Abstract:
In the post-genomic era, therapies are no longer being tailored to the “average patient” but rather customized for the individual known as precision medicine (PM). PM relies on utilizing an individual’s molecular makeup to guide health decisions. While early attempts have focused on uncovering genomic markers to guide therapy, additional biomarkers such as metabolites provide actionable insight. We describe how Olaris’s NMR-based metabolomics platform led to the identification of a novel target for triple negative breast cancer and further how our technology uncovered biomarkers that can be used to optimize treatment for current breast cancer therapies.
Biography:
Dr. Elizabeth O’Day is the CEO and Founder of Olaris Therapeutics, a precision medicine company that uses a pioneering metabolomics platform and proprietary machine learning algorithms to fundamentally improve how disease is diagnosed and treated. Olaris identifies “biomarkers of response” (BoR) to stratify patients into optimal treatment groups, increasing survival rates, decreasing adverse events and reducing unnecessary healthcare costs. Dr. O’Day is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biotechnology, she serves on the advisory board for the Precision Medicine Initiative and was an invited speaker at the annual meeting in Davos. She was also a “nominated change maker” and invited to attend the first United State of Women Summit convened by the White House in 2016. She participated in Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Summit to discuss collaborative ways “to end cancer as we know it.” Dr. O’Day is also the Founder of Lizzard Fashion, an apparel company that uses fashion to promote science, and Proyecto Chispa (Project Spark), a 501c3 non-profit that recycles electronics and uses the resale of parts to build computer centers in orphanages throughout the world. Additionally, Dr. O’Day is an adjunct faculty at Boston College, teaching metabolism and entrepreneurship. Dr. O’Day received her PhD from Harvard University, where she was a National Science Foundation fellow. She was one of 11 America scientists awarded a Winston Churchill fellowship and received a Master’s of Philosophy in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston College in Biochemistry, where she was awarded the Rev. Finnegan Award, the most prestigious award bestowed to an undergraduate, and nearly all of the nation’s top undergraduate research honors (Beckman scholar, Goldwater Scholar, Churchill Fellow, NSF Fellow, National Institute of Chemistry Excellence Award).