startup. In comparison, they’ve likely worked with candidates from large, established corporations.

Founder positions have a sparser track record: Startups usually work in niche markets or on highly specific products. They aren’t launching new products or repeatedly performing the same tasks every quarter, which gives recruiters less data to evaluate their performance.

Corporate and entrepreneur skillsets are misaligned: Startup founders necessarily need to be generalists. But most positions in large corporations are highly specialized, which makes it harder for recruiters to match founder candidates’ skillsets to specific positions.

Recruiters question founders’ cultural fit: Entrepreneurs are known to prefer autonomy, independence, and fast decision-making, which can raise questions for recruiters about their ability to comply with policies and procedures in a corporate environment.

Former-entrepreneurs might be perceived as failures: Recruiters may think entrepreneurs founded ventures initially because they unable to find traditional employment, and/or they’re re-entering the job market because their ventures failed.

The authors conducted a second study to determine which of these aspects the entrepreneurial recruiters might be viewing more favorably in startup founders. They asked 325 undergraduate business majors to evaluate founder versus executive resumes for competence, leadership, impact, trustworthiness, commitment to the organization, and success, while measuring the evaluators’ entrepreneurial aspirations. Entrepreneurially oriented participants rated post-entrepreneur resumes more highly on competence, leadership, and impact.

“We were surprised, given the tendency for entrepreneurs re-entering the workforce to be stigmatized by presumed failure, that the success of post-entrepreneur applicants was rated no differently,” Shapiro said. “This finding bolsters our confidence in the ingroup bias-related explanation we provide for our primary study’s key finding — namely, that the penalty against post-entrepreneurs as job-candidates is weaker for recruiters who have entrepreneurial aspiration.”

The prevalence for recruiters to cite lack of cultural fit as a reason for not hiring entrepreneurs might be the key to unlocking the bias against them. While senior leaders might say they prioritize hiring for innovation and entrepreneurship, if their organization does not already have a culture that emphasizes these values, recruiters don’t have an incentive to hire for them. Building that affiliation in recruiters — and making them aware of inherent biases against entrepreneurs — might be the key to solving the hiring for innovation dilemma.

Find a full explanation of the study as well as the authors’ methods for creating objectively identical resumes and evaluating recruiter ratings in the full text, available in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal.

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JOURNAL

Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal

DOI

10.1002/sej.1479 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Are entrepreneurs penalized during job searches? It depends on who is hiring

Seconded employees provide more novel and innovative ideas, finds new research

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ESMT BERLIN

Despite the motivation to select new ideas, individuals and organizations often still reject or overlook them. These ideas can be difficult to understand, risky, and challenging as their inherent uncertainty makes it harder to predict reception and usage.

Linus Dahlander, professor of strategy and Lufthansa Group Chair in Innovation, ESMT Berlin, alongside researchers from Aarhus University, Warwick Business School, and Bocconi University, investigated whether seconded employees impact the selection of novel ideas.

In their research, they used information on secondary employees serving at the National Science Foundation (NSF) between 2000 and 2012 and retrieved information on grants awarded between 1998 and 2012. The NSF allocates research funds; programme directors send proposals for external review and then assemble and lead expert panels before making funding recommendations or decisions. The NSF also runs a secondment scheme in which permanent and seconded employees act as programme directors.

Measurement of novelty was based on how similar a grant was to previous grants of the same NSF programme. They also conducted 37 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with former seconded employees, permanent employees, as well as former panel members.

The researchers found that seconded employees choose more novel ideas and influence permanent staff to do the same. This suggests a simple intervention of leveraging seconded employees more often can significantly boost the acceptance of innovative ideas, offering valuable insights for those in science and innovation. Understanding this can empower managers to strategically engage with seconded employees, fostering a more innovative and adaptive organizational culture.

“We have uncovered that these employees do not just bring fresh ideas to the table; they promote learning spillovers within an organization, influencing permanent employees to select more novel ideas,” explains Linus Dahlander. “Cultivating an environment that encourages these learning spillovers can thus result in lasting effects after the seconded employee leaves.”

The efficacy of seconded employees in selecting novel ideas can vary greatly based on their understanding of innovative knowledge and the breadth of their external networks, suggesting that these are key factors for managers to consider when deciding whom to bring in.

This research was published in the Strategic Management Journal and can be viewed here.

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JOURNAL

Strategic Management Journal

DOI

10.1002/smj.3564 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The new needs friends: Simmelian strangers and the selection of novelty