Q&A With August’s Featured Editor: Jane Cullis
Jane Cullis is a Science Advisor in Goodwin’s New York office.
BMW: When you were 8, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Jane: I don’t remember exactly what I wanted to be at the age of 8, but my interest in science was always evident in some (sometimes obscure) way. For example, my father is a biochemistry professor and would take my brother and me to the lab every weekend, letting us race down the long hallways on swivel chairs while he worked in his office. However, at the end of the day he would usually find me in the chemical room with his graduate students, deriving an unusual amount of pleasure from methodically cataloguing reagents. At holiday parties, I would dress up in my mother’s fashionable outfits and then, to her horror, pair them with a mad scientist wig, lab goggles and rubber gloves. My inclination for science became most clear at the age of 11 when I lived in Paris for a year and failed every class except for science and math, where I was the top student. After this traumatic experience, I realized it was something I should probably stick to.
BMW: Interesting fact about you?
Jane: I was a runway model and an elite runner throughout my Ph.D. During fashion week I would actually run to my shows so that I wouldn’t miss a workout. My lab mates used to advertise my runway shows on the white board, which certainly perplexed many of the scientists working next to us.
BMW: What spurred your interest in life sciences?
Jane: I am drawn to solving problems, which is particularly relevant to the field of cancer research. I focused on pancreatic cancer in my Ph.D. and postdoctoral work because it is such a lethal disease for which we have relatively little understanding and few therapeutic options. Specifically, I was interested in the immune landscape of pancreatic cancer because I think it holds the greatest opportunity for therapeutic success. Transitioning into the drug development and biosimilars field at Goodwin was particularly appealing to me as it gives me the opportunity to be part of making therapies more affordable and available to patients who might benefit from them, including immunotherapies that may one day be effective in currently incurable diseases like pancreatic cancer.
To learn more about Jane Cullis, click here to view her full biography.