Published on 07/09/2023
Back in 2015, when the protease platform under the leadership of Joerg Eder was discontinued due to a strategic research shift within the discovery unit of Novartis, his team found a new home in the Immunology department run by Christian Bruns. While the step was a seeming setback, Eder’s team could not have wished for a better place to continue their work.
The Immunology department was not only a fitting place for some key molecules that Eder had been working on for several years. Bruns was the ideal leader, supporting the team and providing space to work on innovative molecules, which inhibit a disease pathway in a vital part of the immune system, the so-called complement system.
“My role was to provide space and actively support research approaches that allowed us to fully explore and develop novel concepts for treating complement-mediated diseases,” Bruns said when thinking back to the time when Eder and his colleagues joined the Immunology Team, which consists of more than 200 scientists. “For me, a guiding principle was to follow the exciting science and to actively support Joerg’s team and help them take calculated risks. This allowed them to move forward as fast as possible and enabled a seamless transition along the drug development path. It’s a strategy I was trying to follow and support throughout my career.”
One of the molecules developed by Eder's team had shown early breakthrough potential given its ability to interfere with the notoriously complex complement system – a first line of defense in the body’s immune response. Another characteristic of the compound was its ability to be considered for treating a variety of different diseases.
“The fact that the molecule showed effectiveness in several diseases was very exciting, but sometimes also challenging. We had to bring together different expert teams across the organization,” Bruns said. “Therefore, my task was to help, guide and actively support the creation and effective work of a larger team of different disease area and line function experts.”
Bruns said that despite the challenges, the collaborative efforts went smoothly because all players believed in the transformative potential of the compound: “It was just like riding a wave, as everybody was so motivated to make the molecule available quickly to patients in need.”
The concerted, cross-functional efforts not only helped expedite the molecule into the clinic, but also helped establish significant support within the organization to continue novel research approaches in this area. “This success really made us start to think about novel, innovative approaches to interfere with different nodes in the complement pathway and to broaden the therapeutic scope to several other important diseases,” he said.
While Bruns is very excited about the scientific journey within the immunology disease area, he himself will wind down later this year after more than 36 years with the company, which saw him start out as a post-doc in the Endocrinology department and move through the ranks until he became responsible for the Immunology unit.
Looking back, Bruns has no regrets and said that during most of his career in science – a fascination that started very early in his life – he never struggled with his own motivation, nor that of his colleagues. To the contrary – especially as a leader – the hardest part was to navigate the continually high degree of passion and energy of his teams.
“The biggest challenge has never been that we did not achieve all our scientific goals. It was more the fact that, from time to time, you have to manage changes in direction and strategy, and need to decide, together with the respective project teams, on prioritizing selected projects versus others, which sometimes can be a drag,” Bruns explained.
In such conversations, Bruns added, one aims for transparent, science- and strategy-driven decision-making. These, he conceded, can be challenging conversations. But on the other hand, as he specified, such discussions allow teams to stay focused on prioritized projects for patients in need.
“The rest – in the majority of cases – is riding the wave of scientific inquiry,” Bruns said – a ride he and his colleagues truly enjoy, also when working on complex projects such as the complement system inhibitor molecules.
