Science, Family, and a Full-Time Job: How Industry PhD Made Dr. Lauren Gauthier’s Academic & Career Dreams Possible

By Enryka Christopher 

Enryka Christopher (EC): Tell me a little bit about your background and what drew you to pursue a PhD through the Industry PhD pathway? 

Lauren Gauthier (LG): I had the opportunity to work in the Vermont Lung Center research lab and intern with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in college. I decided to go into the workforce after graduating to “find out” what I wanted to focus on in graduate school, and I started my career in toxicology at Pfizer. I loved my job and everything I was learning in drug development, so I did not want to leave that growth curve for grad school full-time. I completed my MS while working full time, and a few years later, I joined Takeda Pharmaceuticals. The first question my mentor, Dr. Yvonne Dragan, asked was, “What are we going to do about a PhD?”  

I started attending classes to meet requirements for a Pharmaceutical Science PhD, and I was accepted into the program through the Industry PhD pathway working with Dr. Mansoor Amiji’s lab after my daughter was born. I applied to the PhD program because I had spent several years learning on the job but also wanted to prove to myself (and colleagues) that I had the critical thinking skills earned in a PhD. I also wanted to show my kids that you can achieve anything. 

EC: What did you focus on in your PhD at Northeastern?

LG: I identify safety concerns associated with immune-modulating drugs in non-human primates and see how that safety knowledge I learn from animals can be translated to improving the safety of these drugs for humans.  

EC: Why is your PhD research important to the world? 

LG: To be administered to people, drugs must be safe. In the field of medicine, especially in developed countries, this concept, known as “drug safety,” is not new. In the United States of America (USA), over a century of drug development experience, including a variety of tragic instances involving unsafe drugs, has led to the creation of new laws, acts, and changes to existing regulations that are focused on drug safety. For example, in October 1937, the use of the antibiotic sulfanilamide caused the death of more than 100 people in the USA. These deaths were caused by the addition of diethylene glycol (DEG), the excipient used as a solvent for the active drug. Diethylene glycol was supposed to be inert, with no therapeutic benefits; however, it was toxic and led to fatal side effects. The developers of sulfanilamide had not evaluated the safety of their drug prior to marketing, because, at the time, there were no standing regulations or laws requiring them to do so. In reaction to this calamity, the United States Congress passed the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which required proof of safety of a drug before they are marketed for public use.  Under current regulations and best practices, the primary assessment of a drug’s safety, prior to human administration in the clinic (i.e. nonclinically), is accomplished through animal modeling. However, no model is perfect, and the animal models used for nonclinical drug development are no exception. This is particularly true for drugs that target and affect the immune system.  My research highlighted the differences in animal (NHP) vs human responses to immune-modulating drugs based on their immune system development and how it impacts our confidence administering these drugs safely to patients.  

EC: What about the Industry PhD pathway have you appreciated the most? 

LG: I appreciated my advisor Dr. Amiji, my husband, and the community at Northeastern and Takeda that rallied around me in support while working full time earning my PhD. When I was first working towards my PhD, I was a new mom and COVID had turned everything remote or made it exponentially harder to complete lab work. For instance, I took my qualifying exams remotely from home while my husband and friends watched my kids all day because daycare was closed. Dr. Amiji was my biggest champion, balancing his push of me to keep generating data and hypotheses while also recognizing the load of working full time and managing kids home in a global pandemic. He seamlessly embodied the word “advisor,” evaluating single cell RNAseq data one minute and guiding me on next steps in my thesis work and then finishing a call making sure to say “Hi” to my son or daughter at the end. When people say that it takes a village to succeed in life, you envision the neighbors and friends who support your family. You never envision that it would be an amazing academic advisor as one of those key pillars in your life.  

EC: What have been some challenges and highlights regarding your Industry PhD journey at Northeastern? 

LG: Work/life/school balance. I had over 12 years of lab experience when I started my industry PhD program, but I did not have a lab-based role when I joined Takeda. I often joked that trying to learn where everything was and how instrumentation worked at Takeda was like cooking a gourmet meal in an Airbnb kitchen with plastic utensils, I was very out of my comfort zone. But your PhD is meant to push you out of your comfort zone and teach you new aspects of critical thinking. It is a time commitment and dedication outside of your 9-5 job! 

EC: What would you say to a potential student who is interested in the Industry PhD pathway at Northeastern? 

LG: Do it! You will never learn more about your area of expertise and yourself than this program! 

The Industry PhD pathway offers working professionals a route to pursue a doctoral degree while remaining employed. This flexible approach allows students to pursue a PhD in their field while leveraging their industry position for research and practical applications.  To learn more, contact Jason Sidman ([email protected]).