Dr. Schmidt brings a unique perspective to his consulting work with two converging areas of formal training and specialization: molecular medicine/biochemistry/nutrition/metabolism and neuroscience. These are deployed across a wide range of application spaces.
As a specialist in molecular medicine, biochemistry, and metabolism, he brings a sophisticated ability to analyze molecular patterns in complex data sets (and biological systems), which is coupled with the ability to describe mechanism of action and assign biological meaning. This can lead to development of novel solutions across biotechnology, nutrition, medicine, and human performance. This expertise crosses the boundaries from bench top discovery, to organic synthesis, analytical chemistry, experimental design, pre-clinical research, toxicology, regulatory, clinical research, laboratory interpretation, clinical decision support, food, and nutrition. It also applies to consulting services directed to enhancing human performance in individuals, crews, and teams operating in training or competition.
Dr. Schmidt is among those leading the developing the field of omics in human spaceflight (genome, epigenome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, microbiome) and extreme operating environments on Earth. Examples are his role in the multiomics analysis in the NASA Twins Study of One Year in Space (341 days in space), SpaceX Inspiration4 (3-days in space), Axiom-2 (12 days in space), Axiom-3 (21 days in space), Polaris Dawn (5-days in space), Fram2, and missions in development. Polaris Dawn set a new altitude record for a crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit, soaring to 870 miles above Earth, surpassing the altitude established by the 1966 Gemini 11 mission. The recent SpaceX Fram2 mission, which is the first space mission to navigate over the Earth’s north and south poles (also using omics analytics), included detailed assessment of the immune system’s MHC class I monitoring. He and his collaborators at Weill Cornell Medicine have been leaders in the most comprehensive multiomics molecular measurements ever conducted on humans in such missions and have set the standards for how such molecular analytics are conducted in space. He brings these same molecular approaches to engineered and biological systems in biotechnology applications.
As a trained neuroscientist, he brings the same capability for pattern analysis to areas ranging from traumatic brain injury, cognitive decline and brain health, behavioral dynamics, healthy brain aging, team cohesion, and others. He has also developed neuroscience-based training programs for athletes, leaders, and those operating in extreme environments. These programs are based on methods to facilitate neuroplastic changes as a means to accelerate skill acquisition and skill retention with a focused on better task execution and recovery.
As a business development and strategy consultant, Dr. Schmidt has over 30 years experience in start ups, negotiations, conflict management, team building, mergers & acquisitions, patents, contracts, capital, and technical lead on legal, which includes due diligence support in taking companies public and private. This work is focused on the biotechnology, medicine, health and wellness, athletics, aerospace, and spaceflight sectors.
With additional training in conflict resolution and conflict management, Dr. Schmidt brings a formal process of how one facilitates true collaboration, team cohesion, and trust within (and between) individuals and groups.
“When I think about human performance in any discipline, Dr. Michael Schmidt is one of the very first people I call. Increasingly, business leaders are taking the lessons learned from elite athletes and using them to elevate their own personal and team performance. Few individuals have been able to translate this complexity into performance solutions across these different leadership environments like Michael.”
Verne Harnish
Global Scaleup Fellow, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Bestselling author; “The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time;” “Scaling Up;” and “Start to Scale”
Founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
Founder and CEO Scaling Up
Founder, Entrepreneurial Masters’ Program, MIT
Human Performance
- Individual performance
- Athlete, soldier, law enforcement, leader, CEO, astronaut, corporate, government;
- Civilian astronaut consultation
- Nutrition & metabolism review
- Team or organizational performance
- Athlete, soldier, law enforcement, leader, CEO, astronaut, corporate, government
- Leadership & team cohesion training
- Business development
- Human performance program development (spaceflight, athletics, etc.)
Biotechnology
- Molecular analytics (genome, epigenome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, microbiome)
- Analytical test development (molecular) & interpretive guide
- Mechanism of action elucidation
- Molecular pathway analysis/network analysis
- Food, nutrition, and metabolism
- Fatty acids, phospholipids, ketones, lipidomics
- New product development (nutrition, drug, and device)
- Microbiome test development & interpretive guide
- Rapid prototyping
- Biodigital twin development (Artificial Intelligence)
- Clinical trial design, execution, and interpretation
- Discovery, screening, validation, & lead optimization
- Invention, patents, IP commercialization, IP committee chair
Dr. Schmidt is a consultant in four major areas:
- Individual and team consulting in human performance
- Individual and team consulting in molecular analytics and data driven precision solutions
- Biotechnology
- Leadership