Bloomberg Profile ¹⁾ CEO/Co-Founder - Orig3n Inc - PRESENT Global Head:R&D - Perkin Elmer Inc - FORMER

BioInformant.com by Cade Hildreth

Recently, I had the honor of interviewing Robin Smith, CEO of ORIG3N, a company which has created the world’s largest blood cell repository. ORIG3N is using these blood cells to produce patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), allowing the cells to be ever-renewing and giving rise to a living database of humanity known as LifeCapsule.

The company also has two other business segments, called LifeProfile and LifeSystems. In this interview, we explore the beginnings of ORIG3N, as well as its creation of the world’s largest blood cell repository, genetic testing business, and future trajectory as a company.

I have an unusual background and history. My father was in the Air Force, and I was born in Korea. My mother is Korean and my father is American, so every three years of my life I ended up moving to a new place and having to learn new things and meet new people. When you have that background, the life of an entrepreneur is not much different.

I sold my last company to PerkinElmer and thought that would kind of be it. It was a tremendous opportunity to drive large scale innovation with a storied American research firm. At that time, I was working at PerkinElmer and was heading up their R&D group, and then my father got diagnosed with lung cancer. Because I was in a military family, I grew up in a different socioeconomic class than I am now. Today, I live in Boston, run a biotech company, and live downtown. I have a different lifestyle than my family when I was growing up, who now live in eastern North Carolina. When I went down to spent time with my dad at the hospital, I felt like I had walked into 1940 or 1950. ²⁾