An Enterprising Biotechnologist
After spilling liquid nitrogen while freezing off a patient's wart, John Dobak saw a need for a self-contained cryosurgery system that protected its chilled contents. He became an entrepreneur and based his first company, Cryogen, on this idea; soon after, he founded ­InnerCool Therapies, which specializes in cardiac and stroke treatments. "I try to understand where the big problems are, where there are unmet clinical needs, and then determine if there's a way to make an advancement," he says.

To help meet the needs he identifies, he cofounded the Jakk Group, an "accelerator" company that uses a broad network of resources, such as labs, engineers, and manufacturers, to advance ideas for new technologies to the proof-of-principle stage. The Jakk Group then builds a company around the concept or sells or licenses the rights to it. Current projects include a new heart catheter that employs a microelectro­mechanical sensor to improve patient response to cardiac resynchronization therapy. The device not only stabilizes the heart's rhythm but also reports information about cardiac contractions back to the physician. Though this is not yet at the clinical stage, the company has another therapy--for obesity--in phase I clinical trials.