One aspect of biotechnology is discovering molecules that can be used to treat diseases. Once a research team discovers one of these molecules, which we call "therapeutic molecules", we have to make sure it can actually be produced and isolated at large scales. That's where I come in. Molecules (like proteins) are often surrounded by "impurities", or other molecules or debris that we don't want. I run experiments to try to figure out whether we can isolate and purify a potential therapeutic molecule (which means removing all those impurities) well enough to use it in treatments.

At Amgen, we work in teams, and each team consists of different kinds of scientists who play a unique role in the process. On my team, we use filtration and chromatography as our primary tools. Chromatography is a technique that allows us to isolate specific parts of a substance. It involves a mixture, including the target protein that interacted with compacted beads contained in a column. We use a variety of tools to figure out whether the molecules we're interested in can be purified and isolated at a large scale. If they can, we're helping develop the process that other teams at our company should take to get them ready for real world applications, like new medicines.

The initial discovery of a "cure" or treatment for a disease is really only the beginning of drug development. Most of the work is about figuring out how to turn a discovery into a medicine that can actually scale in the real world. There are a lot of pieces to that, and my piece is helping to test and built those processes. Not every discovery becomes a real world treatment, but it's really rewarding being part of the process. It takes a lot of different people doing their part and working together. On a personal level, I’m grateful that I can contribute to a healthier society in a way that I enjoy.