Preclinical program leader (hit to lead, lead-op, and DC transition)Leading both pre-clinical and clinical translational biology/biomarker planning and strategy across our disease areas and programs with particular focus on CVMR and Oncology and the use of multi-omics to support data driven decision making.Managing CROs for key data generation for preclinical programs, bio banking data generation, and partnering with ClinOps on sample collection, management, and data generation for our clinical stage assets.Leading cross-functional teams to develop strategies related to internal data platforms working to operationalize exploratory and hypothesis generation across our portfolioCollaborating with Technology, R&D, and Strategy teams on our Forward and Reverse translational research functionsWorking with the Innovation/BD and Strategy teams to further enable/partner our portfolio in alignment with our research priorities

Led cross-functional matrixed teams focused on translational data generation and collaborations, high throughput antigen library design, and our FIH biomarker strategy for our Autologous T-cell therapy combined with immunomodulatorsWorked cross functionally to drive decision making around key milestones for projects and programs as part of R&D LeadershipWorking with CROs and academic groups on key internal and external facing collaborations for novel human biological data generation and method developmentProject and team management/leadership, direct (5-10 reports) and indirect (matrixed teams) setting goals, team objectives, and individual plans for growthImmune Oncology focus, with additional proof of platform work related to Infectious disease and Autoimmunity

Led cross-functional matrixed teams focused on application of our TCR/Antigen platform to different areas of disease biology, translational human data generation strategy, and high throughput antigen library design.Established and lead the Cogen Immune Medicines Platform Discovery Group (high-throughput screening) utilizing our single-cell technologiesEstablished and lead the Cogen Immune Medicines molecular biology group developing single-cell assaysProject and team management both direct (5-10 employees) and within matrix teams, working with the team and management to develop goals, set objectives, and both develop and recruit talentWorked cross functionally with Operations, Computational sciences, Protein sciences, Immunology, and to drive decision making for our platform development, early proof of concept studies to demonstrate the platform and translational research objectivesCollaborated with Strategy and Ops for external interactions and key scientific communications with KOLs and other potential biotech/pharma partners

Translational biomarker planning for pre-clinical programs to enable progression through the portfolio and with an eye toward early clinical enablement (Exploratory endpoints, Mechanism of Action, and Early Signs of Clinical Activity)Established epithelial tissue preservation strategy for downstream isolation of immune cells for different analytical endpoints in Phase 2 clinical studies for IBD programs in collaboration with academic research team.Engagement with KOLs in the autoimmune space for novel data generation through collaboration and due diligence for potential targetsProject and team management both direct (2 reports) and within a matrixed environment, working to establish downstream data analysis methods and broader scientist level training and enablement in collaboration with our computation/bioinformatics teams, and collaboration with sample management to enable workflows for tracking exploratory and biobanked samples for use alongside informed consentMulti-omic data generation (Transcriptome, proteome, and microbiome) and analyses in human cohorts and model systems across diseases in the I&I RU – Atopic dermatitis, Ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease were our major focus.Disease Pathogenesis Lead: Internal portfolio management, supporting biology leads around portfolio entrance, and engaging in external opportunities and collaborations for IBD with a focus on Crohn’s Disease

Managed exploratory biomarker strategies and engaged in data analyses for early clinical and late pre-clinical development in support of Inflammation and Immunology, Rare-disease, and Cardiovascular unitsObtained funding for and led study in inflammatory bowel disease generating transcriptomic data to correlate tissue disease markers with peripheral surrogates, identify potentially relevant disease biology to track in clinical programs, generate SOP for clinical study sample capture design, and create novel data for use by early target discovery teams.Generated actionable data from difficult samples during small and large animal studies to increase our understanding of potential human readouts, and with team generated key exploratory and on-mechanism data from Phase-1 and Phase-2 samples for autoimmune programs internally and with external CROs.Supported planning around sample capture and omic data generation for Phase 0 natural history studies for both the Inflammation and Immunology and Rare Disease Research teamsDrove decision making for use of RNA for exploratory biomarker discovery in early-stage clinical assets and the internal development of unbiased and targeted RNAseq as a tool to replace lower throughput qPCR assays/arraysKey contributor introducing new technologies including single-cell sequencing and high dimensional data analysis in the recently formed Clinical Bioanalytical group.Chosen by leadership team to be a key consultant with clinical partners to advise best practices for on-going and future collaborative work.Knowledge expert for new technology assessments for different project teams across unit functions including Next generation Sequencing and single-cell RNAseq analysisWorked with colleagues in bioinformatics to enhance and expand analysis workflows and strategies to enable bench scientists and for sample management solutions including our LIMS workflows Matrix and direct team (1 report) management

Identification and analysis of potential RNA based biomarkers for pre-clinical and clinical research supporting Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies, as well as Phase 0 natural history studies in patients for Inflammation and Immunology and Rare Disease Research Units.Drove decision making for use of RNA for exploratory biomarker discovery in early stage clinical assets and spearheaded the internal development of RNAseq as a tool to replace low throughput qPCR assaysKey contributor introducing new technologies and high dimensional data analysis to a newly formed Clinical Bioanalytical group.Worked with colleagues in bioinformatics to generate analysis workflows and strategiesAssessment of novel single cell technologies for utility in identifying rare cell types of interest during clinical studies and design of proof of concept studies to show ability to differentiate cell types of interest using targeted RNA capture

Studied transcriptional regulation of epidermal damage in models of inflammatory skin disease and the relation between epidermal barrier injury and immune infiltration.

I received my PhD in the Laboratory of Dr. Bogi Andersen where I studied the acute transcriptional response to wounding and barrier disruption in the skin leading to hyperplasia, the relationship between differentiation and tumorigenesis in epithelial tissues, the transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of epidermal development and differentiation, and the role of developmental transcription factors in murine model systems including psoriasis and dermatitis like pathologies and human ex-vivo and in-vitro cell systemsMy work involved numerous pre-clinical animal models including both germline and conditional/inducible knockouts as well as primary cell culture of both mouse and human epidermal progenitor cellsMy work utilized transcriptomic analysis in response to perturbations (chemical and wound related), but also included epigenetic regulation via ChIP-seq, silencing of key transcription factors via si/shRNA, and 3d differentiation models for skin.o Additional non thesis research studies focused on 1) Genetic immune interactions in lung tumorigenesis, 2) Recruitment of methylation complexes for gene activation, 3) Identification of gene expression signatures during hair follicle cycling, 4) Circadian rhythm in epidermal homeostasis, and 5) Epithelial fusion events during embryogenesis and in adults

Research on the evolution of transcriptional regulation in human and mouse in different tissues and the relationship between transcription factor binding site position and gene expression using Chromatin Immunoprecipitation and microarrays in primary cells, cell lines, and primary tissue from animal models

Researched the role of Notch signaling in hematopoeitic cell differentiation in the lab of Dr. Nadia CarlessoRoutinely performed in vitro differentiation/stimulation experiments in lymphocytes, followed by downstream analysis by multi-color Flow Cytometry and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation