WOMEN in SCIENCE Women in Science
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WOMEN IN SCIENCE Women In Science Contents Elodie Sollier-Christen, PhD 3 Mary Beckerle, PhD 5 Naomi Chayen, PhD 7 Infographic: Women In Science 9 Foreword Shiranee Sriskandan, PhD 10 Welcome to our latest eBook, Women in Science, a celebration of Darlene Solomon, PhD 12 the exceptional contributions today’s female researchers make to the Marina Picciotto, PhD 14 world of science. Throughout history, women have played key roles in Inese Lowenstein 16 ground breaking science, from Marie Curie’s discoveries of radium and Teresa K Woodruff, PhD 18 polonium, to the unearthing of HIV by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. Despite Jaclyn Thomson, PhD 20 these successes, women have, and continue to be underrepresented Jean Beggs, PhD 22 in STEM fields. Hurdles at all stages of education, and the struggles of juggling a family and career can limit the number of women choosing and maintaining a role within STEM. This eBook includes thought- provoking interviews from prominent female scientists, in which they share their greatest professional achievements, personal inspirations, as well as some advice for women looking to embark on their own STEM journey. Women In Science Minatec) on lab-on-chips for blood sample preparation and pursue this effort with Prof. Dino Di Carlo at the University of Elodie Sollier- California at Los Angeles (UCLA) for my postdoctoral studies. Q: How has the area of microfluidics evolved since Christen, PhD the beginning of your career, and what impact has this has on your role within the field? Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer and Vice-President, Research & Development for A: When I started my career, microfluidics for health Vortex Biosciences applications was still marginal and considered more as a fun research tool. The successful commercial transfer of some by Laura Elizabeth Mason microfluidic-based medical devices has led to quite an evolution of the field. What was previously just basic research into the potential applications of microfluidics began to translate into real ince co-founding Vortex Biosciences in 2012, Elodie world products that could have a direct impact on both scientific Sollier-Christen, PhD has continued to be recognized for research and diagnostics. This inspired me to take what was a Sher work within the field of microfluidics, her expertise research discovery and transform it in to a valuable product that focused on the development of microfluidic devices for biological could directly impact patient care. If I hadn’t seen the success of applications. these other companies I am not sure I would have seen the path to developing and commercializing the VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy Her passion for science, and determination to make a difference System. Furthermore, these early products provided a roadmap to the field of cancer diagnostics has driven her to successfully for success – keep the clinician experience in mind and make transform a microfluidic research platform in to a commercial sure the solution addresses a real market need in the simplest product for liquid biopsy. manner. Q: What particularly inspired you to pursue a Q: You won the 2017 SLAS Innovation award for career in science? your presentation “Vortex Technology for fast and label-free isolation of circulating tumor cells from A: Early in my life we experienced several cancer cases in blood samples”. Could you tell us about your talk my family and I was therefore aware of the term ‘cancer’ from and explain the significance of the microfluidic a young age. This piqued my interest in medicine early on, technology featured in the presentation and how particularly how new technologies can support physicians and it could help improve cancer diagnostics? patients. During my engineering program at Grenoble INP, in France, I learned about microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip concepts. A: A liquid biopsy is an alternative procedure to traditional I found the possibility of bringing the lab to; a patient’s bedside, tissue biopsies. Liquid biopsies include circulating tumor cells to the field, or to settings with limited resources, really exciting (CTCs), ctDNA, and exosomes. Due to the less invasive nature and transformative for the future of medicine. I was lucky, later of taking a blood sample, there is significantly less risk to the on, to have the opportunity to focus my PhD work (CEA LETI patient. The scientific community has confirmed that liquid Technology Networks 2018 3 TechnologyNetworks.com Women In Science biopsies can enable earlier diagnosis, therapy selection and A: The VTX-1 instrument was launched in 2017 and is monitoring of the treatment. Ultimately, this highlights that initially marketed to researchers. Our main focus now at Vortex liquid biopsies are expected to play a critical role in ‘precision Biosciences is to push the use of CTCs in to the clinic, beyond medicine’ and prognosis for oncology patients. CTCs are cancer solely research applications. We believe CTCs can play an cells that detach from the tumor, enter the blood stream and important role, making a significant difference to patients, either spread in the body to create metastasis. These are considered the at the time of their diagnosis, for therapy selection, for cancer seeds of the cancer spread, which causes 90% of cancer deaths. monitoring or for the detection of cancer relapse. For such reason, there is a growing interest in CTC isolation and characterization, to provide a real-time vision of the cancer for To enable the development of clinical assays using CTCs, our each patient. team is collaborating with partners and clinicians, to explore and create validated assays that use the isolated CTCs as the Several technologies have been developed to accomplish this, but sample input. Current projects are looking at EGFR mutations there is still this unmet need for label-free capture of CTCs in a in lung cancer and in vitro expression of markers important for simple, fully-automated manner with the cells being preserved immunotherapy, such as PD-L1. Part of this work is, and will in suspension for various downstream assays. The Vortex be, to demonstrate that performing these clinically relevant technology is ideal for isolating cancer cells from blood. It collects tests on CTCs is equivalent to using conventional tissue biopsy these larger cancer cells based on their size and deformability, specimens. Q: To date, what would you consider to be your greatest professional achievement? “Hopefully as more women truly change the world through science it will inspire A: The professional achievement I am most proud of is to others to follow in their footsteps.” have built the Vortex Biosciences business, gathering a team of - Elodie Sollier-Christen, PhD enthusiastic and skilled experts all filled with passion for the same vision – to make a difference for cancer patients. Launching our VTX-1 Liquid Biopsy System last year was a tremendous achievement and embodiment of the hard work and dedication but without filters that can get clogged or hold cells. This enables from everyone involved over the last few years. a good CTC recovery, with a very low white blood cell (WBC) contamination, to make accurate and sensitive characterization of Q: What can be done to encourage more women to the CTCs achievable. Cells are gently handled and remain viable get involved in science? such that the largest amount of information can be obtained. The process is simple, leading to a high level of reproducibility. The A: This is a tough question for me to answer as I have always isolation is also robust and label-free, requiring no antibodies, had a passion for science. I can’t point to any special program chemistry, or difficult to scale processes. Finally, the trapped or event that resulted in me really becoming inspired by the cells can be easily released into different containers giving a high potential that science offers. I think a lot of the recent attempts level of flexibility to the user for the downstream characterization to simply help girls and young women understand that they too of the CTCs, either for research or clinical use. Ultimately, we can be successful in the area of math and science can make a big believe all these key product features will help clinicians and difference. It seems to me the resources are available, it is more cancer patients at different time points of their cancer care to about understanding and reinforcing the power of science, to improve their outcome. really change the world. Hopefully as more women truly change the world through science it will inspire others to follow in their My presentation at SLAS 2017 described our work to transfer the footsteps. microfluidic research platform developed in Dino Di Carlo’s Lab at UCLA to a commercial product. I presented some clinical case studies to illustrate the performance and the clinical validation of our platform in terms of CTC recovery efficiency, enrichment purity with a simple and easy workflow. Q: Could you tell us more about your current research? Are there any research areas or applications you are yet to explore that you would be eager to investigate in the future? Technology Networks 2018 4 TechnologyNetworks.com Women In Science and medicine. Happily, I had both an appetite and an aptitude for biology. As a result, I was encouraged by great teachers Mary and mentors and had wonderful opportunities to explore and develop my skills. I spent three summers at The Jackson Labs and completed an internship in a laboratory at Memorial Sloan- Beckerle, PhD Kettering Cancer Center while in college. These experiences solidified my love for science and medicine. CEO and Director, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah Q: Could you tell us more about your current research interests and area of expertise? by Laura Elizabeth Mason A: I am a cell biologist.