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A Brief Recent History of Women in Computational Chemistry at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Georgia B. McGaughey, Rebecca Swett, Sara Swift, Ewa Chudyk, and Kathryn Wong J. Chem. Inf. Model., Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.8b00891 • Publication Date (Web): 08 Jan 2019 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on January 9, 2019

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Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling

A Brief Recent History of Women in Computational Chemistry at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Georgia McGaughey*, Rebecca Swett, Sara Swift, Ewa Chudyk, Kathryn Wong *To Whom All Correspondence Should be Sent, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, 50 Northern Ave, Boston, MA 02210, UA Georgia McGaughey 50 Northern Avenue Boston, MA 01890 USA [email protected] Rebecca Swett 50 Northern Avenue Boston, MA 01890 USA [email protected] Sara Swift 3215 Merryfield Row San Diego, CA 92121 USA [email protected] Ewa Chudyk 86-88 Jubilee Ave Milton, Abingdon OX14-4RW United Kingdon [email protected] Kathryn Wong 50 Northern Avenue Boston, MA 01890 USA [email protected] Introduction: There are countless reports citing the importance of diversity in the academic, industrial and government workplace (1, 2). But to achieve this goal, diverse role models need to have impact early in the education of young people encouraged and attracted to STEM-related studies. However, the journey doesn’t end once one has the diploma in hand. How does one ensure that diversity continues throughout a person’s career? It’s not clear when one needs that diversity – is it at the start-up phase of a company? Is it when

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the company is larger than a certain size? What we do know is that having positive role models that look like you has a profound positive influence in one’s life. While the focus of this perspective is on gender diversity and the five women who have recently joined Vertex’s computational chemistry group, we are hoping that an initial focus on the largest minority in the sciences (women) will enable all members of diverse communities to benefit (3). Georgia McGaughey: The first, but by no means the last (hired 2012) I can personally attest to the positive influence women scientists and mathematicians had in my formative years; I even had a PhD female mathematician teaching in my public high school, in the state of Georgia! It never dawned on me that being a woman would be a hindrance to fulfilling a scientific career. In hindsight, I realize those female high school and college teachers worked hard to secure employment and to excel in their careers. Additionally, they wanted to ensure they weren’t the first and only to realize those achievements and were leading with a carrot and concomitantly prodding with a stick; I was just too young to know the difference. After spending sixteen years in “big pharma” (Wyeth and then Merck Research Laboratories) and having contributed to multiple clinical candidates and one marketed medicine, I was more than ready to join Vertex Pharmaceuticals and take up a new challenge: lead the global computational chemistry applications group. Having read the book, the Billion Dollar Molecule (4), I knew Vertex was a fearless, fast moving company and I wanted to join a biotech with inherent flexibility due to its smaller size. I am now in my seventh year here at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and I can personally say that Vertex is a fast-moving company that can also achieve, as evidenced by their success in bringing three orally available small molecules to patients with Cystic Fibrosis since 2012. I was initially drawn to Vertex Pharmaceuticals for two main reasons: 1) the opportunity to work with the computational team at Vertex and 2) the chance of learning a different way to do drug discovery (phenotypic screening). However, it was clear to me at the time of my interview that this was a different kind of company. The employees at Vertex immediately talked about the company’s core values (fearless pursuit of excellence, we wins, innovation is our lifeblood and uncompromising commitment to patients) and numerous interview questions were about integration amongst functions, employee empowerment and my leadership style. After joining Vertex in the Fall of 2012, however, I was struck by the absence of women in the global computational chemistry organization. Yes, there were women, but there hadn’t been a single “dyed in the wool” female computational chemist hired at the Boston site since it was founded in 1989. I was given the remit of growing the application group and found I could influence the outcome: senior management supported my plan to ensure there were women not only on the


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interview list, but also on the interviewing committee. We all know that drug discovery is the ultimate team sport and I believed that I was in essence the Coach Belichick (New England Patriot’s) or Manager Alex Cora (of the Red Sox) of the computational chemistry group. I was determined to ensure we had a diverse team made up of strong statisticians, programmers, informaticians and application modelers and people of diverse backgrounds and genders. This isn’t necessarily easy to do, particularly when a company is rapidly growing (such as Vertex in the 1990’s), but I had joined the company with a perfect confluence of opportunities that I was excited about: 1) drug development in areas of high unmet medical need; 2) an opportunity to shape the group; and 3) a continued drive to innovate. With an abundance of “big” data in the pharmaceutical sector and the need for scientists who understand statistics, chemistry and computer science, it is a challenging niche field to find talent. Those of us recruiting such sought after talent need to understand any concerns a potential employee would have, and also focus on retaining high talent by providing an inclusive environment. During my leadership of the computational chemistry group (applications, methods development and informatics), encompassing research and development, we have steadily grown to five women (out of ~twenty total) who have the support of upper management and their peers. This is on par with industry standard (5). Here are the stories from these strong scientists who have joined Vertex over the past five years, in order of their hiring. Rebecca Swett: A renaissance woman (hired 2015) “Otherness” is the state of being the minority in the room (6). But it extends far past just race or gender. Maybe you’re the only non-native English speaker, maybe you’re the oldest person in the room, maybe you’re the only student. If you’ve ever looked around the room and thought to yourself “I’m the only one”, you’ve experienced feeling othered. The unifying aspect of being “othered” is that just about everyone has experienced it, and therefore is a great jumping off point for conversations for becoming allies. One of the most insidious things about implicit bias is that it truly is implicit. None of my co-workers want to be “that guy”. Nobody wants to be “that guy”! But many times I’ve found that people aren’t aware of how their implicit biases affect the way they act around other people. That’s where allies come in. Over the last few years I’ve focused not only on networking and sponsorship, but building relationships with my “boots on the ground” co-workers so that we can all support each other in situations where we find ourselves othered. Earlier in my career I was more tenuous talking openly about feminism and bias, but as I’ve become more comfortable in my career, I’ve been more willing to have these conversations. Universally I’ve had positive outcomes from having these discussions. When I say nobody wants to be “that guy”, they really don’t, they just don’t always know how. To help those who don’t want to be “that guy”, I’ve listed a



few of the strategies I’ve successfully used to start conversations and enable people to reflect upon their own biases. 1) We all feel othered: raise what makes them feel left out. Is it a promotion? Background? Education? Use this as an opportunity to point out that you’re both on the same side, just in different ways. 2) Offer to support them in meetings, because they’ll do the same for you. The meeting and review process is where bias can most affect us and talking openly about how being heard, receiving acknowledgement and being reviewed on merit instead of personality makes a difference. 3) Put in time with people who are borderline bad actors. They really don’t want to be the bad guy. I guarantee it. Point out instances where someone else was affected by bias. “Did you ever notice how Lucy never gets credit in design meetings? She does good work, we should point it out next time.” I have never had a person decline. Ever. Allies are different than sponsors in that they’re the people that have your back during your day to day. They may not be able to argue for your promotion, but having people who will echo you in meetings (7), point out your contributions to your boss and call back to you when you’re interrupted make a world of difference. Sara Swift: Connecting the dots (hired 2016) I have genuinely enjoyed each phase of my career as a computational chemist in graduate school, post-doctoral studies, and now the industrial sector. While there are always valleys and peaks, I gauge my own “success” on whether I thought I was making an impact and if I look forward to going to work in the morning. With small children at home I want the time away from them to be as worthwhile as I can make it. So far I continue to whistle while I work, and I consider myself lucky. The Importance of Mentorship Much of my success I attribute to an array of mentorship. Most significantly, in 2009 when I was about to graduate with my PhD, I started volunteering with the ACS Computers in Chemistry division. Within this group I found diverse role models, mentorship and, ultimately, advocates. Observation of and interaction with these scientists has helped me craft my professional identity, and continues to pay dividends. In addition to mentorship, interacting with professionals outside of my workplace usually inspires and refreshes my perspective on my day-to-day work. I find this motivation, not only from professional societies, but also at conferences, workshops and even local meet-ups. My colleague, Lidio Meireles, and I started a local Southern California networking group, SAGIM, for just this reason: stay current with latest techniques and trends, stay in touch with local professionals and seek out inspiration.


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Developing the career I want is something I’m always working for. As a computer scientist entering graduate school, I had limited formal chemistry training. What I lacked in transcript lines, I made up for in library hours, and help requests from classmates, lab mates and teachers. I shamelessly sought out help to make up the ground I felt I needed to cover. In many cases I found the strongest allies among people needing a favor in return and in whom you have established trust. My roommate was a statistics PhD; I taught her about the sequencing data she was analyzing, and she taught me about event detection in time series analysis. I rely on the same exchange of expertise as an interdisciplinary drug discovery scientist. Calling upon the “Village” Arguably as important as professional mentors, I seek out support and guidance on how to handle the interplay of personal and work responsibilities. Being a parent has proven challenging beyond my expectations, and I rely on the village. For instance, advice on how to cope with an ill family member who lives far away, or misgivings about a pediatrician can provide the difference between mentally sinking and swimming. Finally, making career decisions takes a lot of information gathering from a variety of people. In each of the transitions during my career I have spent valuable time weighing pros and cons of how paths might open and close if I choose to take on the change. While I’ve been lucky to have extremely supportive group leaders and supervisors, I always make an effort to seek advice from diverse perspectives (8). I have never felt one hundred percent sure when I’ve accepted or declined opportunities, but I’ve never regretted a decision. That is what gives me the confidence to go on making hard choices, and stretching myself into new roles and responsibilities. Ewa Chudyk: The world traveler (hired 2017) The many roads taken – Due to my innate curiosity, I sought out opportunities, which would allow me to gain experience in biotechnology. This required me to seek funding for positions outside of Poland, as at the time (early 2000s), there weren’t as many biotechnology opportunities in Poland as there are now. Fortunately, while still an undergraduate student, I was able to secure a scholarship to work at a start-up company in Barcelona via a Leonardo da Vinci Programme funded by the European Commission. This was also my first applied science experience outside of the lecture hall and opened my eyes to what a career in science could be. This experience cemented my belief that one cannot be passive and wait for someone to offer you the opportunity: one has to 1) self advocate 2) know what you want and and 3) speak up. Again, I found myself a year later securing an opportunity



at the London Research Institute of the Cancer Research UK (now the Francis Crick Institute) in the BioMolecular Modelling lab. This is where I made my first steps with computer modeling and learned how computations can impact drug discovery. After submitting my Master thesis and motivated by my time spent in scientific laboratories in Barcelona and London, a PhD program at the School of Chemistry of the University of Bristol in the Computational Enzymology group is where I went next. These opportunities were invaluable in identifying not only my love for science, but for directing me towards the path of computational chemistry, which is now a highly sought after job. An unexpected outcome of my somewhat circuitous route of academic studies is that I learned a variety of tactics for applying computational chemistry techniques in drug discovery. I continued to learn about computational chemistry while at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Professor Warshel (during my PhD) and then postdoctoral studies at the Technical University of Munich in Germany. However, my prior industrial exposure in Barcelona pushed me to pursue positions in industry; first at Evotec and now at Vertex. I joined Vertex in May 2017 as I wanted to be deeply embedded in long-term drug discovery projects, from early pre-clinical research to clinical development. Additionally, Vertex has a strong reputation as an employer and the computational chemistry group at Vertex is well established (9, 10). Visibility of Women at Vertex After joining Vertex, I was surprised how many women were present at multiple levels with the company. In addition to Georgia at the helm of the global computational chemistry group, there are women in several research and development leadership positions, even at the so-called “C-Suite” and on the board of directors. At Vertex there is active engagement from the employees themselves and we have numerous Employee Research Network (ERNs) groups focused on various forms of diversity from 1) Inspiring Women In Leadership and Learning (IWILL) to 2) Vertex Inclusion of Boundless Ethnicities (VIBE) to 3) PRIDE. With my involvement in IWILL specifically, there’s a concerted effort to provide multiple opportunities to both men and women. Involvement in this kind of extracurricular activities is very much encouraged, and membership in related societies is supported. For me personally, I was exposed to professional training and courses, which helped me tremendously in building my confidence. Life Skill Sets Whilst it was not always easy to be far away from my home country and the family, there were several personal skills I have developed to excel and make my time at each place unforgettable:


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1. 2. 3. 4.

Innate enthusiasm coupled with optimism was a helpful combination to endure complicated subjects such as quantum chemistry Learning from diverse colleagues helped me to decide what to do next Developing resilience is important as most cutting-edge experiments rarely work when done the first time! Giving back to the community and in particular, young(er) scientists, is important to ensure others have the opportunity to be exposed to science-related opportunities whilst at school and to provide funding opportunities that can be accessed regardless of personal background and nationality.

Kathryn Wong: Imposter no More (hired 2018) When I first started at Vertex, I was overwhelmed by feelings of being an outsider because I am the only person in the computational chemistry group without a PhD. On the one hand, I felt confident in my ability to learn quickly and do the job I had been hired for (software development and data science for the methods development group). However, I thought, compared to my colleagues (and surely others who had applied for this job), I was vastly under qualified. Now almost a year into my tenure at Vertex, I am able to write that I feel that pesky Imposter Syndrome fading, and would like to share a few strategies I found useful in overcoming those early fears and self doubts. 1. Gaining confidence and surrounding oneself with a supportive environment When I first started this job, I understood little of what was said in most meetings and presentations. I was eager to ask questions and get up to speed, but was concerned about wasting everyone’s time asking basic questions. One workaround that I found effective was to connect with a few trusted coworkers and ask them questions one-on-one after meetings. No one ever made me feel silly for asking a question, and I was surprised to learn that my colleagues were sometimes confused about the same topics. Slowly but surely, I started to understand more of what was being said in meetings and presentations, and eventually felt comfortable enough to contribute to the group dialogue. 2. The importance of a good learning infrastructure Vertex is a workplace that values employee learning and development and offers many great seminars and trainings for employees to learn about the science and business of drug discovery. As a new employee I was fortunate to attend the Vertex Bootcamp – an annual weeklong training for new employees in research – to learn about Vertex’s history, ongoing projects, and other important aspects of the company. This experience was transformational as it helped me understand the basic science behind our projects, and how my work fits into the wider context of the company, helping me feel more connected and less like an island. Equally important, the Vertex Bootcamp provided the opportunity for us attendees (we



hailed from across the company’s multiple disciplines) to connect with each other personally, and gave us the space to share the different types of work we are doing across the company. While I recognize that not all companies can offer such foundational support as the Vertex Bootcamp, I believe that making time to address those knowledge or skill gaps goes a long way in allaying the fears and self doubt associated with Imposter Syndrome. 3. Skills are transferable Computational chemistry – which really is the quintessential “Data Science” as it encompasses statistics, computer science and deep domain knowledge in chemistry – allows one to transfer skills from traditional computational chemistry, to other areas of drug discovery. Recently, a colleague from another group mentioned that she was interested in learning more about machine learning. Initial discussions about her datasets revealed data infrastructure support, causing her to spend a lot of time gathering data from disparate sources, and less time optimizing her models. Together, with her subject matter expertise and my experience in data science, we authored a proposal to prototype a centralized database for her group, and as a result, were asked to contribute to a data science strategy across research and development. Through a combination of my skillset and willingness to know employees within and outside of chemistry, I have realized there are ample opportunities for me to make meaningful contributions to the company, even beyond my direct job requirements. Ultimately my overcoming imposter syndrome resulted from being surrounded by supportive colleagues, working for a company that invests in employee learning and development, seeking answers to questions, and looking for cross-functional collaboration opportunities. As someone who values lifelong learning, this makes me both a better scientist and a fulfilled employee. Conclusions Every path described herein has been different yet a common thread throughout the stories told is the importance of inclusiveness. We were all driven initially into the sciences due to the allure of learning something new. Ultimately that curiosity took each of us to Vertex via various paths, none of them straightforward. However, we all learned throughout this journey that science requires diverse thoughts and how discoveries are made are just as important as the discoveries themselves. We are all thankful that we are at a company that values both. Through the process of publishing our stories, we are hoping that others will take whatever themes herein can be adopted into their own institutions so that others, regardless of gender, can experience an inclusive environment and stay in the sciences where the opportunities are vast and the need to identify medicines for patients has no limits. Acknowledgements


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The authors acknowledge the support and mentorship from the entire Vertex computational chemistry team: Guy Bemis, Phil Bransford, Ben Chittick, Tom Cleveland, Michael Bower, Brian Goldman, Rajarshi Guha, Ron Knegtel, Brian McClain, Daniel McMasters, Lidio Meireles, Daniel Mermelstein, Arjun Narayanan, Adegoke Ojewole and Pat Walters (now at Relay Therapeutics). GBM thanks David Altshuler, CSO, who at the time was Georgia’s boss and was extremely supportive of her goal to attract diverse candidates. At the time of publication, Elena Dolgikh has also joined our group and was included in the overall number of women (6) in the group as quantified in the table of contents (ToC). References 1. Diversity in the work-place https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/ourinsights/why-diversity-matters (accessed Nov 11, 2018) 2. Huggett, B. Biotech’s Pale Shadow. Nat. Biotechnol. 2018, 36, 20-30. 3. Gerwin, V. Plugging the leaky pipeline for UK female chemists, Nature, 2018, 15. 4. Barry Werth, “The Billion Dollar Molecule: The Quest for the Perfect Drug”, Simon & Schuster, 1994. 5. Holloway & McGaughey, Computational Chemistry: A Rising Tide of Women JCIM, 2018, 58, 911-915. 6. https://www.catalyst.org/system/files/feeling_different_being_the_other_in_u s_workplaces.pdf (accessed Nov 7, 2018). 7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/09/13/whitehouse-women-are-now-in-the-room-where-it-happens (accessed Nov 7, 2018) 8. Sara Swift acknowledges the following inspiring individuals who were associated with the ACS COMP division when she joined: Chris Harwell, Curt Breneman, Patrick Lee, Edward Sherer, M. Katharine Holloway, Hanneke Jansen, Wendy Cornell, Melissa Landon, Peter Jurs, Emilio Esposito, Ralph Wheeler, Adrian Roitberg, Rommie Amaro, Pat Walters, Charles Reynolds and Jeffry Madura. 9. Science Magazine, Top Places to work, 2018 (Vertex Pharmaceutical Ranks #6 Overall).



10. McGaughey and Walters, Modeling & Informatics at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated: our philosophy for sustained impact, JCAMD, 2017, 36, 293-300.


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