V. Alex Brennen's
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I'm attempting to increase the viscosity in, and the speed and range of, the flow of information. It is my hope that this will allow for faster progression in areas of medical research which will yield a reduction in human suffering.

During a very formative time in my life, my early 20's, I was working for a pediatric cancer research group at the University of Florida, COG. During my employment I had a discussion with the group's Principal Investigator, Dr. Jonathan Shuster, about the funding of HIV research in the early 90's and why significant inflows of capital had failed to produce medically significant innovations. We discussed the impact of fiscal capital on COG and the role of human capital. These discussions launched a chain of thought that has preoccupied many years of my life - What was needed to drive the innovation everyone was seeking? What had driven it when it had occurred in the past?

I believe there are three key factors that prime and set an environment for advancement by a talented researcher. Those factors are the availability of base information to build upon, prolithic interaction with other researchers working on the same or similar problems, and a promotion of the focus of the researcher.

One of the ways I am interested in attempting to drive innovation is through wildly novel funding models. For that reason, I'm currently working on creating The Brennen Fund.