• Built successful professional relationships with thought leaders in the rare disease space at academic and clinical practices throughout New York to provide scientific expertise, clinical trial support, and the exchange of evidence-based insights to improve treatment of patients with pulmonary hypertension • Served as the MSL representative on the ERA brand team to aid in the development of MSL-specific initiatives and strategies, which align with the medical brand plans • Served on the Field Community Committee connecting field teams to other Janssen colleagues enhancing the sense of community• Served as a reviewer for ERA-focused MSL decks on the MSL publications team to refine and enhance data dissemination to HCPs• Helped identify opportunities to improve the IT experience by optimizing the use of technology for the MSL team as the IT lead• Facilitated updates and problem resolution between the RESTORE clinical trial team, MSLs, and their respective sites

Medical Affairs•Developed medical and commercial content for global pharmaceutical clients with a focus on hematology, oncology, and cardiology for conferences, journals, internal training, and regulatory affairs•Experienced in phases of drug development and clinical trials within the context of medical writing•Facilitated Latin American advisory boards with key opinion leaders, translated medical presentations, wrote meeting reports, and liaised between all stakeholders•Provided strategic support to pharmaceutical clients through scientific platform development

Project Title: Endothelial-Specific Overexpression of MAPK Signaling Mimics Hematopoietic AgingBackground: Age-related changes in the hematopoietic system include a compromised immune system and an increase in the frequency of myeloid malignancies. All immune cells are derived from hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in the bone marrow, which is a complex multicellular system composed of specialized niche cells, including endothelial cells, that regulate the maintenance of the HSC pool. Young bone marrow endothelial cells (BMECs) maintain elevated levels of Akt signaling; however, they shift the balance to preferentially signal through MAPK when they undergo physiological aging. As these changes accompany the changes observed in aging HSCs, we hypothesize that as mice age, dysregulated BMECs may lead to the improper maintenance and differentiation of HSCs due to a shift in signaling primarily through MAPK.Achievements:•Researched, designed and executed scientific experiments in the fields of regenerative medicine, immunology, and oncology to determine how the overexpression of MAPK signaling in BMECs affects the progression of acute myeloid leukemia, hematopoiesis, and immune function•Developed mouse models and in vitro vascular platforms to examine leukemia progression and enhance regenerative blood production following ablative conditioning•Isolated cultures of BMECs and niche cells using a unique protocol developed in the Butler lab•Designed and implemented a lentiviral cloning strategy with a colleague to reduce cell line development costs and investigate MAPK mechanisms•Thoroughly surveyed scientific literature for all data pertaining to a novel systemic protein to validate the proposed experimental design that is currently producing positive data for publication

Project Title: Defining the Immune System’s Role in Vertebrate RegenerationBackground: Immune cells are involved in wound healing responses throughout the body, and may even determine the balance between scarring and regeneration. Unfortunately, mammalian wound repair typically results in fibrotic, non-functional scarring. Among vertebrates, salamanders display the highest capacity for adult regeneration, but a lack of knowledge about salamander hematopoiesis and immunology hinders their use for the study of blood cells in scar-free tissue regeneration.Results Summary: We developed axolotl salamander hematopoietic chimeras and assays for the study of the immune system’s role in vertebrate regeneration.Achievements:•Pioneered the development of a salamander animal model in the Scott Lab to investigate blood in regenerative healing, earning a plenary paper award and the cover of a world-renowned hematology and medical journal, Blood•Performed thousands of surgeries while altering variables, troubleshooting and clearly documenting results to systematically understand the model and publish a detailed methods paper•Created new tools and standard operating procedures specific for the salamander animal model with limited resources due to the novelty of the project, lowering overall future development costs•Overcame challenges such as graft-versus-host disease in myeloablative and non-conditioned allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation models through embryo manipulation, microsurgeries and donor cell harvest during tolerance•Established a FACS enrichment technique for major blood lineages through light scatter characteristics due to a lack of commercially available antibodies•Screened and found commercially available antibodies that were cross-reactive with axolotl blood cell markers•Optimized ALDH protocols for hematopoietic stem cell enrichment in the axolotl•Work resulted in the lab acquiring a competitive NIH RO1 research grant worth $1,500,000

Synthesized a series of monomers and then chemically linked them to make biomimetic polymers for tissue engineering scaffolds.- Characterized polymers using NMR, TGA, DSC, IR, and GPC- Ran biodegradation and cytocompatibility studies on the polymers- Work resulted in a publication