Michael Kinch

Michael S. Kinch grew up in Hamilton, Ohio; a setting made notorious in J.D. Vance's "Hilbilly Elegy". After undergraduate studies at The Ohio State University, a Ph.D. in immunology at Duke University and postdoctoral studies at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, he began an independent research program to study breast and prostate cancers at Purdue University. In 2001, Michael founded cancer research at MedImmune, an upstart biotechnology company destined to become an industry leader. He later led R&D to develop medicines to treat Ebola virus, pandemic influenza and other bio-terrorism agents. In 2010, Michael was recruited to lead drug discovery at Yale University, where he began to research the history of the pharmaceutical industry, which culminated in his first book, "A Prescription for Change" (UNC Press; 2016). Since 2014, Michael has been helping promote innovation and entrepreneurship at Washington University in St Louis, where he leads the Centers for Research Innovation in Biotechnology and Drug Discovery. His second book, "Between Hope and Fear" (Pegasus Books; 2018), conveys a history of vaccines and the rise of anti-vaccine movements. A third book, "End of the Beginning" (Pegasus Book; Spring 2019), provides an approachable overview of new breakthrough immune therapies for cancer that could presage the imminent eradication of the disease.