Ioakeim "Makis" Ampartzidis
MPhil student
University of Cambridge
MPhil student, University of Cambridge.
Makis was born and raised in sunny Athens, Greece. He studied Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Democritus University of Thrace and conducted his undergraduate dissertation, focusing on a novel transposon system and the generation of transgenic cell lines. Makis graduated, with honors, in September 2019 and matriculated at the University of Cambridge for an MPhil in Biological Sciences. Currently, he is a member of Dr Boroviak’s lab at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, working on primate pluripotency and in vitro modeling in the marmoset. In 2018, he participated to the Amgen Scholar Programme at the University of Cambridge.
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MPhil student
University of Cambridge
Cali Calarco
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Maryland, Baltimore. Cali participated in the Amgen Scholars program in the summer 2010 at Columbia University where she studied the role of maternal behavior on the development of brain reward pathways. After receiving a B.A. in Neuroscience and Behavior from Vassar College, with a minor in Art History, Cali went on to pursue graduate education and obtained a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Yale University in 2018. Her Ph.D. focused on nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expression and function in the hypothalamus. Cali joined the department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore as a postdoctoral fellow. Cali is interested in science education, mental health advocacy, community science outreach, and promoting diversity in STEM. Outside the lab, Cali enjoys cooking, reading, listening to podcasts, tap dancing, and exploring Baltimore.
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Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Kitra Cates
PhD candidate
Washington University in St. Louis
PhD candidate, WashU. Kitra was an Amgen Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) in 2016, where she was thrilled to work with Dr. Lee Ratner and Dr. Daniel Rauch on the pathogenic factors that drive Adult T-cell Leukemia and Lymphoma. She received a B.S. in Genetics from the University of Georgia, where she researched soybean and corn development with Dr. Robert Schmitz. Now, she is entering her fourth year of Ph.D studies in the Molecular Genetics and Genomics program at WashU, where she researches epigenetic factors involved in the direct conversion of human skin cells to neurons with Dr. Andrew Yoo.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7716-153X
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PhD candidate
Washington University in St. Louis
Ligong Chen
Professor
Tsinghua University
Professor, Tsinghua University. Dr. Ligong Chen obtained his BS from Nankai University in Chemistry in 1997. He completed his PhD from University of California at Berkeley and postdoctoral training from UCSF in 2006 and 2011, respectively. Currently, He is tenured professor in pharmacology and toxicology in School of Pharmaceutical Science at Tsinghua University. His research area is the SLC transporter physiology and pharmacology. His lab is working on various transporters' role in human diseases and molecular mechanism of drug toxicity. Using advanced molecular and genomic approaches with cell and animal models, Dr. Chen has discovered several important transporters’ physiological substrates and their functions in cancer, fatty liver and obesity. He has published more than 50 publications including those on Nature Genetics, Immunity, Gut, Hepatology, and PNAS. He has been selected to National 1000 Talent Program and National Leading Scientists in Innovation and Technology and won the Wuxi Apptec Chemical Biology Award and Excellence in Teaching of Tsinghua University.
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Professor
Tsinghua University
Alexi Choueiri
PhD candidate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD candidate, MIT.
Alexi is currently an MIT PhD student in the lab of Dr. Edward Boyden that focuses on developing novel neurotechnologies for mapping and repairing the brain. Before MIT, he studied Economics and Biochemistry at Arizona State University. He is also interested in entrepreneurship and the commercialization of impactful research. The development of neurotechnologies and associated ventures can unravel the mysteries of the brain and help advance humanity.
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PhD candidate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cameron Clarke
Research Fellow
Planned Parenthood
Research Fellow, Planned Parenthood. Originally from Jersey City, New Jersey, Cameron is a fellow at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, where he conducts health policy and equity research. Cameron has worked in public health policy at the Baltimore Health Department, Children's National Hospital, the National Institutes of Health, and the DC Superintendent of Education, among others. A Howard University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, Cameron has masters’ degrees in public policy from Oxford University. Outside of his work at Planned Parenthood, Cameron is a community health advocate, an avid rock climber and cyclist, and is starting medical school in the fall at Columbia University.
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Research Fellow
Planned Parenthood
Enrique De La Cruz
Professor
Yale University
Professor, Yale University. Enrique M. De La Cruz, PhD is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and Head of Branford College at Yale University. He is a first-generation Cuban-American who was raised in Newark, NJ. Dr. De La Cruz received his undergraduate degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Rutgers University, Newark College of Arts and Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry, Cell & Molecular Biology (BCMB) at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and received postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. De La Cruz’s research focuses on the actin cytoskeleton, molecular motor proteins, and nucleotide signaling enzymes. Dr. De La Cruz is actively involved with various scientific societies, journals and peer review committees, and actively participates in a number of outreach activities focused on enhancing minority participation and career development in the sciences.
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Professor
Yale University
Raymond Deshaies
Senior Vice President, Global Research
Amgen
Senior Vice President, Global Research, Amgen. Raymond Deshaies, Ph.D., is senior vice president, Global Research at Amgen. Prior to joining Amgen, Deshaies served as a professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and an executive officer in Caltech’s Division of Biology and Biological Engineering. He was also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In addition to his academic work, Deshaies co-founded Proteolix in 2003. In 2011, he co-founded Cleave Biosciences. Deshaies holds a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Senior Vice President, Global Research
Amgen
Michael Erb
Assistant Professor
Scripps Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Scripps Research Institute. Michael A. Erb is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Scripps Research. Dr. Erb graduated with a B.A. in Biochemistry from Claremont McKenna College before completing a Ph.D. at Harvard University under the mentorship of Dr. James E. Bradner and Dr. Nathanael S. Gray. As a graduate student, Dr. Erb trained in chemical biology, studying pathogenic gene regulation and chromatin reader proteins in hematologic malignancies. He began his independent career at Scripps Research as a faculty fellow, supported by an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award. Now an Assistant Professor, his group is studying cancer-specific activities of chromatin regulatory complexes, integrating capabilities in transcriptional genomics, cancer biology, and discovery chemistry to advance the therapeutic science of gene regulation.
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Assistant Professor
Scripps Research Institute
Marvin Gee
Head of Target Discovery
3T Biosciences
Head of Target Discovery, 3T Biosciences. Marvin Gee received his B.S. degree in Biology at the California Institute of Technology in 2013. He received his Ph.D. in Immunology with a focus in Computational Immunology at Stanford University in 2017, publishing his work on novel technology to identify the specificities of T cell receptors for application in oncology. He completed further work on characterizing the structural basis of T cell receptor recognition of immunological targets and T cell receptor cross-reactivity. Marvin has had prior work experience at the National Cancer Institute. He is currently Head of Target Discovery at 3T Biosciences since co-founding the company in 2017.
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Head of Target Discovery
3T Biosciences
Bryan Goldsmith
Assistant Professor
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Bryan Goldsmith is the Dow Corning Assistant Professor in Chemical Engineering at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research group uses atomistic modeling and machine learning to understand catalysts and materials for use in sustainable chemical and energy production, as well as pollution reduction. Prior to joining Michigan in 2017, he was a Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin, Germany. Goldsmith obtained his BS in Chemical Engineering at UC Riverside (2010) and earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara (2015). He is a 2009 UCLA-Amgen Scholar Alumni.
http://cheresearch.engin.umich.edu/goldsmith/
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Assistant Professor
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Anjelica Gonzalez
Associate Professor
Yale University
Associate Professor, Yale University. Anjelica Gonzalez’ appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Yale University has provided a platform for her research, focused on the development of biomaterials for use as investigational tools and therapeutic testing systems. Anjelica’s group focuses on the investigation of cellular and extracellular matrix contribution to microvascular immunoregulation and diseases that result from acute and chronic inflammation. Anjelica attended Utah State University, earning a B.S. in Irrigational and Biological Engineering and continued on to Baylor College of Medicine to pursue a PhD in Computational Biology. Anjelica’s translational research interests have led to the development of new technologies that are being deployed in underserved and low-infrastructures settings across the world. Within Yale, Anjelica has been recognized for her dedication to exceptional teaching, having been awarded the Provost’s Teaching Award, the top prize awarded for teaching across all of Yale University, including Yale College, Yale School of Medicine, School of Management, and Yale Law School. Her efforts in education and public inclusion in science is noted by her opinion pieces published in Science and the New York Times. To date, Anjelica’s research and social efforts have been acknowledged by national organizations, including the National Institutes of Health, NBC, Biomedical Engineering Society, Microcirculation Society, American Society for Investigative Pathology, the American Physiological Society and The Hartwell Foundation.
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Associate Professor
Yale University
Yasuyuki Goto
Associate Professor
The University of Tokyo
Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo. My research has been focusing on immunology, pathology and molecular biology of parasitic diseases, especially leishmaniasis, to understand the host-parasite relationship and develop methods to effectively control such diseases. I am currently working on immunology and immunopathology in leishmaniasis. Infection by pathogens does not mean disease, i.e., symptomatic conditions, and balancing of immunological protection and immunopathology is the key for management of infectious diseases. With expertise in antigen discovery, vaccine development and animal model development, my effort has been focusing on identification of molecules derived from both hosts and pathogens determining the outcome of host-parasite interaction.
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Associate Professor
The University of Tokyo
Robert Guenette
Senior Associate Scientist, Induced-Proximity Platform
Amgen
Senior Associate Scientist, Induced-Proximity Platform, Amgen. Robert started as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Amgen in November 2016 and is now a Senior Associate Scientist working in the Induced Proximity Platform (IPP) Group. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry (Chemical Biology focus) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His graduate work focused on developing novel protein conjugation techniques to study ubiquitin signaling and he characterized enzymes that selectively degrade branched ubiquitin chains. These studies led to Robert’s current interest in working on small molecule PROteolysis-TArgeting Chimeras (or PROTACs), which hijack the ubiquitin machinery to degrade protein targets essential to cancer biology. His Post-doctoral work focused on novel methods of PROTAC delivery using antibodies and E3 ligase degradation via ligase cis-dimerization.
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Senior Associate Scientist, Induced-Proximity Platform
Amgen
Scott Heimlich
Vice President
Amgen Foundation
Vice President, Amgen Foundation.
Scott M. Heimlich is vice president of the Amgen Foundation and director of philanthropy for Amgen. He is responsible for the strategic management and direction of the Foundation’s portfolio, including the development and oversight of key initiatives at the K-12 and higher education levels. He was the principal architect of the Amgen Scholars Program in addition to leading and managing numerous other Foundation initiatives, including the new LabXchange platform with Harvard. The Foundation’s overall global commitment now stands at over $325 million to date.
Scott also serves in other capacities, including on the Executive Committee of the STEM Funders Network, as a Strategic Advisor to 100Kin10, on the Corporate Leadership Council of Southern California Grantmakers, and the Philanthropy & Engagement Council of The Conference Board. Prior to joining Amgen in 2005, he served in positions at the University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, and a junior high school in Japan. He holds a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and doctorate in education from the University of California, Los Angeles.
https://www.amgeninspires.com/
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Vice President
Amgen Foundation
Stephanie Jean-Baptiste
Strategic Planning and Operations Senior Analyst
Amgen
Strategic Planning and Operations Senior Analyst, Amgen. Stephanie Jean Baptiste is Strategic Planning and Operations Sr. Analyst at Amgen. She holds an Undergraduate degree in Economics from Rutgers University and Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Bioengineering from the University of Washington. Throughout her career she focused on bringing data to life with visual analytics in several institutions from the biopharmaceutical industry to criminal justice. Outside of Amgen, she spends her weekends teaching Genetics and other Biology based courses to elementary school students.
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Strategic Planning and Operations Senior Analyst
Amgen
Joseph Jez
Professor
Washington University in St. Louis
Professor, Washington University in St. Louis. Joe Jez is the Chair of Biology, Spencer T. Olin Professor, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Joe was an undergrad at Penn State (1992), received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania (1998), and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute (1998-2001). After working at Kosan Biosciences (2001-2), he started his group at the Danforth Plant Science Center (2002), and then moved to Washington University (2008). He has authored more than 170 papers and received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), Phytochemical Society Neish Young Investigator Award, Fulbright Senior Specialist Award, AAAS Fellow, and an HHMI Professor. Research in the Jez lab uses a combination of structural biology, protein chemistry, and plant science to understand biochemical pathways in plants and microbes with the aim of engineering these systems to address agricultural and environmental problems.
http://pages.wustl.edu/jezlab
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Professor
Washington University in St. Louis
Anastasiia Korosteleva
Undergraduate student
University of Glasgow
Undergraduate student, University of Glasgow. My name is Anastasiia and I am from Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Biology was my favourite subject in school, and this is when I realized I want to connect my life with it. After finishing school, I moved to Scotland to study Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Glasgow. In my second year of degree I applied for the ASP and was luckily selected! ASP became my first serious research experience. Now I just have finished my third year of University and for the next year I am going to do the placement in Francis Crick Institute in London!
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Undergraduate student
University of Glasgow
Bob Lamm
Scientist
Dantari, Inc.
Scientist, Dantari, Inc. Bob Lamm is interested in leveraging chemistry, biology, and engineering principles to develop technologies that improve healthcare. Bob studied bioengineering at UCLA, where he was an Amgen Scholar in the lab of Dr. Daniel T. Kamei. Bob performed doctoral studies under Dr. Suzie H. Pun at the University of Washington, defending his PhD in bioengineering in 2018. During graduate school, Bob partnered with classmates to form a company, A-Alpha Bio, which won recognition in startup competitions. Bob is currently a Scientist at Dantari, Inc. Dantari is a rapidly growing pre-IND biotech developing a platform for delivering drugs to difficult targets.
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Scientist
Dantari, Inc.
Rob Lenz
Senior Vice President, Global Development
Amgen
Senior Vice President, Global Development, Amgen. Rob Lenz, M.D, Ph.D., is senior vice president, Global Development, responsible for the clinical development of Amgen’s pipeline.
Lenz joined Amgen in 2012 as the global development lead for Amgen’s neuroscience programs. He assumed positions of greater responsibility, ultimately serving as the therapeutic area head and vice president of inflammation, nephrology, and neuroscience development and the head for the Center for Design & Analysis, where he was instrumental in the broad adoption of innovative trial designs across the portfolio. Prior to joining Amgen, Lenz spent over 8 years at Abbott within clinical development, ultimately serving as vice president and head of the neurology, psychiatry and anesthesiology therapeutic area.
Lenz received his M.D., Ph.D. with honors from the University of Maryland, with a research focus in Neuropharmacology. He completed his residency in Neurology at UCLA.
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Senior Vice President, Global Development
Amgen
Gregory Llacer
Director
Amgen Scholars Global Program Office
Director, Amgen Scholars Global Program Office. Gregory Llacer is the director of the Harvard College Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. An associate of Leverett House and a member of the Harvard College Board of Freshman Advisers, Greg also has been the director the Harvard College Program for Research in Science and Engineering (PRISE) since its inception in 2005. In addition to his Harvard responsibilities, Greg is editorial chair of the national Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Research Journal; director of the Global Program Office for Amgen Scholars, a consortium of 24 international undergraduate summer research programs focused on biotechnology; and a consultant for the newly-formed Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Future of Work Fellowship. Prior to his appointment as URAF director, Greg served in several administrative roles, including institutional director of postdoctoral affairs and interim chief of staff for the vice provost of research (in the Office of the President and Provost) as well as coordinator of Herchel Smith-Harvard Undergraduate Science Research Program and the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Postgraduate Fellowship (in the College). Before arriving at Harvard in 2004, he managed educational initiatives and academic enrichment programs for the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). Greg spent the first 16 years of his administrative career in the academic and research planning unit of the Office of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of California, San Diego, where he was senior research analyst for the vice chancellor for research. Greg received an AB degree from San Diego State University in liberal studies with an emphasis on education, and conducted postgraduate study at UCSD and SDSU focused on policy studies in language and cross-cultural education.
https://uraf.harvard.edu/people/greg-llacer
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Director
Amgen Scholars Global Program Office
Natalie Lundsteen
Assistant Dean for Career and Professional Development, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Assistant Dean for Career and Professional Development, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Dr. Natalie Lundsteen is Assistant Dean for Career and Professional Development in the UT Southwestern Medical Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
She has advised and taught postdocs, graduate students, and alumni at Boston University, MIT, Oxford University and Stanford University. She is a PhD career advice contributor to Inside Higher Ed’s weekly ‘Carpe Careers’ blog, which offers graduate career advice every Monday, and co-author of ReSearch: A Career Guide for Scientists. Natalie currently serves as President of the Graduate Career Consortium, an international organization comprised of professionals leading career and professional development for postdocs and PhDs.
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Assistant Dean for Career and Professional Development, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Lisa McLellan
PhD candidate
Washington University in St. Louis
PhD candidate, WashU. Lisa McLellan came to Washington University, St. Louis to pursue a PhD in Molecular Microbiology & Microbial Pathogenesis in 2015. She developed a love for microbiology, research, and teaching while she was as an Amgen Scholar at Washington University.
Lisa is currently a PhD candidate in the laboratory of Dr. David Hunstad, where she studies the mechanisms of renal abscess formation during urinary tract infections. Her passions for research and teaching have led her to her ultimate career goal of working in academia. Her work is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and the Olin Fellowship for Women.
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PhD candidate
Washington University in St. Louis
Aaron Meyer
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Informatics
UCLA
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Informatics, UCLA. Aaron Meyer is an assistant professor of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a former Amgen Scholar. He previously received his B.S. in Bioengineering from UCLA, his Ph.D. in Biological Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and then was an independent fellow at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. His awards include the NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, Siebel Scholars award, Hellman Fellowship, and UCLA Faculty Career Development award. The Meyer lab focuses on combining experimental and computational techniques to reverse engineer cancer and innate immune signaling, to design immune- and cancer-targeted therapies.
https://asmlab.org
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Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Informatics
UCLA
Simone Moser
Group Lead
Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München
Group Lead, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München. Simone Moser studied chemistry at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She pursued doctoral studies with Prof. Kräutler at the Institute of Organic Chemistry (Innsbruck), working on structure elucidation of natural products. After postdoctoral studies as a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Johnsson at EPFL, Switzerland and as Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow at MIT, USA with Prof. Nolan, she returned to Austria and worked in the pharmaceutical industry (Novartis). After a short stay at her alma mater, she moved to Munich and is currently leading a research group at LMU, working on bioactivities of natural products.
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Group Lead
Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München
Lisa Munoz
Founder and President
SciComm Services
Founder and President, SciComm Services. Lisa is a science writer and communications consultant for the Amgen Scholars Program and the Amgen Biotech Experience. In this role, she has interviewed dozens of alumni about their career paths and scientific work. As president and founder of SciComm Services, Inc., Lisa works with a variety of groups to develop communications strategies and compelling content. She has 20 years of experience working with scientists across a variety of fields -- including biotechnology, geoscience, and neuroscience -- to translate their work into digestible stories for broad audiences. Lisa lives in the Washington, D.C., area with her husband, two daughters, and a new puppy. She loves exploring new places, listening to radio in all forms, and consuming sci-fi/fantasy books and movies.
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Founder and President
SciComm Services
Arleen Paulino
Senior Vice President, Manufacturing
Amgen
Senior Vice President, Manufacturing, Amgen. Arleen Paulino, senior vice president, Manufacturing, leads Amgen’s commercial manufacturing organization. Prior to this role, Paulino served as vice president, Site Operations at Amgen Singapore Manufacturing from 2016 to 2018, where she led the team to the successful licensure of Amgen’s first Next-Generation Biomanufacturing plant. Paulino joined Amgen in 2002 and over the years has held various positions in Process Engineering and Process Development. She was also the head of Clinical Operations and Development Supply Chain, where she was responsible for the end-to-end supply chain for the manufacture and delivery of clinical product to support Amgen’s global clinical trials. She began her career in Operations at Genentech and later joined Immunex, where she held a variety of roles overseeing development and scale-up operations for the cell culture facility. Paulino holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from Marquette University.
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Senior Vice President, Manufacturing
Amgen
Gavin Reid
Professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry
University of Melbourne
Professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry, University of Melbourne. Gavin Reid is the Professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry in the School of Chemistry and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne. After graduating high school (barely) in 1986, he left the family farm for the bright lights of the big city, and worked as a research assistant in a cancer research laboratory, as a builders laborer, nightclub bouncer and bodyguard, while studying part time to obtain an Associate Diploma in Applied Science. He eventually earned a PhD in Chemistry, and has gone on to develop a fulfilling research career, with academic positions in the USA and Australia.
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Professor of Bioanalytical Chemistry
University of Melbourne
Michael Rosen
Chair of the Department of Biophysics
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Chair of the Department of Biophysics, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Michael Rosen received undergraduate degrees in Honors Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan (1987). He was a Winston Churchill Foundation Scholar at Cambridge University (1987-8). He received his Ph.D. from Harvard Chemistry (1993). He was a postdoc with Lewis Kay and Tony Pawson at the University of Toronto and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute (1993-1995). Rosen began his independent laboratory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical College (1996). He joined the Department of Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2001, and in 2012 became the inaugural Chair of the Department of Biophysics.
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Chair of the Department of Biophysics
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Tyler Rudin
Regulatory Affairs Manager, CMC
Amgen
Regulatory Affairs Manager, CMC, Amgen. Tyler Rudin is a Regulatory Affairs Manager within RA CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) and is the BeiGene CMC Lead supporting the Amgen BeiGene Collaboration (ABC). As part of his duties, Tyler is responsible for ensuring successful ABC integration between BeiGene CMC and Amgen’s Global, Regional and Site RA CMC, as well as streamlining engagement with the Product Delivery Teams (PDTs). Most recently, Tyler has been part of the Regulatory Optimization of Technical Support and Strategy (ROOTS2) Team, supporting Kyprolis, AMG 423, Enbrel, and most recently, Otezla. Prior to ROOTS2, Tyler joined Amgen in 2013, initially within Quality Control, and in 2015 he joined the Regulatory and Compliance group, within Cellular Sciences. Tyler co-founded Amgen’s Early Career Professionals Organization and currently leads the ATO chapter. Tyler is also currently pursuing his MBA at California Lutheran University and received his BA in Psychology from UCLA in 2010.
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Regulatory Affairs Manager, CMC
Amgen
Jessica Sawyer
Assistant Research Professor
Duke University
Assistant Research Professor, Duke University. Jessica is an assistant research professor in the Pharmacology and Cancer Biology Department at Duke University. She is the director of undergraduate studies of Pharmacology at Duke and director of the Duke Amgen Scholar Program. In the laboratory, she uses the fruit fly as a model to understand mechanisms of tissue repair.
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Assistant Research Professor
Duke University
Naomi Schaffer
Coordinator
Amgen Scholars Global Program Office
Coordinator, Amgen Scholars Global Program Office. Naomi is the Amgen Scholars Global Programs Office (GPO) Coordinator, operating out of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. She supports the operation of the Amgen Scholars Program globally by working with the host institutions (including Harvard) and the Amgen Foundation. Before joining URAF, she served as a Program Coordinator in the Graduate Program at Harvard Law School.
https://amgenscholars.com/
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Coordinator
Amgen Scholars Global Program Office
Jessica Silverman
Content & Collaborations Manager
LabXchange
Content & Collaborations Manager, LabXchange. Jessica coordinates the development and curation of digital life sciences curriculum differentiated for high school audiences. Jessica has a passion for making science accessible to all learners and spent six years teaching chemistry and biology at Newton South High School. Before teaching at the high school level, Jessica completed her Ph.D. in microbiology in the Heldwein lab at the Tufts Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences.
https://www.labxchange.org/
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Content & Collaborations Manager
LabXchange
Ivan Simpson-Kent
PhD candidate
University of Cambridge
PhD candidate, University of Cambridge. Ivan is a Ph.D. student at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. His research attempts to understand how the brain and behaviour interact with each other during childhood and adolescence to produce intelligence. He hopes to apply insights from his research to help guide education policy, especially for disadvantaged youth struggling to learn in school.
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PhD candidate
University of Cambridge
Miguel Sobral
PhD candidate
Harvard University
PhD candidate, Harvard University. Miguel is a graduate student in the Bioengineering department within the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), working in the lab of David Mooney, PhD. His research lies at the interface between materials science and immunology, with his thesis work focusing on the development of new biomaterials-based cancer vaccines. Before graduate school, Miguel obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 2017. He is originally from Lisbon, Portugal.
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PhD candidate
Harvard University
Nancy Street
Associate Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Associate Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UT Southwestern Medical Center. Nancy Street is the Associate Dean and Diversity and Inclusion Officer of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Driven by her interest in graduate education and a desire to impact the next generation of young scientists, she is leads efforts related to diversity and inclusion, graduate school policy, recruitment, summer undergraduate research programs and, most recently, launched an initiative to diversify the postdoctoral population. Dr. Street serves as an external reviewer/consultant for PhD and NIH sponsored programs, on NIH and NSF study section and plays an active role in AAMC initiatives.
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Associate Dean, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Sara Thoi
Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins University
Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University. Professor V. Sara Thoi was raised in Los Angeles, CA and found her love for chemistry as a high school student. As a first-generation college graduate, she obtained her B.S. in Chemistry in 2008 at UC San Diego, where she conducted research in coordination complexes and metal organic frameworks with Prof. Seth Cohen. She then traveled up the state to UC Berkeley where she received her PhD in Chemistry in 2013, studying molecular catalysts for photo- and electrochemical reduction of protons and carbon dioxide with Prof. Chris Chang. Sara subsequently completed her postdoctoral work on the development of metal-carbon composites for solid acid fuel cells at Caltech in the Materials Science Department with Prof. Sossina Haile. She joined the Department of Chemistry at JHU in 2015 as an assistant professor. Her research group is focused on 1) the development of conductive metal and covalent organic frameworks for electrode and electrolyte materials in energy storage devices, 2) the use of porous carbons and novel metal nanomaterials as scaffolds for catalytic reactions, and 3) the discovery of new molecular metal complexes for activating energy-relevant small molecules. Recently, Sara was recognized as a Scialog Fellow for Advanced Energy Storage by the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement and a NSF CAREER Award.
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Assistant Professor
Johns Hopkins University
Andy Whiteley
PhD candidate
Duke University
PhD candidate, Duke University. Andy Whiteley participated in the Amgen Scholars Program in 2017 at UCLA under the mentorship of Dr. Heather Christofk. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 2018, he joined the Molecular Cancer Biology graduate program at Duke University. At Duke, Andy joined the lab of Dr. Dorothy Sipkins and is currently studying the microenvironmental niches that permit cancer cell proliferation and migration using state-of-the-art multiphoton and confocal imaging in vivo, in real-time. His primary focus is central nervous system metastasis in breast cancer and leukemia.
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PhD candidate
Duke University
Joy Wolfram
Assistant Professor
Mayo Clinic
Assistant Professor, Mayo Clinic. Dr. Joy Wolfram leads a nanomedicine research laboratory at Mayo Clinic. Her goal is to develop innovative nanoparticles that bring the next generation of treatments directly to the clinic. She has designed many preclinical nanoparticles for treating cancer and other life-threatening diseases and has authored over 50 publications in the past five years. She is a board member and scientific advisor of several companies around the world with a cumulative customer base of over 18 million. She is actively involved in scientific outreach and as a TED speaker strives to bring science to a wider audience.
https://www.mayo.edu/research/labs/nanomedicine-extracellular-vesicles
About Joy Wolfram
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Assistant Professor
Mayo Clinic
Elgin Yalin
Molecular HIV Surveillance Investigator
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Molecular HIV Surveillance Investigator, CDC. Elgin Yalin is an Amgen Scholar Alumni from the 2016 cohort at the National Institute of Health. She currently works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. Her role includes molecular HIV cluster detection and response aimed at ending the epidemic. She has experience in tuberculosis contact investigations and emergency response deployments for COVID-19 and malaria drug releases. She received her BS in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Elgin does not represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the United States government in any way.
https://amgenscholars.com/from-the-covid-19-frontlines-an-amgen-scholar-makes-her-mark/
About Elgin Yalin
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Molecular HIV Surveillance Investigator
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Joshua Young
Co-founder
Nephrosant
Co-founder, Nephrosant. Joshua Young is a biotech entrepreneur who was an Amgen Scholar in 2013. After graduating Summa Cum Laude and as Valedictorian in Bioengineering from UC San Diego, he completed an M.Eng. in Translational Medicine at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, where he co-founded Nephrosant, a startup that has raised $6.1 million in funding to commercialize noninvasive diagnostics for kidney disease. He is currently an MD-PhD student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, an MBA student at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and an intern at ARCH Venture Partners, the premier biotech venture capital firm.
https://joshuayang.com/
About Joshua Young
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Co-founder
Nephrosant
