Sophie Zaaijer Ph.D.
Dr. Sophie Zaaijer is a multifaceted innovator at the intersection of science, entrepreneurship, and the arts.
As a scientific consultant and researcher, Dr. Zaaijer's current focus is on identifying the necessary, scientific and infrastructure requirements to establish inclusive pre-clinical and clinical workflows within the pharmaceutical industry and academic settings.
With a passion for advancing biomedical research by improving research methodologies, she previously founded FIND Genomics, a startup backed by the prestigious National Institutes of Health, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute and others.
Her expertise is grounded in extensive academic experience. Dr. Zaaijer is patent holder, and conducted postdoctoral research at the New York Genome Center and Columbia University, following her Ph.D. in molecular biology and genetics from Cancer Research UK and University College London. Her research journey includes research at the National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School.
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Disclaimer: This website is self-funded and serves solely to provide information and education; it does not have a commercial purpose.
Origin of the “Equity in Drug Development Initiative”
by Sophie Zaaijer Ph.D.
Sifting through hundreds of cell model data entries while developing a cell-tracking software platform at FIND Genomics, I was struck by a glaring inconsistency: the reporting of both ancestry and gender was alarmingly incomplete. "Less than 50% of cell models in the ATCC, the largest and most used bio repository, are annotated for ancestry." But the ATCC is not alone.
This discovery led me to dig deeper, collaborating with my colleague Amanda Capes-Davies Ph.D. during the pandemic. At the time, this missing data had barely registered in the literature. We pitched our findings to Cell, whom recognized the importance of the issue and agreed to publish our paper. We made a concerted effort to highlight that the current state of affairs is not due to deliberate oversight, but rather a gradual neglect of this crucial variable. Researchers have been understandably captivated by new molecular discoveries once the ability arose of growing human cells in vitro in the 1970s. Biomedical sciences has grown exponentially in the following decades. Today more scientists than ever before are working to find cures for the numerous diseases that cause ongoing suffering. While this progress is commendable, it has inadvertently caused some fundamental aspects to be overlooked.
The response to our Cell manuscript was eye-opening. I found myself invited to speak at numerous events, where I posed a simple question to researcher audiences: "Who knows the ancestry of the cell lines they work with on a daily basis?" Without fail, only a few hands would rise, accompanied by shocked expressions by this realization and eagerness to learn and change.
The passing of a new law mandating inclusive clinical trials added urgency to our findings (FDORA, and the following Diversity Action Plan drafted by the FDA). It sparked a troubling realization: we're moving towards experimenting on diverse groups of people during clinical trials, but our preclinical data isn't annotated to support this diversity. Known high-risk alleles in drug metabolism won't be tested prior to administration in these diverse populations. This is risky, and potentially costly. How is can this be overlooked?
In conversations with various laboratories, I've found that most labs don't know where to begin addressing this issue. They're grappling with fundamental questions: Where can they source the necessary cells? How do they start this process? Who in the organization should be part of this conversation? And critically, how much more will it cost us?
My desire is to share the insights I am obtaining while researching this topic on this website. While still sparse, there are scientific publications and there are a number of vendors who offer relevant materials and tools. I attempt to compile them here.
As we stand on the brink of a new era in inclusive drug development, these challenges demand urgent solutions.
I welcome input from the community: if you know of good resources, please let me know. Do you have feedback on the content? Or would you like to see a topic covered? Let me know by sending me a note via the website.
Kind regards,
Sophie Zaaijer Ph.D.
