While the Indiana University School of Medicine is known for training the state’s physician workforce, it also graduates dozens of PhD scientists each year, infusing Indiana’s biotech sector with talent.
Several startups operating out of the 16 Tech Innovation District in Indianapolis trace their roots back to IU School of Medicine as faculty have spun out lab discoveries in hopes of bringing new drug therapies to patients. This innovation ecosystem is augmented by the IU Launch Accelerator for Biosciences, or IU LAB, which supports startups with research services and clinical trials infrastructure, along with talent development.
IU School of Medicine’s PhD programs serve as a pipeline for an increasing demand for well-trained scientists. Agnes (Zybura) Wardrop graduated with a PhD in medical neuroscience in January 2021 and now works for an IU-connected startup, Syndeio Biosciences, which develops synapse-targeted precision neurotherapeutics for cognitive and neuropsychiatric disorders — things like depression and Alzheimer’s disease.
“I feel like what I’m doing right now is a good combination of two different worlds,” said Wardrop, Syndeio’s manager of research operations. “It feels academic in some sense, where we’re doing a lot of basic research, getting into the questions of why and how things work, but then there’s the more ‘industry world’ — like, how do we support clinical trials and propel this forward?”
During her years as a graduate student at IU School of Medicine, Wardrop did a lot of networking with industry professionals in the area and attended events hosted by BioCrossroads, a corporate partnership investing in Indiana’s life sciences that includes IU School of Medicine leaders on its board of directors.
“That’s where I first heard of Derek Small, who’s our co-founder at Syndeio,” she said.
A serial biotech entrepreneur, Small has a history of partnering with researchers at the IU School of Medicine, including founding Monument Biosciences with a team of nine prominent neuroscience faculty to propel novel Alzheimer’s disease drugs into clinical trials. Syndeio traces its roots back to a venture with Anantha Shekhar, MD, PhD, IU School of Medicine’s former executive associate dean for research affairs and founding director of the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. He was instrumental in developing one of Syndeio’s lead drug compounds, a rapid-acting oral antidepressant now in clinical trials.
Before joining Syndeio, Wardrop was a method development scientist at Labcorp in Greenfield, Indiana. Her work there involved investigating the safety of drugs already in clinical trials. Now she’s shifted “upstream” in the drug development process.
“Every aspect of my PhD helped prepare me for this work,” she said. “From formulating my own hypothesis, designing my experiments, research reviews, managing those experiments on my own, identifying what I needed and picking up data skills, and learning how to successfully collaborate with others. I translate those skills on a day-to-day basis to carry out my work.”
For her PhD thesis, Wardrop chose two mentors who regularly collaborate on projects: Theodore Cummins, PhD, and Andy Hudmon, PhD. Cummins specializes in ion channel biology while Hudmon studies protein kinases, the electrical “switches” that turn cellular activities on or off.
“My thesis was investigating kinase regulation of voltage-gated sodium channels — a modulatory mechanism of neuronal excitability that could translate to hyperexcitability disorders like epilepsy,” Wardrop explained. “It was a marriage of these two different labs.”
Her co-mentors noted how Wardrop’s self-motivation and work ethic allowed her to thrive under this unusual training model.
“The biotech sector requires competent communicators, leaders, and lastly, researchers,” said Hudmon. “A PhD (graduate) is, on average, a highly functional individual on at least two of those three. Agnes is all three.”
Almost half of IU School of Medicine’s PhD graduates go into industry positions, according to the Office of Graduate Affairs. Increasingly, they’re staying in Indiana, where bioscience jobs have become more plentiful.
“I know many PhD graduate students from Indianapolis who have remained or returned to Indiana,” said Cummins. “The biotech sector is strong and growing, in part due to the availability of talented scientists, like Agnes, who recognize the advantages that Indiana has to offer.”
Q&A with Agnes (Zybura) Wardrop
PhD in Medical Neuroscience: IU School of Medicine, 2021
Industry position: Manager of Research Operations, Syndeio Biosciences (Indianapolis)
Question: When did you know you wanted to pursue a career in neuroscience?
Wardrop: I joined a neurobiology lab in my sophomore year of undergrad at IU Bloomington: Dr. Cary Lai’s lab at the Gill Institute. One of my first tasks was to culture bacteria and extract DNA. It was so mind-blowing that I could do that. Later I was provided the opportunity to teach advanced techniques in molecular neuroscience at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (Long Island, New York) as a lab tech with Dr. Lai. That deepened my passion to go into research and go to grad school.
Q: What stands out about your time as a graduate student in the Medical Neuroscience program at IU School of Medicine?
Wardrop: What sticks out the most is how much fun it was, really. I had so much support from not only my mentors but also my family and peers. Two of my best friends came out of the (Indiana BioMedical Gateway PhD) program. One works at Lilly, and the other one works at Medtronic.
Q: What lessons did you learn from working in the lab with Dr. Cummins and Dr. Hudmon that still stick with you today?
Wardrop: A lot of grad students have imposter syndrome. My mentors taught me to know my self-worth. As a grad student, you do amazing things, research really difficult topics and use very complex techniques. Being confident in yourself will help you in your career and life.
Q: In your current role at Syndeio, have you had any opportunities to collaborate with IU School of Medicine scientists?
Wardrop: At Syndeio, we’ve had some opportunities to collaborate with different individuals and labs at IU School of Medicine. It’s fun to identify the gap in what we need to do and then see who at the School of Medicine could help us with that. We have collaborated with the MODEL-AD since our research is Alzheimer’s disease focused. Having that connection is helpful.
Q: What makes Indiana such an exciting ecosystem for building a long-term career in life sciences?
Wardrop: There are so many opportunities in different areas across industry here. We have a lot of global anchors — big companies like Lilly, Corteva, Cook, Elanco, Roche — and we have really strong CRO (contract research organization) presence, companies like LabCorp and many others in Central Indiana. We have renowned research universities like IU School of Medicine, with strong translational ties. And we have startups and an incubator infrastructure in places like 16 Tech, where Syndeio is located. I think all those things combined make Indiana a great place to foster a lifelong career in sciences.
Q: What keeps you motivated to keep working in the biosciences industry?
Wardrop: I really want to make an impact. That’s one of the things my mentors instilled in me. Whatever I’m doing — maybe it’s to dissect a mechanism and then, hopefully, we can take that mechanism and translate it all the way through our pipeline and get that into the clinic — that’s the end goal. I know it might sound a little cliché, but I’m doing this to improve patients’ lives.
Q: As you look at what’s happening in the life sciences sector, how do you feel about the future of innovation in Indiana?
Wardrop: Indiana is well positioned as a hub for science. We have really strong bones and momentum to foster that kind of innovation. It all kind of centers around the School of Medicine. It brings in a lot of talent, a lot of research, and people who want to be part of that innovation. That’s how you get startups up and running. It’s just a really great place to boom. You think of Boston, the Bay area and those coastal cities that are huge hubs for biotech, but I would say, Indiana is a force to be reckoned with.
