Shobha Parthasarathi, Ph.D.
As part of the Business and Technology Development team, Shobha’s responsibilities include assessment of start-up companies, oversight of the group’s research-focused programs, as well as activities related to growth of biotechnology companies across the state. She manages investments for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center through its business funding programs.
Shobha also directs the Center’s Industrial Fellowship Program (IFP). This program provides Ph.D.-trained scientists interested in transitioning into scientific careers in industry two-year fellowships to gain industry-oriented research experience. She hosts events related to careers in industry for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows across the state. She is a frequent speaker at the North Carolina Universities and mentors young scientists.
She interacts with multi-disciplinary groups in academia, industry and government. She has held leadership roles in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. She serves on the NC Nanotechnology Commercialization Conference steering committee, the Triangle Area Research Director’s Council (TARDC), on the Board of Women in BIO RTP Chapter (WIB). Previously, she served as Education Liaison for the Pennsylvania Cancer Control Consortium, where she reviewed legislation, funding and issues of interest to the cancer education community, and on the Board of the Wissahickon Educational Opportunities Foundation in Pennsylvania. In her spare time, she is a coach for Division I, Odyssey of the Mind, North Carolina Eastern Region.
Prior to joining the Biotechnology Center, Shobha was a senior researcher and manager at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (Takeda Oncology) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she conducted drug discovery research, evaluated technologies and developed in-house expertise for multiple therapeutic groups. She received her Ph.D. in molecular genetics and microbiology from Rutgers University/University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
