@arob1000 on Farcaster: "Overwhelmed by how many of you..."

6mo

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Overwhelmed by how many of you want science content so here is a quick intro about me in my professional capacity. I’m a PhD scientist and have spent the past 5 years working to develop next-gen cancer immunotherapy drugs. I work in Research Oncology department of a mid-sized biopharma and lead a small team where we pair our expertise of mass spectrometry-based proteomics with others with different skillsets to quickly tackle complex problems that are impossible to solve alone. I've seen my work directly help patients with no other options which keeps me motivated day to day. I'm happy to answer any questions about my research or science in general!

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overwhelming feedback from new users is that the content on farcaster is often too farcaster-centric. sharing a few topics i would love to read more on farcaster (and please lmk if any of these are in your wheelhouse bc i would love to help amplify!): 1. popular culture! trend analyses and insights on culture (and no

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This is epic! I used to do synbio cancer research and some postdocs in my lab were doing CAR T therapy I never loved immunology 🤣 so my focus was engineered bacteria to deliver intratumoral cytotoxins.. left academia after my postdoc but I miss being at the bench! Excited to see more about what you do on here!

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Oh cool. Are you still in science? We’re working on making T Cell Engagers that are inactive until they get into the tumor microenvironment. Not too many scientists here 😂

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I'm in biotech but no longer doing work at the bench.. just at a computer and in meetings all day 🤣 That's awesome! The tumor microenvironment is so fascinating.. i just love that bacteria treat it like a safe haven and we can use that to our advantage

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Ah cool! I’m still doing science but haven’t been doing much lab work lately…have a small team in the lab but spend most of my time in meetings/planning experiments.

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It seems that's the trajectory no matter where you end up in science.. even PIs eventually become grant writers. I do still get to plan experiments which I love. Does wonders for the wrists not having to pipette. I used to use spheroids for testing...which meant a LOT of 96-well plate washes Do you enjoy leading a team?

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Amazing stuff man , you guys are definitely heroes

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Appreciate it man!

I don’t understand any of this but giant kudos to you and your team

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Thanks Alina! tldr we're a multi-disciplinary team making cancer immunotherapy drugs for people with solid tumors.

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what are the biggest breakthroughs in cancer therapeutics you're excited about?

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I'm a bit biased but I'm super excited about what we're doing in immunotherapy. We're fulfilling the promise of having your own immune system fight cancer making T-Cell Engagers for solid tumors. The drug is basically a signal for your body's to use your T-Cells to come in and kill cancer cells.

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Fantastic! I am MD and have spent 25 years in the healthcare industry, helping many patients get access to new medications, and was involved in clinical trials phase I-IV. But I mostly deal with NFTs last few years 🤣

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That's a huge career shift! I didn't know you were a MD. Our wave one drugs are in clinical trials now, just finished dose escalation and look promising so far. 🤞

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Fantastic, hope the results are good. As long as the adverse events are tolerable 🤞 I was thinking about getting back to work as a consultant, or board member, will see.

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Seems like it so far 🤞 Board member is the way to go, easy $$$ for very little work

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Are you focused on a particular type of cancer e.g., blood, tumor?

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Actually all solid tumors, very broad use.

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Right on. I love to hear immunotherapy (and other novel cancer treatment) advancements. My son had leukemia around the time the t-cell treatments were gaining steam. We saw the damage (and efficacy) of current protocols firsthand, and I’m eager to see more targeted therapies gain traction. Thanks for your work!

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No problem! That's really tough, sorry you went through that. We're working on something called a T-Cell Engager. It's like t-cell treatments but for solid tumors and was way too toxic until we developed a way for the drug to be inactive until it gets to the tumor.

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That’s brilliant, love to hear stuff like that. So much potential. And the kid is doing great 13+ years later :D

My kid at 3:26:20 😏 https://www.youtube.com/liv...

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That's fantastic! It's clear you're passionate about your work, and it's truly inspiring to hear about a PhD scientist like yourself making such a direct impact on patients' lives.

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