Lauren Sirois
Senior Principal Scientist and Director, Process Chemistry, Drug Discovery
I remain inspired by organic chemistry’s potential to impact the frontiers of drug development, whether that includes “traditional” small molecules, antibody-drug conjugates, novel peptides, or other emerging treatment modalities in Genentech’s pipeline. As a Senior Scientist in Small Molecule Process Chemistry, I have the opportunity to lead teams in developing innovative chemical syntheses and supplying the drug substance for clinical trials of our therapeutic candidates. Prior to joining Genentech in 2014, I began my industrial career as a Research Scientist at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, where I supported synthesis and manufacturing activities for small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients. My Ph.D. dissertation as a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow with Prof. Paul Wender at Stanford University focused on the development of new transition metal-catalyzed cycloaddition reactions and their applications.
Featured Publication
Process Development Overcomes a Challenging Pd-Catalyzed C-N Coupling for the Synthesis of RORc Inhibitor GDC-0022
Org. Process Res. Dev. 2020, 24, 567-578.
Sirois, L. E.; Lao, D.; Xu, J.; Angelaud, R.; Tso, J.; Scott, B.; Chakravarty, P.; Malhotra, S.; Gosselin, F.
Genentech’s mission to deliver life-changing therapies to our patients increasingly depends on our ability to conduct smarter, faster, and more innovative chemical process development across our small molecule portfolio. For that reason, my team and I leverage the most advanced technologies in high-throughput experimentation, crystallization science, process analytical tools, organometallic catalysis, and flow chemistry/continuous manufacturing. We are combining data-rich experiments with computational modeling to understand our reaction science at a mechanistic level. More recently, we have partnered with the NSF-supported Center for Computer Assisted Synthesis to engage academic collaborators in the field of machine learning. In addition to my core work developing syntheses for active pharmaceutical ingredients at the multi-kilogram scale, I have a passion for scientific mentorship and have contributed to training via Genentech’s internship, apprenticeship, and symposia programs. I am also a founding committee member and former chair of the Genentech Graduate Student Symposium in Chemical Research.
- Stanford University, Ph.D. in Chemistry – 2011
- Harvard College, A.B. in Chemistry – 2004