Spotlight on Leadership: Women Breaking Barriers in Biotech
According to the 2022 “Measuring Diversity in the Biotech Industry” report, women now comprise 49 percent of total sector employees in biotech, compared to 47 percent in 2020 and 45 percent in 2019. This is great news for those interested in gender parity in science, but obviously not a complete picture. As the report goes on to show, only 34% of executive teams and 20% of CEOs in biotech are reported to be women. Generally speaking, women continue to be underrepresented in leadership roles throughout the industry.
In light of these facts and in honor of this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we highlight the profiles of three women scientists who are leading the charge right here at Variant Bio: Drs. Kaja Wasik (CSO and Co-Founder), Laura Yerges-Armstrong (VP of Computational Genetics), and Heather Arnett (VP of Research).
Question: How did you decide to pursue a career in science? Did you have an “Aha!” moment in which you knew this was the path you wanted to take?
Kaja: It happened organically. As a child I simply loved biology and spent hours cataloging living things around my house with a special focus on birds, water beetles, and dragonflies. I even worked as a gorilla and lemur zookeeper in Poland at some point. I enrolled in a simultaneous MS in Biology and MA in Journalism program to become a science communicator but a key turning point was when I realized I’m a very mediocre writer. This solidified my decision to pursue a PhD in Molecular Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.
Laura: As a kid I would spend a LOT of time in the non-fiction section of the library and in particular in the public health and medicine section. I distinctly recall writing my 7th grade career paper on why I wanted to be an epidemiologist. My teachers all thought I wanted to be a skin doctor (i.e. “epi”-dermis) and my best friend still teases me for reading all the “gross” books.
Heather: When you’re a girl growing up in the 90s who is good at science and math, everyone tells you that you should be a physician. I was headed down that path, and took on a summer laboratory research project, which I thought would look good on my med school application, and it was revolutionary for me. I thought that science was something you learned from a textbook; I somehow had failed to realize that most of science is still unknown, still unexplored. I realized then that I could spend my career tackling questions, through scientific experimentation, that have never been answered before, and that may ultimately help people live longer, healthier lives.
Question: Who was your role model as a scientist? Who has inspired you in this career path?
Kaja: This may sound cliché, given that I’m from Poland, but my first role model was the Polish Nobel prize winner Maria Skłodowska-Curie — also known as Marie Curie. Based on her achievements and international recognition I had no hesitation that women belong in STEM and I never let anyone stop me.
Laura: I really liked learning about Elizabeth Blackwell and not just her pursuit of a medical degree but also how she opened her own school for women clinicians. John Snow’s pump handle experiment was also one of my favorite stories — I love the focus on observation and simplicity of the intervention.
Heather: This isn’t about a particular role model, but it’s fun to note that Variant Bio has the highest representation of women in leadership positions that I’ve ever experienced in science. That’s very inspiring!
Question: What is an example of a major challenge you have encountered in your career as a scientist?
Kaja: The uneven global distribution of funds and opportunities despite an even distribution of talent. I had the luck and privilege to leave Poland where opportunities were scarce at the time and I received stellar training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the New York Genome Center, and beyond. Now I constantly meet young researchers who are phenomenally talented but don’t have access to funding, training, visas, or even stable internet access at times. This is a major challenge for the scientific community and if we don’t support young, ambitious researchers we only stifle progress.
Laura: I was really fortunate to benefit from “women in STEM” programs when I was first getting started. However, I think early iterations of these programs had a lot of messaging that said “you can do it all” and maybe set an expectation that you were supposed to do everything. It took me a while to realize nobody can do it all, and certainly can’t do it all at the same time and that it was ok to focus on different aspects of your life at different times. I’m really grateful to mentors who guided me through that and that I was able to understand that career growth was way more than linear progression on a career ladder.
Heather: One of the things I love about biology and genetics is that there is always a new challenge to take on. Sometimes you make a best guess and the hypothesis is just wrong — you have to be able to accept the data in front of you, to pivot, and go in a different direction. As scientists, it can be hard to let go of a certain way of thinking. One of the first drugs I worked on began as an idea for the treatment of scleroderma, an autoimmune disease involving fibrosis of multiple organs. It’s currently in clinical trials for a completely different indication, atopic dermatitis, with positive results. The hypothesis may change, but the ultimate goal is to help patients have a higher quality of life, and that’s always a win.
Question: What excites you about your role at Variant Bio and what’s next?
Kaja: My entire role at Variant is incredibly exciting. As the Co-Founder and CSO not only do I get to design and oversee fascinating genomic research projects but I also have the privilege to contribute to scientific capacity-building in our collaborations throughout the world. This includes training students, giving talks, and encouraging and assisting with publications with a very diverse set of collaborators. I also get to work with and learn from talented experts like Laura and Heather. Finally, I get to see projects unfolding on the ground, which sometimes means hopping in a tiny Cessna plane and landing in a desert.
Laura: I find it very motivating that Variant Bio really thinks about how we do our work, not just what we do. I am very driven to help prove that more equitable practices also make for good science and good business.
Heather: Variant is a company that’s trying to do things differently. It’s not that other companies have intentionally tried to get it wrong when it comes to genetic research –- but Variant has been very intentional, very purposeful, in trying to get it right. Our approach, with therapeutic access and benefit sharing, is both revolutionary and common-sense, all at the same time. Of course the communities that engage with us in genetic and disease-area research should benefit from that research! Why isn’t everyone doing this? I’m excited to be a part of meaningful research to understand new biology, carried out in the most ethical way possible and with the goal of making patients’ lives better.
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Kaja Wasik earned her MA in Journalism and Political Science and her MS in Molecular Biology from the University of Warsaw, Poland. She completed her PhD in Molecular Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. After a postdoc at the New York Genome Center, Kaja co-founded Gencove in 2016, followed by Variant Bio in 2018.
Laura Yerges-Armstrong earned her BS in Microbiology from Penn State University and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining Variant Bio, she served as Senior Director, Head of Statistical Genetics and Genomic Data Sciences at GSK, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland.
Heather Arnett completed her BA in Biology from Transylvania University, her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Prior to joining Variant, Heather was Head of Research at an AI-driven drug discovery start-up company, NuMedii, and spent over 13 years focused on inflammation and oncology drug discovery at Amgen.
Resources:
- Association for Women in Science: the leading organization for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
- Bio: the world’s largest biotechnology advocacy organization
- I Am a Scientist: an initiative for inclusive STEM education
- Women in Bio: an organization of professionals committed to promoting careers, leadership, and entrepreneurship for all women in the life sciences
