Colin, Global Business Unit Fertility & Endocrinology, Switzerland - Especially for a fertility scientist. He’s given me a whole new understanding of life. And of my work too. For more than 30 years, I’ve specialized in the science and medical treatment of infertility. At the beginning of my career, I worked with the IVF pioneers in Cambridge and since then, I’ve worked all over the world, from Geneva to Japan. But it wasn’t until my wife and I found out we couldn’t conceive that I understood just what people go through.

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Russ, Global Clinical Program Manager, USA - The trial I’m working on will help us design more effective cancer medicines for the future. And also help us make adjustments to ongoing therapy. We’re testing a potential future therapy for specific types of solid tumours. The patients enrolled in the trial have not been successful with conventional treatments like chemotherapy. Our clinical team is well aware of what this means and the responsibility we have towards them.

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Jean, Global Neuroimmunology, USA - This company has a long-term commitment to advancing scientific understanding about multiple sclerosis (MS) and developing innovative new therapies. So do I. I received my PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and worked my way up to Full Professor in the Department of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine. I went on to get an MBA, also at UCLA, because I wanted to understand the business of developing new drugs. Since then, I have led MS drug discovery and development for several well-known companies. But here at EMD Serono we’re doing something new.

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Vanita, Protein Engineering & Antibody Technologies, USA - Right here. As an academic, I was working to help advance the basic understanding of science. Here, I am applying my knowledge to discovering or improving therapies for serious diseases. That’s a whole different level of motivation. By changing the structure of a protein molecule, it’s possible to improve its function as a medical therapy, for cancer say, or for autoimmune diseases.

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Takayuki, Marketing Head, Japan - And we help society too. I’ve always had a strong sense of social responsibility so being able to help the next generation meet the challenges they’ll have to face is a great opportunity for me. In my first year with Merck Serono Japan, I helped launch an award-winning device which helps kids with growth hormone deficiency to safely inject themselves with the right dose of their medication. It saves valuable time for physicians too -- they don’t have to have spend so much time explaining injections step by step.

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Thomas, Discovery Project Management, Switzerland - Sometimes a new scientific approach only succeeds if researchers are willing to fight for it. I trained as a chemist and when I first worked here, I was part of a small research team that made a breakthrough identifying PI 3-kinases as promising new biological targets for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Several times our research project was almost stopped but we persuaded management to let us push on. And we were right. It’s been fantastic for everyone involved to see one of these projects progress into further development.

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Ruggero, Global Business Unit Oncology, Switzerland - We’re looking to increase the cure rate. We’re hoping for a quantum leap in medical benefits for patients too. Developing hundreds of molecules and hoping for a lucky hit in treating a disease belongs to the past. Today, information is used that is generated by the revolution in human genomics to develop more targeted cancer therapies from the start.

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Jackie, Multiple Sclerosis Certified Nurse, USA - You’ve got to listen. There are often things that people don’t want to share with doctors or even family members. But when you take the time to listen, the dam breaks and a flood of emotions spill out. Sometimes patients want to know about the medication we provide, how to cope with side effects, or what to do if they miss an injection. Other times, they just want someone to confide in. I’m a nurse so I have the necessary medical knowledge. But you also need compassion.

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