A Look Inside the Lab at Variant Bio
As an Associate Scientist in R&D assay development at Variant Bio, my responsibilities are to develop, validate, and optimize assays to advance the drug discovery programs in our pipeline. The main role of R&D at Variant is to functionally verify targets that come out of our genomics pipeline and then identify drugs for those targets. So for my role, I develop and perform experiments that will do just that. Previously, I worked as a research technician at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle, and as a Research Associate on strategies to overcome tumor microenvironments at Century Therapeutics.
On any given day at Variant Bio, when I first get to our lab, I make sure the cells I’m culturing are happy and that they have enough nutrients to develop. If not, I check to see if they need to be split up or have their cell culture media changed. Culturing cells is a key component of my role, as many of the assays that I work on are cell-based assays. For many targets we will engineer knock-out or knock-in cell lines using CRISPR/Cas9, inducible expression systems, or lentiviral transduction to test the impact of the target on the cell. After that, I put a lot of effort into planning, carrying out, and compiling the data from my experiments. Working in target validation and drug development means that every day is a little different. One day the focus is running an ELISA while the next I’m doing flow cytometry or generating a knockout cell line. The second half of my day is typically devoted to data analysis and interpretation, writing lab reports, attending meetings, and preparing for presentations.
Although I carry out experiments and analyze data on my own, R&D at Variant Bio is also a highly collaborative endeavor. During project meetings, everyone assigned to a particular program talks about experimental designs and how we can best work together to advance the project in question. Within the lab this collaborativeness means that I’m interacting with most of my colleagues on a daily basis to either do experiments together or discuss data and determine next steps. The most fascinating and difficult aspect of this work is that it allows us to study the target’s biology and how we can use this knowledge to develop novel therapeutics.
Working on drug discovery is incredibly challenging and intellectually fulfilling at the same time. Many of the targets that we work on are novel to our diseases of interest, so we are doing experiments with these targets that no one’s ever done before! Meaning that we generate exciting data, but also that it requires time and effort to properly develop the systems to ask and answer our questions. Although I occasionally have to perform some repetitive research tasks, the data that I collect from my work is fascinating. Also, the ability to witness the data potentially save and improve lives is one of the reasons I love working in the biotech industry. Having the opportunity to work at Variant Bio, where ethics is a priority, I truly feel motivated and inspired every day.
