Hospitals and Health Care
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Shankar Iyer

Director at LabCorp

About Me

I am a Scientific Director with 20 years of success developing diagnostic and drug discovery platforms across a wide range of disciplines. I have excelled in high paced start up environments and well established companies including managerial duties at diagnostic/drug discovery company. I am trained as an immunologist and have 20+ publications in the fields of bacterial/viral infections, cancer, chronic inflammatory disorders, and age-related disease with three patents. More recently I have served as a Scientific Director to establish strategic direction and manage pre-clinical programs for early-stage cancer diagnostics and drug discovery for rare neurological and developmental disorders. I currently serve as Lab Director at Labcorp managing a portfolio of Clinical Invitro Diagnostic and Laboratory Developed Tests.

Jurisdiction

United States | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany

Notable Employer

  • Director at Design Therapeutics at Design Therapeutics
  • Principal Scientist at Design Therapeutics at Design Therapeutics
  • Faculty at Harvard Medical School at Harvard Medical School

Experience

Seniority LevelDirector
Years of Experience20+ years
Current StatusActive
DirectorLabcorp
2026 - Present

Lab Director managing Clinical In vitro Diagnostic (CIVD) and Laboratory Developed tests (LBT) developed by Labcorp Manage a site consisting of 300+ employees engaging in routine clinical diagnostic testing ensuring fidelity, accuracy and delivery of results to clinicians around the world Ensure diagnostic testing and laboratory comply with CLIA/CAP and FDA guidelines including overseeing audits Lead Esoterix-Labcorp discovery group to develop novel diagnostic tests for FDA approval

Director at Design TherapeuticsNotableDesign Therapeutics
2022 - 2024

I lead the Molecular Biology Dept. comprised of 10-12 Sr./Jr. scientists to advance Discovery and Pre-clinical programs to evaluate small molecule technology as treatment for developmental/inflammatory/metabolic diseases caused by genetic and/or epigenetic defects. Served as point of contact for department in cross-functional meetings to coordinate early stage to IND drug discovery strategies. Support Legal/Clinical Teams with technical support for Intellectual Property, IND, and regulatory applications (CLIA, CAP, EMA, FDA, IHC etc.) Coordinate assay design and data analysis and presentation across multiple disease programs. Establish collaborations with Key Opinion Leaders, CRO's, research institutions and advocacy groups.

Principal Scientist at Design Therapeutics NotableDesign Therapeutics
2021 - 2022

I managed a team of scientists aimed at developing pharmaceutical against rare genetic diseases

Principal Scientist at Cradle GenomicsCradle Genomics
2020 - 2021

I served as lead scientist for the Research Division of early-stage startup fetal diagnostics company. I established a program to monitor women's reproductive health. • Developed a high-throughput-single-cell platform to isolate and profile genetic/epigenetic/transcriptomic features in low frequency cellular populations present in mucosal samples that predict patient risk for cervical/ovarian cancer and pre-eclampsia. • Managed group of 2-3 scientists and served as point of contact with Sr. Leadership on deliverables, status updates and milestones. • Served as Principal Investigator on NIH SBIR Phase I/II grant.

Faculty at Harvard Medical SchoolNotableHarvard Medical School
2018 - 2020

Principal Investigator, Division of Gastroenterology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA I investigated how early life events influence later life susceptibility to disease leading to the identification of a unique developmental window during gestation that dictates the severity of host immune pathology in the context of IBD, asthma and allergy. • Served as Principal Investigator on NIH funded grants. • Managed a small group of technicians and graduate candidates. • Primary Inventor on 2 patents to neutralize the effects of specific microbial products that exacerbate intestinal inflammation ( PCT/US2016/061799, PCT/US2018/067189). • Science 2016

Clinical Research Fellow at Brigham & Women’s Hospital Brigham & Women’s Hospital
2015 - 2018

I developed a computational platform to identify a novel class of environmental triggers of intestinal inflammation including Inflammatory Bowel Disease and Colorectal Cancer. • Served as Principal Investigator (Young Investigator's Grant, Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America). • Cell 2018

Education

Doctorate of Immunology University of California Los Angeles
2007 - 2014
Degree of Molecular Biology Cornell University
2001 - 2005

Skills

Core skills7
Interests3
Languages1

Skills

in vitro diagnostics
Pharmaceuticals
Vaccines
Molecular biology
Cancer therapeutics (CAR-T, TILs, etc)
Rare Disease
Autoimmune Disease

Interests

Immunology
Molecular and Cellular Biology
Microbiology

Languages

English