Title: Scientist 1
Employer: AbbVie Biotherapeutics
Prior Position: Research Associate, Amunix Operating Inc.

Grace is passionate about both biology and chemistry, and puts both of these to good use in her career in pharmaceutical research. During her time in Integrative Biology, she worked as an undergraduate researcher in the Caceres lab working on Daphnia and in the Fuller lab doing molecular work. Since graduating in 2011 she has worked in the pharmaceutical industry, at both Amunix Operating Inc. and most recently AbbVie Bioteherapeutics.

In her current position at AbbVie, Grace gets to work with cutting-edge robotics, software, and technology such as CAR-T engineering and CRISPR. She works at the edge of innovation, developing techniques to aid in oncology target discovery. Some of her duties include purifying and characterizing mAbs, bispecific antibodies, and antigens for early stage immuno-oncology discovery research. She conducts experiments to increase the purity and yield of antigen / antibody purification and utilizes statistical software such as R to analyze historical data and interpret trends to expose critical elements of their process and improve them accordingly.

Her undergraduate degree in Integrative Biology set the foundation for her career in immuno-oncology research. Not only did she learn from leaders in this field, but she also had the opportunity to conduct her own undergraduate research. This taught her how to organize a lab, collaborate across disciplines, and present her data in a meaningful way.

Grace would be a great person to talk to about jobs in industry, non-academic research, and pharmaceuticals. She has a lot of fun working at a large biotech company, working at the edge of innovation, and she would love to tell you more about what she gets to do!

“The best part of my job is knowing that there is always a solution and a path to improvement; I need only to find it.”

Contact Christina Swanson at alumnimentor@sib.illinois.edu if you would like to connect with Grace.