Dr. Alejandro Sepulveda I am a cell biologist turned cancer immunologist with over 26 years of combined experience in academic research and in pharma drug discovery. I have been working on developing therapeutics to treat cancer at Janssen R&D for over 10 years. Looking back at my career, nothing would have been possible without the strong training and the “think big” and “can do” mentality instilled in me, by example, during my PhD years at Einstein. M. Alejandro Sepulveda PhD ‘04 Read more @ Janssen What do I mean? I arrived at JFK from Chile on a cold January morning in 1998 - my suitcase was mainly full of adrenaline. Four days later I was attending my first PhD class at the Sue Golding Graduate Division. Everything was new, lots to learn, starting with meeting people I have never met, but who I “knew” from their published work. My first shock was how welcomed I felt by AECOM’s staff and faculty. My second: having to call professors by their first names. I joined the Cell Biology Department performing molecular immunology studies on the regulation of IgH expression and function in Barbara Birshtein’ s lab. Over the years, I came to love the variety of science in our department. I learned about a wide variety of seemingly unrelated topics; little did I know that I was going to use everything I ever learned to succeed in my current job. Some of my most precious memories are of the Journal Clubs and hallway conversations with our faculty. I was always surprised by how generous they were with their time and how insightiul their comments were… I wanted to be like that one day. With time, the feeling of belonging grew strong; being valued for being inquisitive was the norm. Einstein would shape the kind of scientist I would become. There is something beyond the outstanding science that is the essence of Einstein, and that is the people and the culture, the way that they have chosen to teach and lead. My peers and I, perhaps outliers in the places we came from, have found a home at Einstein. Einstein faculty have welcomed budding scientists from around the world and showed us that we are valued for what we can bring to the table. Someone said, only those that think that they can change the world can actually have a shot at it. I believe that this is what Einstein is all about. There is something beyond the outstanding science that is the essence of Einstein, and that is the people and the culture, the way that they have chosen to teach and lead. M. Alejandro Sepulveda Ph.D I am profoundly grateful for my days at Einstein. I am currently, the Scientific Director and Head of Oncology Vaccines and IO-Biologics Discovery at Janssen’s Oncology Immuno-Therapy Pathway Area Stronghold. My team leads research in novel vaccine therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, discovery efforts in the areas of (neo)-antigen identification and validation, development of novel T-cell redirection platforms, and designing next-generation oncolytic viruses. My door will always be open to colleagues from Einstein.
