Empowerment –
Inspiring Cancer Survivors and Researchers Alike
When Beth Rosenberg, a life science sales representative, brings her daughters along on a visit with a longtime pharma customer, it’s incredibly personal. Rosenberg had a total colectomy at 13, thyroid cancer at age 25, and recently beat colorectal cancer. She lost her father before she could remember him, and many in her family have similar stories. But as her daughters Hannah and Rachel look through microscopes and ask about samples, Rosenberg is not sad. She’s reminded of the similarity between oncology research and her fight with cancer. It’s tough, and it takes extreme dedication to stay in the course.“It’s extremely hard,” Rosenberg says. “It’s not easy, and it doesn’t always work. They have a lot of failures, and in pharma you have a lot of failures. These people are really incredible. The work they do, it may not impact a person until decades later.”
For Rosenberg, who has a rare gene mutation associated with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis, a disorder that causes intestinal polyp growth (and oftentimes colon and other cancers), support from family, friends, and customers so often made the difference on bad days. She knows the services she provides give researchers a similarly empowering boost when they need it.
“Stuff happens to people, and they have a choice: to be negative or look at the positive and think about how to adjust,” she says.
In just two generations, research has made Rosenberg’s life possible, and genetic blood testing has made her daughters’ lives easier. Neither had to go for a colonoscopy as a toddler. Prenatal tests now promise to safeguard against these dramas altogether.
“The tools that have come out of it are pretty incredible,” Rosenberg acknowledges as she points out the hurdles: Only 5.1% of oncology drugs make it from Phase I testing through FDA approval, according to a 2016 study by BIO, BioMedTracker, and Amplion. That failure rate is the highest among disease types. Biomarker research programs and personalized medicine are making a difference in clinical trial attrition rates, but it’s still a daunting amount of work. Each step of the process is repetitive and intellectually demanding, following strict adherence to protocol.
“It’s incredible,” she says. “It’s moving fast and moving into different therapeutics to help people. I just love talking to customers and learning about their research and the direction it’s going.”
Today, as a research technology manager, Rosenberg leads a team that trains staff and engages with customers on innovative products offerings, including CRISPR, Cell Design Studio, and analytical separation. They show first-hand how elusive success can be, that one gene out of four can make the difference in protein expression, which, in turn, illustrates the empowerment of a custom offering that researchers don’t have to validate or troubleshoot themselves.
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At every step of the drug discovery workflow, we’re a powerful ally. We arm researchers with stronger biomarker prediction tools, quicker lead knockouts, and more robust services for bioproduction and regulatory compliance. We help researchers predict cancer with novel discovery tools, characterize cancer with proven platforms, and drive cancer therapeutics through approval and production. Our staff understand the disease’s challenges, and our goal is to empower your cancer research.
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