Tamara J. Laskowski, Phd Email & Phone Number

Houston, Tx, Us

Basel, Ch

As a global leadership team member, I manage scientific and clinical partnerships with key opinion leaders/principal investigators in the fields of precision medicine and clinical oncology to advance next-generation cell and gene therapies from pre-clinical studies to clinical manufacturing. Key responsibilities include: • Develop/nurture key partnerships and collaborations with external parties within the broader scientific community • Contribute to business strategy decisions to support commercial development; • Lead a team of 10 scientists; Provide scientific technical leadership for cell therapy-based immuno-oncology programs from pre-clinical development to first-in-human studies; • Partner with investigators to develop processes that will meet their clinical needs and address scalability and COGS reduction; Define scope of development projects, including cost estimates and timelines; Review pre-clinical and clinical translational data that inform the design of clinical studies • Enhance cell processing and manufacturing activities through adoption and implementation of innovative technologies to expand upstream and downstream process capabilities; Identify opportunities for process optimizations and drive their successful implementation • Apply effective communication, team-building, and mentoring skills to develop and grow team members • Collaborate internally with cross-functional teams to expand product applicability and build product value; Engage with internal and external teams to formulate product marketing strategy, including active participation in authorship of publications and preparation and review of manuscripts, abstracts, webinars, and conference presentations • Provide scientific technical support for asset development, valuation of asset portfolio, identification of intellectual property, and patent filing

Houston, Tx, Us

Under the leadership of Dr. Katy Rezvani, the Adoptive Cell Therapy (ACT) platform is an academia-industry hybrid sector dedicated to the development of innovative off-the-shelf cellular immunotherapies to treat hematological and solid malignancies. Our goal is to augment the power of NK and T-cells through customized genetic engineering and thus confer to these powerful immune cells enhanced abilities to overcome the unique challenges imposed by cancer. My role as a director encompasses: 1) Guiding and supporting the direction of the scientific and discovery projects within the CAR NK platform; 2) Designing and managing in vitro and in vivo IND-enabling studies for clinical NK products, 3) Building and innovating analytical pipelines for discovery and product characterization; 4) Mentoring team members; 5) Interfacing with industry collaborators to implement new strategies for expanding the scope of our programs; and 6) Working in close collaboration with GMP and clinical teams to facilitate the transfer of therapies to the clinic.

Houston, Tx, Us

Under the leadership of Dr. James Allison and Dr. Padmanee Sharma, the Immunotherapy Platform-deployed COVID-19 task force focuses on deciphering the immune mechanisms associated with response to COVID-19 in cancer patients.As part of the team, I served as lead scientist responsible for the development of CyTOF and cytokine profiling platforms to interrogate the immunobiology of COVID-19 in the oncology setting. Through a combination of data curation and interpretation, my role was to design strategies to investigate and characterize humoral and T-cell and NK cell-mediated responses to SARS-CoV2 infection in patients with hematological and solid malignancies.

Houston, Tx, Us

Led by Nobel laureate Dr. James Allison, the Immunotherapy platform is a multi-disciplinary team structure blending together academia and industry, with focus on uncovering the challenges that impair immune function in the tumor microenvironment and devising ways to empower the immune system to overcome these challenges. In my role as a Senior Scientist I am responsible for project management, team mentoring and leadership, and scientific strategy design and development. My work comprises two main areas: 1) Alliance projects with pharmaceutical companies with the goals of supporting new drug development and neoantigen discovery, and 2) Correlative studies for immune monitoring of clinical outcome of patients enrolled in immunotherapy trials for solid malignancies with the goal of identifying predictive and diagnostic biomarkers.

Houston, Tx, Us

Under the mentorship of Dr. Laurence J.N. Cooper, MD, PhD, worked on developing iPSC platforms for generation of off-the-shelf CAR T-cells and CAR-NK cells for targeting solid and hematological malignancies. Developed genetically-modified iPSC lines for generation of multi-edited T and NK cell products; Generated and validated iPS cell banks; Focused on engineering novel CAR designs to support multi-targeting approaches, cooperative signaling/activation strategies, and controlled CAR expression.Developed multi-parameter flow-cytometry-based 3D assays for characterization of cytotoxic activity in lead T- cell and NK-cell products.

Instruct physicians, scientists, and trainees on how to communicate science to business professionals and to the lay public. Focus on the principles of effective and audience-tailored speeches through complete and concise scientific communication. Train professionals on how to build an impactful elevator pitch that enthusiastically communicates the value and significance of scientific research.

Support the career of women scientists in the STEM fields through workshops, seminars, and mentoring. Increase the presence and impact of AWIS GCH in the scientific community of the greater Houston-Gulf Coast area.

National Science Foundation program for innovation and entrepreneurship with focus on training a select group of scientists on how to assess the requirements for commercialization of their discoveries.Program description (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/i-corps/): The National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory, and accelerates the economic and societal benefits of NSF-funded, basic-research projects that are ready to move toward commercialization.Through I-Corps, NSF grantees learn to identify valuable product opportunities that can emerge from academic research, and gain skills in entrepreneurship through training in customer discovery and guidance from established entrepreneurs.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Human Molecular Genetics And Immunology

Bachelor'S Of Science, Biology Premedicine