The success of IHB owes much to the wonderful and inspiring people who work in its labs. We are featuring Elisabeth Gill, Scientist, and Stephanie Schoepp, Postdoctoral Researcher, both part of the IHB Organoid Engineering team.
“I am excited about the increasing use of bio-engineered technologies and the future of organoids in the pharmaceutical industry. My aim is to continue contributing to more efficient drug discovery.”
Elisabeth Gill
Scientist
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“I believe being part of the IHB means being at the forefront of science, bringing together scientific experts in the field to advance organoid research towards practical applications in drug design.”
Stephanie Münchau Schöpp
Postdoctoral Researcher
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Elisabeth “Lizzie” Gill (LG): I was initially motivated by my mother’s rare cancer diagnosis, the limited scientific understanding of its cause and mechanism and the lack of options for treatment, which led me to pursue engineering to solve problems with tangible impact. This evolved into an interest in tissue engineering and I found that it was an amazing way to try to unpick the root causes of disease and open up the possibility of designing more targeted therapeutics. Along the way, especially during challenging times, I was further inspired by passionate scientists and the beauty observed in science photography. These experiences further fueled my scientific curiosity.
Stephanie Münchau Schöpp (SMS): I also was inspired by my mother- I grew up around animals since she is a large animal veterinarian and zoo director- and my childhood fostered a connection to science but not primarily towards veterinary medicine. I too felt scientific curiosity about biological processes which led me to study biology. My mother also has an autoimmune disease and this personal experience with disease further steered me towards immunology and the desire to understand and translate scientific knowledge into solutions for patients. This motivation led me to join IHB and work on relevant projects.
SMS: In addition to what I mentioned earlier, I want to highlight the collaborative spirit within the IHB and its connection to other departments at Roche, which is essential for translating projects into useful tools for drug discovery. I was inspired by the strong internal and cross-team collaboration at the IHB, as compared to my previous experience in a smaller company where problem-solving was more solitary. The ability to connect with experts from various fields and pitch ideas to people with diverse backgrounds is a unique and valued aspect of IHB and Roche.
LG: I can echo Stephanie, and add a comment about the efficiency-focused and less siloed nature of work at IHB compared to my personal experience in academia. The mission of IHB to translate bioengineering technologies to what can help patients in the nearer future is another reason I was drawn to IHB.
LG: Stephanie and I joined IHB around the same time, and our projects faced similar initial hurdles. Collaboration between us was logical due to our different backgrounds in engineering and biology. We are working on two projects with some overlapping major milestones, focusing on developing an organoid chip platform for drug screenings but different end objectives. This interdisciplinary collaboration, combining our expertise, has been crucial for the platform’s development.
The central aim of our projects is to predict the amount of orally administered drugs that reach general circulation to optimise dosage and minimise side effects (above representative image, more).
LG: My project focuses on the small intestine, an early key site where orally administered drug concentration is typically reduced due to permeability and metabolism, processes that existing tools often model separately despite their interconnectedness. The project uses organoids to generate more reliable data for physiologically-based computational models, aiming for a balance between physiological complexity and high-throughput screening. The project is innovative by having computational modelers guide in vitro experiments to obtain optimal, predictive data, contrasting with the traditional approach of fitting models to existing data. This envisioned “lab in the loop” concept, coined by Genentech’s R&D unit, involves an iterative process where computational design informs experiments, and the resulting data refines the models and validates it, ultimately making in vitro lab work more efficient by identifying the essential experiments to run. Initial validation data from this approach has been remarkably clean and consistent.
SMS: For my project, I am connected to various groups along the drug development pipeline, focusing on bridging the gap and working on a test platform to predict compound permeability and metabolism throughout the whole intestine. The focus includes evaluating complex molecules and oral delivery of larger molecules, aiming to improve drug uptake through formulation modulation and understanding different disease and age groups. My work considers drug absorption variability across different gut regions and patient populations, utilising the same organoid-based model that Lizzie is using for physiologically-based computational modeling to understand the biology and use it as a tool to ultimately improve drug design. Future plans involve evaluating the platform’s predictive capabilities across a wider range of compounds to assess its broader applicability and transferring the assay to other departments.
This project has been ongoing for nearly two years, with initial proof-of-concept studies using a subset of relevant marketed compounds with different specificity and different behaviour in the gut, looking at both metabolism and permeability with a publication on the way.
SMS: I believe being part of IHB means being at the forefront of science, bringing together scientific experts in the field to advance organoid research towards practical applications in drug design.
LG: From my perspective, I view IHB as a startup within a large pharmaceutical company, characterised by a nimble and innovative environment where cutting-edge science is pursued with resources to pursue these problems. I think we can both agree that the IHB community fosters a collaborative spirit, focusing on efficient project completion and mutual support, and importantly encouraging embracing new areas of learning.
LG: I am excited about the increasing use of bio-engineered technologies and the future of organoids in the pharmaceutical industry and my aim is to continue contributing to more efficient drug discovery.
SMS: I completely share this sentiment, I enjoy the bridge between academia and the applied pharmaceutical industry, with a future focus on translating science into impactful technologies for drug discovery. IHB has prepared us well for interdisciplinary thinking and cross-collaboration, enhancing our science communication skills and providing a unique perspective on drug development. The environment at IHB serves as a valuable learning experience, bridging our academic backgrounds with the practicalities of pharmaceutical science which we are eager to continue exploring.
SMS: I appreciate the diverse interactions with people from various nationalities and professional backgrounds at IHB, fostering significant learning opportunities. The growing size of the institute brings in more individuals with interesting stories and experiences to be exposed to and learn from. Beyond IHB, the connection with the wider Roche environment offers exposure to different aspects of the pharmaceutical world, such as being able to get insights into GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) production to see how an oral tablet is made and ultimately understanding how an initial idea for a medicine is developed into an actual product on the market .
LG: I also think opportunities like internal networking platforms that further facilitate connections across different Roche sites have been so beneficial. The exposure to diverse roles and global infrastructure within Roche is also highly valued.
Interview article by guest contributing writer Safia Irfan.