One of the things that made many scientists in the 1980s and 1990s resistant to involvement in biotech ventures was the perception that it didn’t fit with the image of the disinterested researcher who was motivated only by the desire for knowledge. But all kinds of motives can lead scientists to move into areas of research that are of interest to pharmaceutical companies. The prospect of more research funding, recognition for achievements, and so on. Chemist Glenn Prestwich, who directed Stony Brook’s Center for Biotechnology in the 1990s and who had formerly worked on the chemistry of insect biology, describes his own thinking: “I wanted to do something to shift into human medicine because that’s where the money was, and that’s where I could publish in higher-reputation journals. I was doing some pretty novel stuff and it was buried in these insect journals. There was a lot of selfish narcissism in there, but the creativity wasn’t being recognized and rewarded in the insect world by the people who were picking it up.”
