Case Studies: Mark Walzer

Name

Mark Walzer

Job Title

Senior Scientist

Company

Lundbeck Inc. (formally Ovation Pharmaceuticals)

City, State

Deerfield, IL

1. Please briefly describe what you do.    

As a Senior Scientist or Pharmacologist in the nonclinical and clinical pharmacology division at Lundbeck Inc. (formally Ovation Pharmaceuticals), I lead nonclinical research and development teams, with a focus on neuroscience, to navigate compounds from early stage Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling mechanism of action, safety and pharmacology nonclinical studies through FDA IND filing and eventually New Drug Application (NDA) approval.  In order to do that, I help design key toxicology and pharmacology experiments, manage external vendors to ensure proper completion of those studies, provide my interpretation of the results, edit and review the reports.  Finally, I contribute to publications and posters describing results of these studies and in the creation of relevant sections of FDA submission documents.

2. How many years have you been working in a science related field?

2 years during college as a research assistant conducting neurobehavioral studies on fruit flies; 5 years during graduate school studying pharmacology, animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and a potential pharmaceutical treatment; 3 years during post-doctoral training studying neuroscience in the field of neuroregeneration, 2 years in the pharmaceutical industry mainly focused on epilepsy research.

Total of 12 years

3. What degrees do you hold and from what Universities?

B.A. majoring in Biology and Psychology from Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, MO.
Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Loyola University Chicago.

4. What subject in school was the most challenging for you? Why?

French was the most challenging course for me.  I took French throughout high school and even a few semesters in college.  However, I never fully understood verb conjugation and my French accent was terrible, in fact it still is.

5. What subject in school did you enjoy the most? Why?

My favorite subject was science/biology.  Biology is the study of living things and I loved learning all the intricate details about how living things work.  I am still fascinated and amazed by the diversity of life and its ability to adapt to the environment that surrounds it. 

6. What/who inspired your interest in science?

I have been inspired by the drive and enthusiasm of my many graduate and post-doctoral mentors.

7. What impact does your work have on society? Why is it important that other people learn about and consider your profession?

In general, a pharmacologist is someone who studies medications, their effects on the body and the body's effects on the medication.  Both these areas of research focus are very important in order to provide physicians and patients with the necessary information to correctly prescribe an approved medication.  Furthermore, being able to fully understand how a medication affects disease processes will eventually allow us to uncover more effective treatments and even cures in the future.  Specifically at Lundbeck Inc. we focus on medically necessary treatments for underserved, focused patient populations like those with Epilepsy.

8. What do you like most about your job?

As a nonclinical Scientist, I am able to focus my efforts and passion on research and development aspects of medications in order to increase our understanding of how they work and potentially discover new diseases for which the medication can provide effective treatment.  The potential for new discoveries everyday is very rewarding.  Additionally, as all of our research and development studies are conducted with specialized laboratories throughout the world I have an opportunity to travel and meet a variety of scientists with diverse backgrounds and expertise.  Because Lundbeck Inc. (formally Ovation Pharmaceuticals) is a smaller pharmaceutical company with many different products I am also able to be involved in multiple exciting areas of research rather than focused in only one area.

9. What challenges have you faced in your career? 

Given the wealth of data that nonclinical research studies are able to generate these days, one of the largest challenges facing scientists is the ability to sort through and consolidate data, focusing on findings which are most important to providing a better understanding of the medication.  Furthermore, due to all the advanced cutting edge techniques now available to scientists, and neuroscientists more specifically, the questions we are able to address are much more complex and difficult to answer.  Requiring more valuable research time and effort to understand and answer completely.

10. What other thoughts/comments would you like to share with people considering a career in science?

The path to becoming a scientist at a pharmaceutical company is not well defined.  There are limited graduate programs which specialize in training for pharmaceutical type research.  However, this allows for people with diverse skill sets to succeed through hard work and a passion for discovering and understanding new things.