Article by Marina Pazin

For the past year, I have been fortunate enough to be working as a regulatory writer at Randstad Pharma. Regulatory writers support the progress of drug development to the market by drafting appropriate, highly-technical documents to be submitted to drug-regulating agencies, such as the FDA, and to the countries in which the clinical trials in humans and/or marketing approval is sought.  I enjoy my job and enjoy daily interaction with my colleagues. On a daily basis, I am surrounded by warm and very intelligent females with whom I frequently talk about not just work-specific issues, but of issues affecting women in the workforce. Dr. Angela Kwiatek, PhD is one of my colleagues who is not only great at what she does but is very optimistic. I recently took some time to learn more about how she reached this chapter in her professional life.

Angela has long been interested in science. “As a child, I was always asking “Why?”. My mother encouraged my curiosity by taking me to the library whenever she didn’t have the answer. Therefore, it was an easy decision to pick one of the majors that tackle the world’s mysteries.” As such, between 1997 and 2001, Angela went through a rigorous undergraduate training leading to a degree in biochemistry from Bradley University in Peoria, IL. Fueled by motivation and a strong desire to better herself, Angela’s quest for education did not stop with her B.S. degree. Instead, she immediately enrolled in the Department of Pharmacology of University of Illinois as a graduate student.   Angela explained her thesis project in a net shell: “Thrombin is a pro-inflammatory mediator that increases vascular permeability in endothelial cells by activating store-operated calcium entry (SOCE). SOCE is activated by thrombin stimulation of cell surface protease-activated receptor-1, which causes a rapid and transient increase in intracellular calcium due to the release of calcium stored in the endoplasmic reticulum. Subsequently, calcium enters through a plasma membrane cation channel called transient receptor potential channel 1 (TRPC1). TRPC1 is localized within cholesterol-rich invaginations of the cell membrane known as caveolae that are coated with a 22 kDa protein, caveolin-1 (Cav-1). The Cav-1 scaffolding domain binds many signaling molecules and regulates their function. My studies showed that Cav-1 regulates SOCE and the resulting changes in endothelial permeability by binding TRPC1’s C-terminus with its scaffolding domain.”  Ultimately, her hard work paid off as she received doctoral recognition in 2006. Already a co-author of several peer-author papers and conference abstracts, Angela still persisted on, completing two rounds of post-doctoral training at Northwestern University, studying proteins involved in pathogenesis of angiogenesis in cancer in the lab of Dr. Olga Volpert   and cardiac hypertrophy/heart failure under the guidance of Drs. Rishi Arora and Gary Aistrup.  All throughout, she enjoyed progressing in her career as a scientist while having the freedom to choose and to direct the research projects with which she was involved.

While in school, Angela discovered another passion: writing. “All through school, I always got A’s in English with minimal effort. Writing comes naturally to me. I was shocked to discover how little good writing is regarded in research. After my second post-doctoral position, I decided I wanted to switch career paths and go into Medical Writing, a career that combines my love of writing with my love of science.” Angela enrolled in additional coursework at the University of Philadelphia, receiving certificates in Regulatory Writing and Marketing Writing to reach her ultimate career goal.  Now, as a regulatory writer at Randstad Pharma, Angela does what she loves to do. “I enjoy writing documents for drugs that are about to be approved and marketed to the public. It’s exciting to know that the documents you are writing will help bring a drug that many people need to the market.”

Always an optimist, Angela offered a simple explanation when asked about why she continued to push herself so much: “Learning never ends.”