Convocation medalist thrives as data scientist at top biotech firm

Newly minted Simon Fraser University graduate Miranda Louwerse's top marks have landed her the Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation medal as one of the Faculty of Science's top three PhD students-while her impressive skills have also led to a full-time job with one of B.C.-s pre-eminent life sciences companies, AbCellera. The company last month received $300 million from the provincial and federal governments towards establishing its state-of-the-art biotech campus in Vancouver and expand its capacity to develop innovative medicines. -I'm really excited about the future of AbCellera and where the company is going,- says Louwerse, who began her job in December. -And I'm excited for the opportunity to work on some really hard and meaningful problems-and for a company that is taking steps to keep this knowledge and development in Canada, for the benefit of everyone. AbCellera is perhaps best known for discovering and co-developing two antibody treatments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Louwerse's role as a data scientist on the antibody assessment team involves working with lab scientists to transfer their assay data into a centralized database by building and maintaining automated analysis and reporting pipelines and helping scientists answer specific questions of their data. Louwerse helps the entire pipeline operate smoothly for everyone, liaising with software developers and lab scientists to ensure good data management practices.