From the lab to… Consultancy — Laura Falceto, PhD

In the ‘From the lab to…’ series, we highlight our team’s diverse scientific expertise and academic backgrounds, and what led them to join the Catalyze team. In this edition, Laura Falceto, Innovation Consultant, shares more about her academic PhD and postdoc career and what led her to join Catalyze.

“Because of my research background, I can quickly understand technical details, ask the right questions, and spot things that might raise concerns for reviewers. I think that also helps me connect well with clients—many of whom are scientists themselves—and build trust by speaking their language.”

Researching innovative therapies for brain tumours

Before joining Catalyze, Laura conducted research in the field of cancer immunotherapy, focusing on improving outcomes for patients with brain tumors. She was part of the Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program at the University of Florida, working in Dr. Catherine Flores’ lab — part of the bigger team led by Dr. Duane Mitchell. Laura spent almost five years there doing her PhD, followed by a short postdoc before making the jump to industry.

Laura explains, “In our lab, we explored innovative strategies to combine immunotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell technology. Since hematopoietic stem cells are the precursors of all immune cell types, my project aimed to harness their potential by genetically modifying them using CRISPR.

“This presented a significant challenge, as these stem cells are notoriously difficult to manipulate genetically. The goal was to direct their differentiation into dendritic cells—key initiators of anti-tumor immune responses—while preventing their development into immunosuppressive cell types that support tumor growth.”

Laura adds, “The work brought together a lot of exciting fields—stem cell biology, gene editing, and immuno-oncology—all with the goal of developing better therapies for aggressive cancers like glioblastoma.”

Reflecting on her PhD and post-doc experiences

“During my time in research, my main contribution was developing a highly efficient and reproducible protocol to genetically modify murine and human hematopoietic stem cells using CRISPR, achieving up to 80% gene knock-down.”

Laura says, “This enabled us to drive these cells towards a desired dendritic cell phenotype while limiting their differentiation towards immunosuppressive populations—an important step forward in stem-cell based immunotherapy for glioblastoma. These findings are currently under peer review.”

In 2022, Laura was awarded a prestigious Chateaubriand Fellowship from the French Embassy to conduct part of her PhD research at the Institut Cochin in Paris, France. There, she investigated the role of mRNA decay in erythropoiesis, working with CD34+ human hematopoietic stem cells.

Laura shares, “This international collaboration expanded my technical expertise in stem cell biology and molecular tools, and also gave me first-hand experience in a European research environment. The work led to new collaborations, a manuscript in preparation, and multiple conference presentations.”

Working beyond the lab: teaching and outreach

Laura describes how teaching and outreach were also important parts of her academic experience:

“Aside from mentoring undergrads in our laboratory, I also co-taught summer courses on the hallmarks of cancer for high school students, which was a great way to practice breaking down complex topics into more digestible lessons. That work even led to a co-first author peer-reviewed publication with the other PhD students I was teaching the class with.

“Beyond my core project, I was fortunate to work in a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary environment, contributing to multiple other studies which resulted in co-authorships on peer-reviewed publications and a book chapter.”

“I also presented at several national and international conferences, including the 2024 Cold Spring Harbor CRISPR meeting in New York, where I had the chance to hear from top researchers in the field—including Nobel Laureate Jennifer Doudna, which was a personal highlight.”

Becoming curious about entrepreneurship in science

“Outside of research, during my time in academia, I started realizing there were more career paths than becoming a professor and running a lab. That really pushed me to explore what else was out there. One of the extracurriculars I got involved in was to organize a seminar series where we invited former academics who had transitioned into industry roles to come speak to the students in our PhD program about their experiences and career paths.”

Laura continues, “It was incredibly insightful—not just for me, but for many others in the program. Some students even landed jobs through those connections, which made the whole experience even more rewarding.”

Through that exposure, Laura became curious about entrepreneurship and how science moves from the bench to the real world.

“The University of Florida has a great start-up ecosystem, so I took the opportunity to get involved. I completed a couple of internships focused on life sciences innovation and start-ups, which gave me a clearer picture of the broader innovation landscape. That experience confirmed my desire to work in a role where I could help therapeutic companies translate their discoveries into real impact—especially in an area like drug development and oncology, where there’s still so much untapped potential to improve patients’ lives.”

Joining Catalyze, working on impactful technologies

As Laura highlights, working at Catalyze means being involved in the Innovation Journey of many different companies, all working on exciting and impactful technologies.

“After years in the lab focused on one specific research question, I found it refreshing to think about contributing to a variety of projects—each at different stages and with different challenges. I liked the idea of using my scientific background in a new way, to help companies move forward and ultimately bring something meaningful to patients.”

Laura joined Catalyze in November 2024 as an Innovation Consultant. As she describes, her role involves working with biotech and academic teams to turn their ideas into strong, competitive funding proposals.

“That means not only understanding the science, but also helping shape the project to fit the bigger picture—what’s the unmet need, is the development plan solid, does it make sense from a funding perspective?”

Laura explains, “Because of my research background, I can quickly understand technical details, ask the right questions, and spot things that might raise concerns for reviewers. I think that also helps me connect well with clients—many of whom are scientists themselves—and build trust by speaking their language.”

What makes us Catalyze?

Our Cultural Compass describes who we are, what we stand for, what connects us, and how we interact with each other. Our cultural values help us make choices for the future. For every decision, no matter how small, we use these values to determine if it aligns with who we are.

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