From Data to Discovery: Accelerating Drug Development with Samantha Dale Strasser

In this episode of She Leads Biotech, I sit down with Samantha Dale Strasser, VP of Strategy at Cellular Intelligence, for a fascinating conversation at the intersection of biology, computation, and patient impact.

Samantha’s journey spans biomedical engineering, applied mathematics, physics, and a PhD at MIT, but what truly shaped her path was something deeply personal. Her father’s diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia brought into sharp focus just how far we still have to go in treating complex diseases, and sparked a determination to accelerate how we move new technologies from the lab into the hands of patients.

We talk about her transition from academia into entrepreneurship, co-founding PepperBio, and now her work at Cellular Intelligence, where she is helping to build a platform that is fundamentally changing how we ask and answer biological questions.

What stood out to me in this conversation is just how much the pace of science is shifting. Questions that once took years to answer can now be explored in months, opening up entirely new possibilities for drug discovery and treatment.

We also dive into leadership, resilience, and what it really takes to build something from scratch in uncertain times.

📌 Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:10 Samantha’s background and academic journey
02:10 Early interest in biology and computation
04:15 A personal turning point: her father’s diagnosis
05:32 Founding PepperBio and early entrepreneurship
06:35 What Cellular Intelligence is building
09:39 The role of AI and large-scale data in biology
10:43 How speed is transforming research timelines
11:41 Building a tech bio company
13:26 Leadership across different stages of her career
15:21 Motivating and growing scientific teams
16:44 Transitioning from operator to leader
18:29 The leadership training gap in life sciences
20:34 Resilience and building a company during COVID
23:44 Advice for scientists interested in entrepreneurship
26:19 What the future holds for Samantha and the field
28:00 A personal mission and long-term vision

🎙️ She Leads Biotech celebrates the journeys of women shaping the future of life sciences.

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