As we celebrate Nimbus’ 15th anniversary, I find myself looking back on our journey with pride and excitement for what lies ahead. It’s been an incredible ride, filled with groundbreaking science, exceptional people, and a relentless pursuit of breakthrough medicines for patients.

Our Origin Story
When I joined Nimbus 10 years ago, I was drawn by two key factors: the science and the people. Scientifically, we were doing something unheard of — a computational-first approach to drug discovery. We pioneered a physics-based computational method that began in early discovery and has since moved into clinical applications. While many companies now use AI and machine learning for predictions, we were at the forefront, using computational power that the universe had never seen before.

But it wasn’t just the science that attracted me. The caliber of people at Nimbus was, and continues to be, extraordinary. We’ve assembled a team of world-class drug discovery experts who are not only brilliant in their fields but also incredibly curious and adaptable.

Evolving While Staying True to Our Roots
Over the past 15 years, Nimbus has grown and changed in many ways, but our core DNA remains the same. We’re a science-first, patient-focused, values-guided biotech. Unlike many biotechs that organize around specific therapeutic areas, we follow great science wherever it leads us.

The inherent curiosity of this approach has allowed us to journey through many therapeutic areas and conduct clinical research across multiple indications, including diabetes, cancer, psoriasis, arthritis, and fatty liver disease. Then in 2015, we became known as a liver company, focusing on diseases like NASH (now MASH). Fast forward a couple of years, and we were working with Takeda on a drug for psoriasis. Today, we have lead programs in cancer and other areas.

Through all these changes, our commitment to being “science first” has not wavered. We’ve also remained steadfast in our patient focus. When I joined Nimbus, we made a conscious shift to become a company that makes medicines, not just a discovery platform company. In 2015, we changed our name to Nimbus Therapeutics to reflect this mission. Every investment we make in our technology or platform is in service of developing programs designed to make medicines for patients.

Adapting to Change: The Nimbus Way
Staying flexible and following the science is one of our greatest advantages and a large contributor to Nimbus’ relative longevity as an R&D stage biotech. That flexibility inherently creates one of our biggest challenges: adapting to changing priorities as we follow the science. To stay competitive, we need to be world-class in any area we play, which requires quickly going from broad to deep in our science. We’ve developed a Nimbus way for doing this.

The first element is to hire a great core of scientists and clinicians who are innately curious, lifelong learners, and excited by exploring new areas. We really care about curiosity – how willing are our people to branch out and explore new areas? This mindset has allowed us to make incredible discoveries in one area and then pivot to another, always staying at the cutting edge of drug discovery.

We have a saying here at Nimbus: “Like the program, love the pipeline.” This philosophy helps our team adapt to change, recognizing that priorities might shift as we pursue the best science and most promising opportunities for patients. We’re all in this to make medicines for patients, and that overarching goal keeps us focused and united through changes.

The second element is to stay humble and ask for help. Nimbus (and our employees, the Nimbi) are experts in reaching out to academics and other experts in the industry, and we quickly begin to work with world renowned experts in whichever field we go deep. Drug discovery and development is the ultimate team sport. We ensure new collaborators feel welcome. They are just as much Nimbi as an employee is. In fact, Nimbus’ history is full of many part time consultants who have ultimately become employee Nimbi. Creating a community like this also means celebrating those who depart Nimbus. Our alumni are an immense source of pride for Nimbus. They have gone on to found and lead other biotech companies, take leadership roles in major organizations, and continue our industry’s mission to help patients.

Achievements to Celebrate
When you walk into the common area of Nimbus’ Boston Seaport offices, you’ll see a series of pennants, much like sports pennants you might see celebrating championships. Each of our pennants represents the first-in-human dosing of medicines we’ve designed at Nimbus. These achievements are what it’s all about – breakthrough medicines for patients with precision small molecule design.

While Nimbus is often recognized for our successful deals and financial achievements, it’s really all about the medicines. The fact that all of our designed medicines continue to progress today in patients is a phenomenal achievement and a source of pride for everyone at Nimbus. Such a track record of clinical success, I believe, is a direct consequences of tough decisions preclinically. Said simply, we fail. A lot. In the six and a half years between Nimbus’ two acquisitions, we killed 70% of the programs in our pipeline preclinically. Curiosity must go hand in hand with truth seeking.

We are always in the business of accelerating answers at Nimbus. Asking the killer question, and when a program doesn’t represent the same process or possess too much risk, we will terminate the program — and then celebrate it! Most programs in R&D fail, we learn so much from these failures, and celebrate a team that asked a great question, killed a program, and allowed us to use our precious time and resources on another possible medicine for patients.

Culture as Our Cornerstone
At Nimbus, we view culture as an exceptionally important part of who we are. We’re knowledge workers — a bunch of experts working together to produce more than the sum of our parts. This requires a deliberate culture. We make it a point to regularly discuss and shape our culture. It’s not just a byproduct of our work; it’s an essential focus that’s regularly on our agenda.

Our business of R&D is a long process, and we are constantly evolving as an organization. A culture is created by the set of people at an organization, and because people change the culture evolves. The only way we can maintain this cornerstone of culture is to constantly re-examine it, and when there is a concern that our North Star or behaviors have shifted, we gather to realign everyone in the organization. This deliberate focus on culture has allowed Nimbus to adapt and thrive through various changes and challenges.

Looking to the Future
As we celebrate 15 years of Nimbus, I’m incredibly excited about what lies ahead. We’re becoming an even more powerful R&D organization, with impact beyond our history and medicines. I see an opportunity for Nimbus to join the pantheon of great R&D organizations – like Genentech, Biogen, Genzyme, or Vertex – known not just for great drugs, but for the high caliber of their people and their lasting impact on the field of drug discovery and development.

As we look forward to our 30th anniversary and beyond, we remain committed to our core values: following great science, focusing on patients, and continuously adapting to push the boundaries of what’s possible in drug discovery and development. I’m immensely proud of what we’ve accomplished in these 15 years, and I’m even more excited about what the future holds.