Laura Soto Sierra

Laura Soto Sierra has a diverse work experience in the field of biopharmaceutical manufacturing and research. Laura began their career in 2013 as a Project Professional at Gextion S.A. and then moved on to serve as a Project Professional at Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 2014. In the same year, they co-founded INNTI Innovacion and worked as an R&D+i Engineer.

From 2014 to 2016, Laura worked as a Graduate Research Assistant at Kansas State University, where they focused on the extraction and fractionation of high-value bio-products from microalgae. Laura then joined Texas A&M University as a Graduate Research Assistant from 2016 to 2020, where they developed and scaled up a downstream process for the production and purification of protein hydrolysates from microalgae.

In 2019, Laura joined the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing as a Researcher. Laura was part of a group of researchers awarded a grant for the emergency production of COVID-19 spike protein. Laura also worked as a Laboratory Instructor for the Advanced Certificate in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing, teaching various upstream, downstream, and analytical labs.

Laura'smost recent position is as a Downstream Processing Scientist at Molecular Templates since 2020. In this role, Laura is responsible for purifying drug targets through various unit operations, developing and optimizing filtration steps, and setting up and optimizing ultrafiltration operations for target ETBs.

Laura Soto Sierra pursued their education in a chronological manner starting from their Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which they completed from 2008 to 2013. Laura went on to Kansas State University, where they obtained a Master's degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering between 2014 and 2016. Later, Laura joined Texas A&M University for their Ph.D. in Biological/Biosystems Engineering, which they successfully completed from 2016 to 2020. Additionally, they obtained a certification of "Doctor of Philosophy" from Texas A&M University in December 2020.