Fred Turner (entrepreneur)

Fred Turner is biotechnology entrepreneur and founder and CEO of Curative, Inc.[1][2][3][4] He was featured in the Science Council list of top 100 practicing scientists in the UK in 2013 and was ranked #1 in the European Union Contest for Young Scientist in 2013.[5][6] Turner was also featured on the 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Science list.[7]

Early life and education

As a 17-year old, Fred won the UK's Young Engineer of the Year Award for building a PCR device intended to find the gene responsible for his brother's red hair.[3] He went to Oxford to study biochemistry but dropped out.[4]

Career

Turner moved from the UK to San Francisco to found TL BioLabs, which made genetic tests for cow herds. TL was backed by the Thiel Foundation.[8] The company pivoted and rebranded to Shield Bio, which had a focus on diagnostic testing for gonorrhea and sepsis.[4] It was backed by 16z and Y-Combinator and the testing was made available to over 10,000 patients in medical centers.[9][10]

Following Shield Bio's closing, Turner founded Curative to focus on improving outcomes for sepsis patients, but the company quickly turned focus to COVID-19 diagnostics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.[11] As of June 2021, his company has conducted over 21 million COVID-19 tests and administered 2 million vaccine doses.[10]

References
  1. "COVID-19 Testing at Scale while Reimagining Healthcare: An Interview with Curative Cofounders Fred Turner, Isaac Turner, and Vlad Slepnev". Cell Systems. 11 (4): 329–330. 21 October 2020. doi:10.1016/j.cels.2020.09.010. PMC 7577258.
  2. Darmieto, Laurence (24 May 2021). "COVID-19 turned a tiny start-up into a testing giant. But can its results be trusted?". LA Times. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  3. "DNA Testing Machine: Fred Turner, UK Teen, Builds DNA Testing Machine In His Bedroom". Huffington Post. 6 April 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  4. "Fred Turner, Curative's boy wonder, suffers negative result". The Times. 6 April 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  5. Staff (17 January 2014). "The UK's 100 leading practising scientists". Times Higher Education.
  6. Deighton, Ben (25 September 2013). "Home DNA lab wins EU young scientist prize". ec.europa.eu.
  7. Knapp, Alex (November 14, 2017). "30 Under 30 In Science: Inventing The Future One Atom At A Time". Forbes.
  8. Osher, Christopher (8 May 2021). "Colorado's troubled partnership with California COVID-19 testing firm". The Gazette (Colorado Springs). Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  9. "Shield Bio Profile". Y Combinator.
  10. Moss, Paul (9 June 2021). "Fred Turner of Curative: Five Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Startup". Medium - Authority Magazine.
  11. Johnson, Madliene (23 April 2020). "Curative, KorvaLabs Partner to Create High-Throughput COVID-19 Oral Fluid Testing Lab". GenomeWeb. Retrieved 29 June 2021.


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