D
Disclosure of Unavoidable Conflicts of Interest
The conflict-of-interest policy of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (https://www.nationalacademies.org/about/institutional-policies-and-procedures/conflict-of-interest-policies-and-procedures) prohibits the appointment of an individual to a committee like the one that authored this Consensus Study Report if the individual has a conflict of interest that is relevant to the task to be performed. An exception to this prohibition is permitted only if the National Academies determine that the conflict is unavoidable and the conflict is promptly and publicly disclosed.
When the committee that authored this report was established, a determination of whether there was a conflict of interest was made for each committee member given the individual’s circumstances and the task being undertaken by the committee. A determination that an individual has a conflict of interest is not an assessment of that individual’s actual behavior or character or ability to act objectively despite the conflicting interest.
Dr. Ashutosh Agarwal was determined to have a conflict of interest because of his patents related to microphysiological systems and his financial interests in Bio-Vitro LLC, a company that is commercializing organ-on-chip microfluidic devices that are amenable to large-scale manufacturing, with the goal of accelerating the development of disease models and novel therapeutics.
Dr. Szczepan Baran was determined to have a conflict of interest because of his employment as chief scientific officer at VeriSIM Life, a company that is commercializing an artificial intelligence–enabled platform for biosimulations to predict clinical outcomes and improve drug-related research and development.
Dr. Guo-li Ming was determined to have a conflict of interest because of her financial interests in 3Dnamics, a biotechnology company that generates disease-specific organoid models for preclinical drug screening and efficacy/toxicity testing.
In each case, the National Academies determined that the experience and expertise of the individual was needed for the committee to accomplish the task for which it was established. The National Academies could not find other available individuals who had the
equivalent experience and expertise and did not have a conflict of interest. Therefore, the National Academies concluded that the conflicts were unavoidable and publicly disclosed them on its website (www.nationalacademies.org).
