Karen Akinsanya
Karen Akinsanya is a biomedical scientist and pharmaceutical researcher.[1] She is the President of R&D, Therapeutics at Schrödinger.[2][3] She is also the founder of New Jersey-based My Tech Learning.[4]
Early life and education
Akinsanya was born and raised in England.[5] She received her B.Sc. in biochemistry at Queen Mary College, University of London, and her Ph.D. in endocrine physiology from the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Imperial College, University of London.[4][5]
Career and research
After academic positions at Imperial College and the Ludwig Institute for Cancer research, Akinsanya started her first job in the pharmaceutical industry, at Danish multinational Ferring Pharmaceuticals, in 1997. Here, she worked on the discovery of hormone-blocking drugs which utilize the body's natural hormone-responsive signaling to inhibit cancer cell growth. One of these drugs, Firmagon, has been approved by the US FDA for treating prostate cancer.[6]
Akinsanya came to the US in 2000. She worked at Merck Research Laboratories, focusing on pharmaceutical research from discovery research and first-in-human trials to late-stage regulatory drug label clinical pharmacology studies. She also had responsibility for the search and evaluation of early-stage therapeutic assets and technologies, along with managing significant licensing and partnership deals.[4][7]
In 2018, she joined Schrödinger. Here, she has worked on drug discovery and development along with partnerships and licensing of therapeutic assets. Her recent focus is on designing and developing molecules utilizing computational and generative AI methods. Additionally, she's working on how combining, experimental protein structures and AlphaFold's predictive structures with Schrödinger's drug design software could help create precise molecules targeting therapeutic and toxicity-related proteins.[8][5]
Akinsanya is also the founder of New Jersey-based My Tech Learning. She found the company in 2010 to make real-world science, laboratory research and technology accessible to elementary and middle schoolers through hands-on activities. Through My Tech Leaning, she also launched the Livingston STEM EdVenture Lab in February 2018.[9][10][6]
Board member
As of 2022, Akinsanya serves on the board of Nautilus Biotechnology. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Imperial College Foundation, the Board of Trustees of Rockefeller University and serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Variant Bio and Thermo Fisher Scientific. She has served as a mentor at The Prince’s Trust in the United Kingdom.[4]
References
- ↑ Twenty extraordinary women in biopharma R&D who worked their way to the top | EndPoints News | November 11, 2019
- ↑ AlphaFold could be DeepMind’s AI assistant for drug discovery | WIRED | January 30, 2024
- ↑ Schrödinger’s Equation: Physics + Machine Learning = Drug Discovery | Genetic engineering and Biotechnology News | August 18, 2023
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Nautilus Biotechnology Appoints Karen Akinsanya, Ph.D., to Board of Directors | Globe Newswire | March 31, 2022
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Improving People's Lives | Diversity in Action magazine | May 1, 2020
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Karen Akinsanya Has Found Success In Drug Discovery By Advocating For Patients—And Her Own Ideas| Chemical and Engineering News | February 22, 2021
- ↑ Students participate in Young Women in Bio event| My Central Jersey | November 14, 2017
- ↑ DeepMind’s AlphaFold opens new frontiers of research with AI| AI Magazine | August 24, 2022
- ↑ L’Oreal Innovation Scientists Inspire Campers at My Tech Learning’s STEM EdVenture Camp| Patch.com | April 1, 2019
- ↑ Graduation Day At My Tech Learning's Lab| Patch.com | July 1, 2018
