Thurston, the founder of Sonic Air, is fascinated with quickly getting from one place to another, whether that means people, packages or ideas.

“It became our culture of constant quality improvement,’’ Thurston said of the Scottsdale-based specialty nationwide air-courier business he ran for nearly two decades.

Sonic Air’s success didn’t go unnoticed. In 1995, package delivery giant United Parcel Services purchased Sonic Air, and retained Thurston for a time to instill that same operational efficiency as CEO of the UPS Logistics Group. Today, TGen benefits from Thurston’s penchant for operational efficiency.

In 2006, Thurston committed $3 million over three years to a trio of breast cancer research projects. The results produced $5 million worth of research and saved time in the process. And with another commitment this year of an additional $3 million over 3 years, TGen will apply Thurston’s techniques to its many bioinformatics and operational functions.

“Our bioinformatics capacity is constantly increasing as the technologies grow more powerful. It’s amazing how much information is processed,’’ said Tess Burleson, TGen’s Chief Operating Officer.

Dubbed the “Thurston Project,’’ this latest endeavor is as much an intellectual as a capital endowment that, long-term, will impact standardized operating procedures by influencing research methodology as well as training and career development.

“At TGen, Ray’s name is synonymous with reducing costs while increasing efficiency in all that we do,’’ Burleson said. “He has funded a project to help embed that thinking into our culture at TGen, not just for informatics, but operationally. How do we become more operationally efficient, so we can focus most of our dollars on science.’’

Thurston’s relationship with TGen began in 2003 after hearing Dr. Jeffrey Trent, TGen’s President and Research Director, speak about the importance of shrinking the amount of time needed to conduct research and drug testing so new therapies could be applied as quickly as possible to patients.

Thurston, following a trend in recent years by philanthropists seeking greater influence over the direction their charitable dollars take, offered TGen a sizeable donation if they were willing to listen to his ideas about becoming more efficient. TGen leadership embraced the concept, going so far as to invite Thurston to work with the researchers to establish a series of accelerated deadlines.

Adding Better Processes to inquiries

“I found it extremely rewarding to work with Ray. He didn’t at all dictate my research. He focused on the infrastructure and logistics to make the research go faster – and therefore save significant dollars,” said Dr. Heather Cunliffe, who headed three inter-related breast cancer research projects funded by Thurston’s initial donation.

Two studies – one on hereditary breast cancer and another on hormone receptor-negative breast cancer – focused on deciphering why tumors occur and why they often become aggressive and resistant to treatment.

The third study centered on developing a diagnostic tool robust enough to help predict therapeutic response.

Thurston used a Gantt chart to map the process of scientific research and prescribed target times for each, including: collaborating with hospitals, acquiring tissue samples, extracting genetic material, performing tumor-profiling experiments, and exchanging data with biostatisticians to get biologically relevant results for interpretation and validation. He identified bottlenecks and suggested how to resolve them.

Thurston, a member of the TGen Foundation’s Board of Directors, even donned a lab coat and jumped into the research. “I wanted to go through every process so I could understand it and make recommendations on anything I saw that would cut down the time,” he said.

After laying out the steps Thurston felt would save time and increase efficiency, he met quarterly with Cunliffe to discuss progress and review deadlines – altering the process as needed. In the end, he showed Cunliffe how the time and money saved in the process could fund additional research.

“Many of these components can be lengthy processes,” Dr. Cunliffe said. “Ray was able to get us to list every single step and challenge us to come up with a faster process.”

How did the studies fare?

The first study, completed in half the time initially projected, successfully identified a molecular signature consistent with hereditary breast cancer. The results may indicate new events that play a role in the initiation of disease, and could play a role in early cancer detection and improved patient management.

The second study shaved one-third off the anticipated time, and resulted in the identification of two molecular signatures consistent with hormone-independent forms of breast cancer. The published results from the studies appeared in Frontiers in Bioscience and Molecular Cancer Research.

While the third study ran nine months over due to unexpected delays in acquiring samples, it nonetheless remains a promising and ambitious study to prospectively identify a molecular signature that would accurately diagnose every new breast tumor and predict optimal treatments for each patient; an important goal of personalized medicine. Once the samples were procured the study took less than 12 months to complete.

Processes, Milestones Help Drive Success

“We have adopted the process-driven approach, including establishing milestones. It helps to be streamlined and efficient; it keeps us on-target so we don’t get sidetracked on tangential scientific issues,” Dr. Cunliffe said.

Dr. Trent, noting the significant timelines involved in turning a laboratory discovery into something to benefit patients, praised the efficiency efforts. “Ray Thurston has helped us across a spectrum of areas to move with a greater sense of urgency.”

Thurston himself points to what might be the most important gain: “If TGen can continue to reduce time and cost, it will give them a strategic advantage with everything from obtaining grant funding to acquiring samples to conducting more clinical trials with drug companies — all of which will more quickly provide help for patients.”

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