I think a lot of that first wave of entrepreneurship was missing the product of localization, and they weren't really asking the question, "What are the big, impactful products or problems that we got to solve locally, and forget about the U.S. or forget about Europe?"

Poverty in the world. Injustice.

I would like to write a play which doesn’t disappoint me 20 years later.

Try to make better antibiotics. I’m not sure we can cure everything, that we can win the game against bacteria, but we can try to control it, to make the appearance of resistance more controllable. We can look for new antibiotics, not overuse antibiotics, not use antibiotics where they are not needed. If possible, if somebody has an idea for something completely new, I would love that.

I abandoned surgery, I abandoned medicine. The only person I consulted was my wife when I said ‘Listen, next month, we’re not going to have a salary. On the contrary, we’re going to take all our savings and waste it on tuition fees.’ That’s it. That’s what I wanted.

I never listened to any noise around me. I listened only to my gut feeling and did what I should have

I think that it is necessary to implant in children the love for science from the very beginning, and mostly the love for asking questions about the universe, for example why does the sun rise in the morning? Or what allows life on earth? Why earth is so unique compared to the moon? Or about our own body and evolution: what happened to us?

Science for me is a language of peace and the only one I know which is absolutely international. I can talk to a UK scientist or any scientist worldwide about my research and they understand exactly what I am talking about. We may even find an area of mutual interest to collaborate on and together we can make an even greater impact on the world around us.

The achievement is not the Nobel, the achievement is the science.

The culture in the East is a little bit strange to me. People are too nice, they’re very obedient and do not challenge authority. I think you should be a little more chaotic, rude and daring.