Congratulations to Dr. Selena Lorrey, who successfully defended her dissertation on April 22, entitled, "Intracranial tumors elicit systemic sympathetic hyperactivity that limits immunotherapeutic responses."
For her next step, Selena is taking a non-traditional route, She has accepted a position on the business development side of a company called Applied BioMath (now part of Certara). This company works with biotech/pharma to create bespoke mechanistic models to support different parts of the drug development pipeline (ex: early feasibility studies, lead candidate prioritization, FIH dosing strategies, recommended phase 2 dosing, etc.).
Selena's job will be to act as a liaison between biotech/pharma and modelers (biologists and mathematicians). The vast majority of our work is in immuno-oncology so this is an opportunity for her to continue to advocate for more rational, data-driven approaches to IO. As much of the rest of the work is in autoimmunity, Selena is excited to use her immunology training to highlight that an understanding of the complexities of the immune system is critical to drug development in the space.
This position heavily relies on scientific communication skills so I think this is a wonderful way for me to learn more about different industry companies and what therapeutic modalities are coming down the pipeline, as well as learn about the stages of drug development and gain experience in BD.
This is a remote position and Selena and her husband will be moving to Saratoga Springs, NY this summer.