Quin Wills

CHALLENGING THE NORM. Quin Wills remembers vividly the defining moments of his childhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. Growing up gay during apartheid in a less affluent neighborhood, he quickly learned to question what society deemed ‘normal.’ This perspective, coupled with a love for people and science, shaped his journey into the world of biotechnology. “I learned early on that just because everyone believes something doesn’t mean it’s right,” Quin reflects.

Raised on the south side of Johannesburg, Quin witnessed the harsh realities of life in South Africa’s impoverished communities, including rampant alcoholism, which brought him to his first passion—the liver. He developed a deep fascination with how societal influences interact with biology, resulting in chronic disease. This curiosity eventually led him to co-found Ochre Bio, a company dedicated to developing RNA therapies for chronic liver diseases using genomics.

Quin’s academic journey cultivated his second passion—big human data. His first two degrees were in medicine and genetics, completed just before the groundbreaking Human Genome Project in 2002, a transformative event that inspired him to move to the UK. “The Human Genome Project gave us the incredible idea that we can now digitize biology,” Quin recalls. This enthusiasm led him to earn three further degrees in mathematics and computational biology from Cambridge, and Oxford universities, including a PhD in systems genomics.

Despite his impressive academic achievements, Quin’s career path was far from linear. He bounced around between the UK and the US, gaining diverse experiences, including a stint at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. During his PhD, he co-founded his first company, SimuGen, which focused on combining genomics with high-content screening to predict drug toxicity in the liver. “I made a complete mess of several things, like many first-time founders,” Quin admits.

After establishing and leading the advanced genomics department at Novo Nordisk, Quin’s frustration with the slow pace of innovation in chronic liver disease treatment led him to establish Ochre Bio. The mission was clear: generate actionable human data, validate it properly in human models, and run better clinical trials. “As scientists, we don’t yet have a good handle on generating causal, actionable human data at an early discovery level, and we still validate results in mice, which don’t accurately predict human diseases,” Quin explains.

Ochre Bio aims to address these issues head-on. Ochre Bio has set up labs globally to chase this vision, including dedicated “x-lab” projects within these as a space where scientists are empowered to take risks. This initiative has already yielded significant results, highlighting the importance of fostering innovation in a high-failure environment. Quin emphasizes the need for a culture that embraces risk and quick learning. “Our first law is to think big and not fear failure. Our second law is to learn quickly from failure and move on,” he says.

EMBRACING DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE. Quin admits that being a queer founder in the conservative field of medical sciences has brought distinct challenges. “Boardrooms are still dominated by a certain phenotype, which is intimidating,” he shares. This experience underscored the importance of diversity in building a company. At Ochre Bio, diversity at junior and senior levels is prioritized to inspire the next generation of leaders.

Reflecting on his founder journey so far, Quin offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs that is simple but often forgotten. “People are everything in a company. Make sure you get that right and understand who you are, your latent biases, and how you think about the world,” he advises.

Looking ahead, Quin is excited about the future of chronic disease research and Ochre Bio’s role in it. With the research and investment pendulum swinging back towards chronic diseases, he sees immense innovation potential. “Over the next two to three years, we’re taking on ambitious projects like regenerating human livers and reversing cirrhosis. I’m excited to see where this journey takes us.”