Last spring, we started a new series of blog posts introducing Perlara team members – from new hires, to not-so-new hires and, in our last post, a long-time Perlara team member. Our goal has been to spotlight the Perlara scientists who may not have started out in the life sciences looking to cure rare diseases, but have grown a passion for the cause. Adapting HBO’s “Because of Her” campaign (#BecauseOfHer), which highlights female talent behind the camera, we introduce two Perlara scientists who work hard at making a dent in a male-dominated field.
Meet two members of the Perlara team
Hillary Tsang
What led you to Perlara?
I found Perlara looking through the list of companies that YC [Y Combinator] had invested in. In my indecision over what to do after graduation (continue with more school or go out and be a “real person”), I applied to some biotech start-ups on a whim and ended up really enjoying learning about the industry. What stood out to me about Perlstein Lab [the precursor to Perlara] was its approach to research and drug discovery using simple model organisms that are oftentimes overlooked and under-appreciated in industry. I was also excited about the opportunity to see the various stages of model development and drug screening at a startup, and maybe take a hand at trying on some hats of my own.
What are you working on?
Currently, my main focus is on the worm pipeline of our NGLY1 collaboration with Grace Science Foundation, which has been a pretty interesting project. To summarize, our collaboration started with a natural history study in NGLY-1 mutant flies, during which we learned about a chemical suppressor that would induce a phenotype in our otherwise healthy-looking NGLY-1 mutant worms, which we were able to reproduce in-house and adapt for use in our high-throughput screen. The last few plates of the screen were imaged late last month, so recently my days have been spent sifting through the data. As one of the older worm team members, I’ve had a hand in most of the other disease projects – from characterizing strains to developing screens and setting up data analysis pipelines – so I also get drafted to support other projects, especially as we take on more PerlQuests that demand some additional (wo)manpower.
Why do you like going to work?
It’s fun! I get to do meaningful work contributing to research for rare, and ultra-rare, diseases in a supportive environment that encourages me to explore my interests.
What do Perlara’s vision, mission and core values mean to you?
Perlara’s commitment to serving even the smallest patient populations, coupled with a dedication to open science, are a huge part of why working here is so personally fulfilling. Otherwise mundane and less-than-glamorous tasks in the lab carry a new weight when you realize that your work brings hope for a potential therapeutic to the families and patient advocacy groups that we work with.
Feba Sam
What led you to Perlara?
I chanced upon the Research Associate posting for the Cell Biology Team as I was searching for a job after I graduated with a Masters from Arizona State University. During my interview, Nina explained what Perlara works on and I immediately fell in love with the work and how I would be able to contribute. I was fascinated to learn about the simple model organisms (yeast, C. elegans, drosophila and zebrafish) that Perlara designs and uses for identifying potential therapeutics (by conducting high throughput drug screens with libraries containing thousands of compounds). After graduating, I wanted to work somewhere where I would be able to make a difference in people’s lives, and that is exactly what I am getting to do at Perlara.
What are you working on?
I am currently working on mammalian cell models of two diseases – PMM2-congenital disorder of glycosylation (PMM2-CDG) and N-glycanase (NGLY1) deficiency. I recently developed a high throughput (HT) PMM2 enzymatic assay, and I’m currently using it as a secondary screen to test the hits from the yeast and worm HT primary screens. For NGLY1, I am working on optimizing a Nrf2 transcription factor assay kit, which can then be used to characterize hits from our worm and fly NGLY1 screens.
Why do you like going to work?
Apart from the science, I absolutely love the people and work culture at Perlara. Everyone in the company is just so friendly and helpful. Even though we have 4 teams within our company, we are really just one huge team. We contribute ideas, troubleshoot and come up with solutions for each other. Most important of all, the fact that we are collaborating with real people and their families, making a difference and giving them hope is what makes all the hard work worthwhile.
What do Perlara’s vision, mission and core values mean to you?
Most of the companies get behind diseases that have a huge patient population, but Perlara is trying to help find therapeutics for diseases that have the smallest of patient populations. Perlara is giving hope to patients and families who have gone door to door, trying to find anyone who is willing to work on their disease. We are open about our science as well as the business aspect, and have regular blog posts documenting the same. I think this is excellent as we are helping families and other researchers understand what we do here at Perlara (it’s not all a big secret!) I find all of this really special, and I am proud to be a part of Perlara.
We’ll be introducing more Perlara team members in the coming months. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for their new work discovering cures for rare diseases.
