I once made a phage display library. The CEO of the company had a narrative he wanted to push. We find a peptide that binds to a protein and we can deliver drugs to specific targets. Making the library was in the realm of complicated. It required a background in many laboratory techniques but most people should be capable of learning how it is done. The narrative on the other hand required a Cargo Cult Scientist.
After my cohorts and I had been sacked the Cargo Cult Scientists set themselves to work. They published a paper. They patented the library and the idea behind it. They sent the library to a professor in a far away land who reported back that everything was going well. Nothing specific was ever reported but the company renewed the professors contract and sent out a press release stating that all was going according to plan.
Then the company failed. The CEO had been fired. The President of the company had been sent forth to sell the narrative. I last saw him on a stage presenting our research. He knew they fired the technicians. The whole idea failed to produce results but the narrative still had legs. The Presidents voice faltered as he told the tale. No one believed the technology was going to work. What magical pixy dust was being sprinkled on the phage display library in that far off land by the esteemed college professor?
The President seemed to disappear. I hoped he hadn't done anything rash. He was a good person. His involvement with the Cargo Cults of Biotech had put him in a tight spot. What was his future?
Fast forward. The Chief Scientific Officer under the CEO and President had moved on to a new Cargo Cult selling a similar narrative. This company specialized in drug deliver systems. The former President now needed a job and was hired to push the narrative of the new company. He was hired in 2016. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2018. They were purchased for less than my old Seattle house sold for recently.
In the word "Biotechnology" is technology. It is not science to produce or discover molecules that bind to other molecules. There are technologies such as phage display that one can use to find such molecules. Technology is real. Phage Display can find you a peptide that binds to a protein. Then what?
That is the point where most technologists lose their jobs. THEY are supposed to now make the technology fit the narrative. The narrative is the purview of the PhD. The narrative is what the C-level executives are selling.
