Business Women Awards 2019 | HONOREE
Patrice Milos, Medley Genomics
PATRICE MILOS, president and CEO of Providence startup Medley Genomics, is no stranger to Rhode Island. Although she’s lived here since 1989, until a few years ago she had never worked in Rhode Island.
Previously, Milos had been commuting from her home in Cranston to Claritas Genomics in Cambridge, Mass., a now-defunct genetic diagnostics lab spun out of Boston Children’s Hospital.
Before that, the New York-born Milos headed up the Boston site for Pfizer Inc.’s Centers of Therapeutic Innovation, where she led partnerships between academic institutions and medical centers. Other positions at Pfizer and Helicos BioSciences allowed her to explore new opportunities in genomics and medicine.
But the Ocean State – where Milos has founded Medley Genomics, raised seed money and achieved an exclusive license with Brown University – is a great place for this kind of innovation, she said.
“[Gov. Gina M. Raimondo] really understands life sciences and what kind of innovation economy could be here,” she said.
In addition to now being an opportune time for Medley Genomics’ brand of innovation – developing genomic-analysis tools to decipher the highly individual layers of data in biological conditions such as cancer as part of developing targeted treatment – it’s a good time for women in the field, Milos said.
She’s seen improvement in diversity. The number of industry women in science with Ph.D.s has increased, particularly over the past few years.
“Maybe it’s driven by business needs, particularly in the last few years as goals and strategies have emerged, this ability to attract and retain talent, regardless of race, gender, culture, sexual orientation,” Milos said. “Companies are measuring metrics more, so we’re off to a good start.”
Milos is married to Curt Spalding, former regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and former longtime executive director of Save The Bay. Spalding is now a Brown University professor, and their son and daughter are now in law school and medical school, respectively.
Like the partnership with her husband allowing them both to accomplish more, Milos sees benefits of partnerships in her industry. Developing new, innovative approaches to diseases by forming partnerships with academic medical centers, such as the pairing of Medley Genomics and Brown, are the way of the future.
“It’s all about alignment with a company strategy, and does it fit or not. What’s the benefit to each entity, and how does that fit within a portfolio?” she said.
With Milos at the helm, Medley Genomics has had its share of good news.
It won the grand prize in the Pistoia Alliance President’s Challenge in 2017, which included $20,000, mentorship, as well as research and development resources. In 2018, the company was picked over 200 startups as one of nine companies to participate in the Philips HealthWorks Startup Program, focused on oncology. In May 2018, it was awarded Phase 1 funding in the form of a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute for $299,670. The grant will support Medley Genomics’ software platform to customize treatment based on the unique ecosystem of a cancer patient’s tumor.
“My passion is seeing more women in the field,” said Milos. “We really can offer the potential for diversity in the [science, technology, engineering and math] fields.”
