SLAS Welcomes New Scientific Director: Lesley Mathews, Ph.D.

Oak Brook, IL (January 16, 2023) – The Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), announces the appointment of Lesley Mathews, Ph.D., as its new Scientific Director, effective January 16.

Mathews joins SLAS after serving as the associate director, cellular pharmacology for the Center for the Development of Therapeutics at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard (Cambridge, MA). During her time at the Broad Institute, she was responsible for leading teams in both the Cellular Pharmacology and Translational Pharmacology groups, overseeing the advancement of projects from early-stage development to full-fledged drug discovery research projects.

“I am most looking forward to bridging the expertise of emerging laboratory automation technologies from academia, biotech and industry sectors by forging increased communication using my skills as both a teacher and a scientist," says Mathews.

As the Society’s Scientific Director, she will provide strategic leadership for scientific content and delivery through the Society’s educational conferences, webinars and programming, and supporting its two peer-reviewed journals – SLAS Discovery and SLAS Technology. She will serve as the scientific liaison in building and maintaining the organization’s relationships with related scientific disciplines and industries to ensure Society programs and educational tools are accurate and relevant.

Mathews earned her Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst followed by a post-doctoral research position at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes for Health (Frederick, MD).

She later became a principal scientist in the Oncology Group at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research-Oncology (Cambridge, MA), where she also served as a lead teacher in the community exploration learning lab program. During this time, she obtained an M.Ed. in secondary education and teaching in biology from Lesley University (Cambridge, MA) to combine her passion for science and education.

“As SLAS Scientific Director, Mathews brings the unique combination of science and education backgrounds,” says SLAS CEO Vicki Loise. “This means she not only understands the science our community works in, but also how to develop content that is meaningful to the community’s needs.” Mathews is an award-winning scientific researcher and educator with more than 45 publications covering high-throughput screening and drug discovery. She has presented at numerous conferences and events, including the SLAS2013 and SLAS2014 Conference & Exhibitions, and recently presented on the scientific process and mental health at a TEDx event in 2022.

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SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international professional society of academic, industry and government life sciences researchers and the developers and providers of laboratory automation technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.

SLAS Discovery: Advancing the Science of Drug Discovery, 2021 Impact Factor 3.341. Editor-in-Chief Robert M. Campbell, Ph.D., Redona Therapeutics, Watertown, MA (USA)

SLAS Technology: Translating Life Sciences Innovation, 2021 Impact Factor 2.813. Editor-in-Chief Edward Kai-Hua Chow, Ph.D., National University of Singapore (Singapore).

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