ELRIG Drug Discovery Liverpool 2023 – with Zahra Jawad
Interview by Alicia Overall, Domainex Ltd.
Zahra Jawad is the founder and CEO of Creasallis, a company focused on antibody remodeling to improve penetration and treatment of solid tumours. Zahra introduced the company and their revolutionary work in her talk, ‘Creating enhanced biotherapeutics for oncology: The drug discovery perspective’, at ELRIG’s Drug Discovery Liverpool 2023. After her talk, I sat down with Zahra and discussed her time at Drug Discovery 2023, career, work, advice, and everything in between.
- What drew you to present at ELRIG?
It is the Flagship Drug Discovery conference in the UK. It is also free so making it accessible for people to attend, of all grades and seniority levels. Its central location makes it easy to travel from around the country. ELRIG is a unique space, being such a large gathering of scientists and with displays of all the latest gadgets. Furthermore, it is not too time intensive being 2 days.
- Is there anything about ELRIG that stands out to you?
It is heavily focused on drug discovery, covering the whole process from the initial research all the way to the clinic. The focus used to be more on small molecules, but we’re now starting to see antibody and cell therapeutics. All these ‘worlds’ can learn from each other – especially since the small molecule drug discovery process is much more mature than the antibody which is much more mature than the gene and cell therapy space.
- Have you attended ELRIG before? If so, has the event differed or anything that has stood out this year compared to previous years.
I have attended but normally only the one day, so this is a lot bigger. It has all the vendors you would need in one place. The different tracks of the talks were great, and it was acceptable to come and go as you needed. It was also brilliant that it was in Liverpool as people in the south got to meet with people in the north. It was also lovely that people made the effort to travel.
- Would you come back again?
Yes
- Did you have a favourite talk?
The keynotes were really good. I stuck more to the biopharma space, as this is what I know and what is relevant to me, but all the talks were very interesting. The AI talks were brilliant as well – they should definitely keep this stream going forward.
- What do you think makes ELRIG special/ different to other conferences?
It is free, which encourages many people to attend and enables this unique blend of scientists. When conferences are expensive you do not get the representation across the companies; those conferences seem to be tailored more towards senior members. ELRIG, however, is really focused and inclusive towards the younger researchers, which really stood out with the networking and career events on offer. The speed dating for early career professionals is not seen at other conferences and does help make a difference for those attending.
Your Career
- Have there been any challenges you have faced in your career?
Hundreds! Where do you want me to start?
I learnt that you need to resolve one thing at a time and that the more senior you are the bigger and more problematic the problems become.
There are scientific challenges like actually getting things to work, people challenges which occur when people do not share the same values and or may not be on the same page, and cultural challenges when you need to understand why companies do what they do.
For a lot of women, a big struggle is being heard. Many traits that are viewed as desirable in a leader are stereotypically male traits. Lots of women do not feel this way inclined but often feel they should be, or are even coached to behave this way. It is still possible to demonstrate good leadership while also showing heart and to do it with grace. Sometimes the workplace needs heart!
Women also take on more of the ‘Labours of Love’, often meaning that they miss out on attending conferences or taking on sole responsibility for childcare, for example. It creates a challenge at work and further has an emotional toll too. A way to overcome this, for men too, is to help each other. For instance, lend a hand in first thing if someone has a large experiment to run. It’s surprising how generous people are when there is a culture of people helping each other.
- Anything you would have done differently in your career?
No, you do the right thing for yourself at the time. I made decisions that were right for me at the time, but others may have made different choices.
I have no regrets but I do wish someone had told me to keep going – times are tough, people will take those opportunities before you, even when you are working hard. You need someone to say you will get there in the end, because you will.
- What motivated you to join science?
My school teacher, he was brilliant – he was a key person who got me interested, and saw my talent. He would give me projects to work on over the summer holidays on topics that we were not covering in class. Never underestimate the power of a great teacher – I was 12 when he taught me. Back then, I never imagined a life in research and pharma but opportunities arise through life and show themselves.
- Any advice for an ECP?
Remember life is full of choices – you cannot have it all today. It takes a while to build yourself up, those that do the best are those that persevere. Do not forget resilience! Priorities will shift – sometimes life takes priority and sometimes work will, and that is fine too. Nobody has it all, I made some choices and I am willing to accept that.
If you’re lucky and patient, you’ll find a boss in one job that will let you fly – not everyone will get you and understand you and you have to be patient with that. Also make your own opportunities, if you know you can. They key is to find people who believe you’re capable of doing more.
- Interesting fact someone wouldn’t know by your CV?
I had intended to become a dentist, but I did really badly in my A levels. As I didn’t get into my university course straight away, I went through clearing and got a place to study Biochemistry at Kings College London. It was the best thing to happen to me, though in my first year I hated it! I actually applied to dentistry courses in the States, did a year of that and hated it even more, so I came back to biochemistry and then never looked back. Final year went really well – I got a medal for my contributions and that was when I realised science was for me.
Talk:
- What led you into this research?
I was head of innovation at the company I worked at before and was asked to bring in a bispecific antibody platform, which was something the company could use. The leaders of the company knew we needed to innovate and bring in new things. Getting a molecule to the clinic is really labour intensive, and it becomes the biggest priority of a company, which takes up a lot of the company resources. So on the ground, it’s a stressful environment, and its very difficult to squeeze innovation into that space. You can innovate, as long as you are not interfering with the resources and equipment of the organization, and that is impossible. So I realized to bring innovations into the world, being in pharma and biotech wasn’t the best space to do this, and creating a startup was the best way.
- What aspect of this work are you most excited for?
The most exciting thing is the pure science – the moment when you see the band on the gel and it’s the right size. The little successes, they are still magic – that is what excites me most about my job. I also love seeing things grow and develop, leaving that chaos behind and getting everyone to work together.
- What has been the biggest challenge both research and business wise?
For research, it would be having no money and getting the key experiments done on a small budget. I do not have access to the equipment I once did. You have to get creative about how to get these answers without money, often calling on great favours from old friends.
The biggest business challenge as a scientist is understanding how a business works, getting the investment and knowing what a good investor looks like. Investors get involved in many different ways, but you need to learn how to structure your argument. You can’t just show an investor a nice PCR, rather you need the angle and argument behind it. There is a translation that’s necessary between what we do in the lab and what a customer or investor wants. The big picture and view on the company is essential.
- Did you ever imagine yourself as a CEO of your own start up?
No, never. It was a dream, but never thought I was going to live that dream. And it is lovely to be living it! It gives a view of a company that you have never seen before. There is a lot of responsibility, the buck stops with you and everything is your problem – CEO is the Chief Everything-is-your-problem Officer! I am still heavily involved in the lab, as this is what drives me and is the best part of science. And when you create your startup, you can re-define your rules and so its ok for a CEO to be in a lab. There is a lot of value of senior people being in a lab, the problem solving comes easier and we often know how to get things to work – or give up. But as a senior person in a lab, it helps me connect to my team and understand the reality of what is going on, so I am not making any promises that we can’t keep.
