7 ways collaboration drives progress in the war against autoimmune diseases

Who knew that collaboration is revolutionary?  Every organization says they collaborate, right?

But leaders at Praespero identified an opportunity in the autoimmune research science community for more capital “C” Collaboration.

“To find a cure for autoimmune diseases, we need more interaction across disciplines, across universities, across labs and borders,” explains Praespero founder Laurie Venning. “These are all entities at the vanguard of discovery, but they are traditionally in competition with one another.”

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease himself, Laurie founded Praespero with a mission to facilitate innovation, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary research that would lead to the root causes of autoimmune disease. 

Today, the Praespero Summit is a template for removing barriers to collaboration in highly competitive sectors, such as in the Research & Development space. With an aim to bring the world’s leading experts in immunology research together, each year Praespero introduces more ways to remove barriers to collaboration.

“This sets the stage for new insights and projects that wouldn’t otherwise happen in the cut-throat world of biomedical research,” said Laurie.

“We found the more freedom, safety, camaraderie and healthy debate you can enable for people in this research space, the more we can advance the discoveries that will lead to a cure.”

During the Summit, Praespero attendees spent time workshopping ways and methods that enhance collaboration in forums like the Praespero Summit and beyond.

Out of those and other discussions arose 7 key factors for collaboration that business thought leaders can take to their own enterprises. 

1) Set the tone. Loosen the grip on ideas.

Tone-setting is just one way the Praespero Summit set the stage for a productive three days of knowledge sharing.

“There’s a part of your brain, this incredible neural playground, that is wired to generate ideas,” wrote Praespero Director Whitney Dueck, in a tone-setting email for the 2024 Praespero Summit.

“If you reward that part, it grows,” Whitney continued. “If you give away your ideas and you get positive feedback from others, that well of ideas will deepen and broaden.”

Whitney noted that too often we clutch our ideas like they're the last life raft on the Titanic.

“‘This is mine! I'll be first author on the paper, no one is stealing my idea!’ Too often that kind of hoarding leaves you high and dry, with no new ideas, clutching onto old ones like they're going out of style.”

Whitney shared a story with Summit participants about a researcher who was known and loved for how he freely shared knowledge in his lab. “He threw ideas around like confetti at a victory parade…Because when you share your ideas, you don't diminish what you have; you amplify it.”

2) Create a dome of safety

It’s one thing to encourage collaboration. But it’s another thing to create space for it. And in the competitive world of R&D, building trust is a hard-fought battle that doesn’t come without providing safety.

Praespero leaders ensure all presentations and discussions are unrecorded and actively cultivate a culture of trust and confidentiality.

“It’s a safe space to share your unpublished data,” said 2022 Praespero Innovation Award Recipient Rana Herro, PhD. She noted that many participants, upon being exposed to new information, commonly move on to collaborate with other scientists they meet through Praespero events. 

Over the years many participants like Rana have picked up on simple things people can do to avoid common barriers to working together, like fear of idea theft or recognition dilution.

“You set clear rules and boundaries and define your objectives in advance of any collaborative initiative that might arise from panels and group discussions.”

Another way that Praespero creates safety is through no-strings-attached research funding to those presenters at the conference selected for the Innovation Awards. “We don’t push an agenda,” said Laurie, benefactor of Praespero Innovation Awards. “We encourage those we fund to be open minded and attached to nothing. This gives them the safety and freedom to explore.”

3) Be intentional about size and connection

“You don’t necessary daydream solo,” added Jeffrey Hubbell, Vice President of NYU's Science and Tech Initiative. Jeffrey believes the Summit’s intimate size is conducive for fruitful discussion. “You can bat about ideas which is an important part of the creative process we need as scientists.”

“It’s those side-discussions where some of the magic happens,” added Prof Daniel Gray out of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia.  “In large conferences you might see people in the hallways, but you have to be really intentional about the scientists you want to interact with so you don’t get lost in the crowd. This conference has that critical mass of people, small enough to share ideas, but not so large that it becomes difficult to get to know people.”

“A lot of science meetings are huge and you don’t get to see or hear most of what’s going on,” said Pete Pioli Assistant Professor Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine.  “Here with 45 people, we’re around each other for a few days straight; it’s inevitable that you get to bounce ideas off each other.”

“With the small group networkings that we get to develop, I’ve had interactions with people that have led to great collaboration opportunities,” said Lisa Osborn, Associate Professor out of UBC. "Even though they are potentially relatively small movements forward, it’s great knowing that this is expanding my network such that I have people I can go to get expertise when I have a particular question  that allows me to move in different directions and expand my expertise beyond what I already had.”

4) Remove echo-chambers and egos

Removing the echo chamber of ideas requires participants from multiple disciplines bringing in new avenues of inquiry.

“It’s not the same as other conferences,” said Liam O’Neil, Assistant Professor of internal Medicine at Max Rady College of Medicine. “Often you plug into the same networks, but this conference introduces a higher chance of hearing ideas and findings you haven’t heard before. It uniquely expands the lens of inquiry, not so far that the subject matters become too broad for practical application, but just broad enough to bring in new information that participants wouldn’t otherwise encounter.”

“Praespero brings together a diversity of disciplines,” added Jeffrey Hubbell (referenced earlier) who was invited by Praespero to apply for an Innovation Award and present his research. “I’m meeting people who are hardcore immunologists, practicing rheumatologists, people who are researchers and PhDs, like me, an Engineer.”

He observed that the simple act of presenting his work at the Summit introduced an array of additional ideas to consider as participants reacted to his findings. “I think that this is the creative milieu - you're sharing your results not to beat your chest, but to learn from each other.”

5) Promote debate and feedback.

Having established a baseline of camaraderie and safety from previous years of gatherings, Praespero recognized their community of scientists was ready for more intentional debate and discussion.

Unlike previous years where these conversations traditionally centred around specific presentations, the 2024 Praespero Summit featured a panel discussion component exploring a broader set of hot button topics relevant to immunology medicine. 

“Asking the hard questions is what moves science forward,” said award-winning immunologist Hilde Cheroutre who sits on Praespero’s Scientific Advisory Board. “The panel discussions were very stimulating. We had a few passionate moments, but these are different ideas coming together in a productive way. There were some real questions that needed to be answered. Challenging each other helps to make the knowledge better.”

6) Bring the right mix of experience

Praespero Summits encourage a continual flow of new blood, new experts and new up-and-coming participants from a diversity of experience levels. 

“Science is not done by robots in a vacuum, it's done by individuals of all levels that interact with one another,” said 2023 Innovation Award Recipient Dean Tantin, Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology (University of Utah). “The summit is a very supportive environment attended by senior and junior scientists. There are people I didn't know before I started coming, who I know well today, and that kind of networking is invaluable.”

This year’s Summit saw several veteran researchers at Praespero bringing along apprentices and students from their labs.

“This meeting was very inspirational for me,” said Ylva Carlen, an immunology student from Switzerland University of Zurich who was sponsored by Praespero to conduct a work term in Hilde’s lab. “The people here are all so captivated and passionate about their work. It inspires you to keep take your career to the next level.”

Having just started her own lab, Olga Rojas sees knowledge sharing as critical to growth.

“For new scientists we grow when we can share ideas and get feedback,” said Olga Rojas, an innovation award finalist this year. “When we meet with other scientists in a friendly and collegial environment, there are more opportunities to be introduced to new knowledge, or a new research paper that links to your work.”

Some participants noted that Praespero helps them grow a team of experts. “For early career researchers, if you’re submitting for a big grant, strategically you want to bring someone on with great experience,” noted Richard Ainsworth, Research Scientist at Cedars Sinai. “And I can’t think of someone from Praespero that would not provide a recommendation letter.” 

7) Make it fun. Make it family.

Keeping it enjoyable is one of Saul Alinsky’s 12 rules for radicals. It applies to the act of collaborating, which is radical in the competitive world of R&D.

At the 2024 Praespero summit, 13 presentations were embedded in three days of great food, social gatherings, laughter and camaraderie.

“You come to a conference and you're here with family,” said Adam Buntzman, Research Assistant Professor at BIO5 Institute of the University of Arizona. “The Praesepero organization cares about you as a person, it cares about the work that you're doing and it cares about bringing together people so that synergies can be expanded upon.”

For example, one participant, who remained nameless during one of the workshops, noted that their lab once made a discovery using imagery techniques. “Another group here at Praespero published a similar study with a different approach but found the same thing,” he/she said. “Because we had made the same discovery, we were able to combine forces.”

This was just one illustration of how a small gathering can help diverse experts get to the brass tax of collaboration - sharing ideas, sharing tools, sharing mouse models or new methods of advocacy and best practices.

In the end, Adam noted, what happens when participants collaborate during and after a Praespero Summit has the potential to change the trajectory of immunology science and lives impacted by autoimmune diseases.

“This is the only institution I know of that you just you can walk up to somebody doing something great in their field and ask them to be involved. It's easy to reach out to other people at Praespero. Just email them and talk about an opportunity that you possibly can't do alone.”

Help us level up the science!

Together we can level up the science of autoimmune disease research by funding collaborative events like the Praespero Summit, or supporting exciting projects that are moving the needle in finding a cure.

Visit praespero.org/donate to donate or reach out about becoming a regular patron of this important work.