Interview with Samareh Azeredo da Silveira Lajaunias, Co-founder and Managing Director, LASCCO SA

February 11th was the International Day of Women and Girls in Sciences. Biopôle celebrated this day by interviewing women members of the campus who succeeded in their scientific career.

Here is the interview with Dr. Samareh Azeredo da Silveira Lajaunias, Co-founder and Managing Director at LASCCO SA.

 

What are you currently working on? 

In 2007, I founded LASCCO SA. The company has developed sharp, in-depth expertise in assessing discovery-stage first-time diagnostics and therapeutics and taking them right through to clinically validated technologies. We have developed two successful programmes: PSP, for the early diagnosis of sepsis, and Combioxin, for the treatment of severe and fatal complications associated with infections. Today, I am working on two fronts. One is the expansion of LASCCO’s pipeline with biomedical technologies that will bring about life-changing medical progress. The other is the clinical development of Combioxin’s drug, CAL02.

 

Which job challenges are you about to face in the upcoming months?

The upcoming months herald growth – growth for Combioxin, as CAL02 embarks on an ambitious clinical phase, growth for LASCCO’s pipeline, and a very joyful kind of growth for my family as well, with the birth of my third child!

 

Who is your role model in science?

I am blessed with inspiration from many role models. First and foremost, role models in my family. My husband Frédéric, with whom I founded LASCCO and who on a daily basis applies the highest standards in scientific research – integrity and diligence. My parents, both mathematicians who inspired in my siblings and me a taste for investigation, a desire for excellence, and the aspiration to choose endeavours whose aim is to serve the general good. And my aspirations are also derived from the musical and artistic arenas; intuition, creativity and beauty are in fact essential ingredients for the practice of science.

 

What is your wish for the younger generation of girls dreaming of working in STEM? 

Girls, your contribution to transforming the world through science is manifold! Intuition, sensitivity, empathy and courage in moments of crisis are among our greatest strengths and direct our focus to practical matters. These qualities will reveal new priorities for science to serve noble purposes and to target the most urgent needs in medical, technological, social and economic development. In addition, our efforts to become educated in science and to practise science will open the gates for the liberation of women who, still today, do not have the same opportunities as men. Without gender equality, neither the true social progress of humankind nor the highest scientific developments can be achieved.

 

Biography

Dr. Samareh Azeredo da Silveira Lajaunias co-founded LASCCO SA in 2007 to select and launch fundamentally innovative academic discoveries for medical use. She established the company’s portfolio, focusing on discoveries in the fields of critical care and infectious diseases. From 2011 to 2019, she was a partner at Sepstone Diagnostics, a spin-off of LASCCO dedicated to the development of novel biomarkers for sepsis. Since 2015, she has been General Manager at Combioxin SA and is responsible for the development of CAL02, the company’s lead product. Samareh holds a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from the EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland). She is the author of numerous publications and opinion reviews and has been recognised as one of the 100 outstanding personalities contributing to Switzerland’s dynamism and innovative spirit.