Healthier America: ARPA-H and the Return on Investment for the American People

In this episode of Innovate and Elevate, Sharon Kedar is joined by Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a government agency designed to drive high-impact health innovations.

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Episode Outline
(01:50) How the US Government Drives Innovation
(04:01) The Return on Investment to Americans
(09:27) ARPA-H Programs and Funding
(12:42) How To Work with ARPA-H
(15:28) The Audacity to Imagine Success
(18:59) Improving Research and the Standard of Care
(21:40) Women’s Health Innovation
(26:45) Beyond Conversation: Embracing Data-Driven Solutions

Appointed by President Biden in 2022, Dr. Wegrzyn shares her deep experience in both synthetic biology and biosecurity, drawing from her work at DARPA, IARPA, and Ginkgo Bioworks.

The conversation dives into the unique role of government in fostering breakthrough technologies, emphasizing ARPA-H’s mission to transform health outcomes. Dr. Wegrzyn explains how ARPA-H takes on ambitious, high-risk projects with the potential to revolutionize healthcare, much like DARPA’s past successes in defense technologies, such as the early development of mRNA technology.

Dr. Wegrzyn highlights ARPA-H’s approach to maximizing the return on investment for American taxpayers by focusing on scalable, impactful solutions that can transition to the private sector. She walks listeners through transformative projects, including NITRO, GLIDE, ADAPT, and POSEIDON.

ARPA-H has a unique Program Management structure, which provides hands-on mentorship and support to ARPA-H grantees. Dr. Wegrzyn identifies how the partnership helps innovators address cost, accessibility, and user experience in health innovations. Sharon and Dr. Wegrzyn also discuss the ARPA-H’s Sprint for Women's Health and how the funding opportunity addresses critical unmet challenges in the women’s health sector.

Guest Bio
Dr. Renee Wegrzyn is the Inaugural Director of Advanced Research Projects for Health (ARPA-H) as appointed by President Joseph R. Biden. Dr. Wegrzyn comes to ARPA-H with experience working for two of the institutions that inspired the creation of the agency – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). Dr. Wegrzyn received the Superior Public Service Medal for her work and contributions at DARPA. Previously, Dr. Wegrzyn served as a Vice President of Business Development at Ginkgo Bioworks and Head of Innovation at Concentric by Ginkgo, where she focused on applying synthetic biology to outpace infectious diseases – including COVID-19 – through biomanufacturing, vaccine innovation, and biosurveillance of pathogens at scale.

Connect with Sharon
Connect with Sharon on LinkedIn:   / sharonkedar  
Learn more about Innovate and Elevate: https://www.innovateandelevatepodcast...
Subscribe to Innovate and Elevate on YouTube:    / @sharon_kedar  

Connect with Renee Wegrzyn
Follow Renee LinkedIn:   / renee-wegrzyn-ba00643  
Learn more on the ARPA-H website: https://arpa-h.gov/about/people/renee...

Additional Resources
Subscribe to the ARPA-H Vitals newsletter: https://engage.arpa-h.gov/arpa-h-vita...
Full list of ARPA-H programs: https://arpa-h.gov/research-and-fundi...
The hidden questions behind the Heilmeir Questions: https://arpa-h.gov/sites/default/file...
The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research: https://www.whitehouse.gov/white-hous...

About the Podcast
Behind every pioneering idea, method, and device is a fellow human or humans. A trailblazer who is daring enough to ask the questions that push the boundaries and make the impossible... possible. Host Sharon Kedar, MBA, CFA, talks with these change agents on the Innovate and Elevate podcast. In each episode, you hear from top doctors, scientists, leaders, and innovators on how they are trailblazing within the world at large and within their own lives.

Credits
This podcast is produced by the women at The Wave Editing: https://www.thewavepodcasting.com/

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