Ever since her days as a graduate student in Northwestern’s Interdepartmental Neuroscience (NUIN) graduate program, Mani Mohindru, PhD, chief executive officer of Novasenta, has defied boundaries. She chose NUIN for its interdepartmental approach that gives students the freedom to work across disciplines. Mohindru, a member of the Executive Advisory Board of Northwestern’s Chemistry of Life Processes Institute, elected to work in an immunology/microbiology department in the lab of Dr. Byung Kim to study multiple sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease.
“I call myself a neuroscientist, an immunologist, and a molecular biologist just by virtue of my graduate school training,” says Mohindru. “People sometimes try to put artificial boundaries around what they do. As a scientist, you get exposed to so many things, there are no boundaries.”
From an early age, Mohindru was drawn to science. Born in India, she earned her Bachelor’s degree with honors in Human Biology, followed by her Master’s in Biotechnology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi before heading to the US for graduate school. After earning her doctorate at Northwestern, Mohindru carefully weighed her options.
“The set path was to go in for a postdoc—that was the path of least resistance,” says Mohindru, “but I’m a restless person by nature. I wasn’t sure if I could continue to be in a lab for another three to six years.”
During an on-campus recruitment event, Abbott tapped Mohindru for an interview which eventually led to an offer. Making it through the company’s rigorous recruitment process, however, gave her the confidence to investigate other opportunities outside of academia. She put her resume on a popular job search website to find out. Soon after, Mohindru was recruited by the consulting firm SAI Healthcare (now part of IMS Health).
The following year, a colleague of hers who also had attended Northwestern introduced her to Wall Street and investment banking.
“I had no idea what that was, but one thing led to another, and I ended up with a couple of offers,” says Mohindru. “That was a huge shift. I was nervous. At that point, I didn’t know the difference between a stock and a bond. I was sort of memorizing financial terms before my interviews. But I eventually realized that what they were really after was my strong scientific background, and analytical abilities. What got me in the door at the big investments banks was my rigorous scientific background.”
Mohindru began her Wall Street career at UBS as a biotech analyst and worked her way up to a senior analyst after passing a series of rigorous exams.
“I had to study a lot, work hard and persevere. It wasn’t a straightforward thing,” says Mohindru. “That was a valuable lesson. Don’t fake it. Stay true to yourself. You can apply yourself in many different places and learn new things along the way.”
Navigating motherhood
Mohindru swiftly rose through the ranks to senior leadership positions at a variety of investment banks and financial advisory firms, including UBS, Credit Suisse, ThinkEquity and Capstone Investments. During this time, she decided to start a family giving birth to twin daughters, with her husband, a physician-scientist.
“It was a bit later than usual because every time we would think about expanding the family, it was going to get in the way of my career,” says Mohindru. “This is the challenge, right? I think attitudes are changing, but I don’t think they have changed as much.”
As she went up the corporate ladder, one thing Mohindru insisted upon was talking more openly about her daughters to her colleagues, and to potential new employers.
“In every interview, I brought my kids up as they are part and parcel of who I am. People needed to know I’m a mother as well. This is the package that they’re getting.”
After several years on Wall Street, Mohindru gradually felt pulled in a new direction. Excited by the technological innovations and drug discoveries happening in oncology, she entered the C-suite in public and private biotech companies from Curis, to Cara Therapeutics to CereXis and now Novasenta, developing first-in-class therapeutics for the treatment of cancer, kidney disease and rare brain tumors.
“The [Wall Street] tenure was a tremendously valuable experience for me. I carry learnings from those times with me still today, but after working in the financial world for a number of years, I felt that at a personal level, I wanted to contribute something to society in a way that was more tangible for me,” says Mohindru.
Last spring, Mohindru became chief executive officer and member of Board of Directors of Novasenta, an early-stage biotech startup spun out of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) that leverages computational biology for transcriptomic analysis of the tumor micro-environment to identify new targets to develop more effective therapies for patients with cancer.
“We look at immune cells that have infiltrated the tumor tissue to determine what molecules are getting expressed or not to identify new druggable targets. Then our wet lab people, our traditional biologists, try to validate them. Once validated, we work on developing drug candidates to these targets,” says Mohindru. “Based on the data we have generated; I am quite excited to note that we have some promising leads. The ultimate test is to see how these drug candidates pan out in the clinic.”
In 2016, Mohindru accepted an invitation to join CLP’s Executive Advisory Board.
“It’s humbling for me to come to CLP meetings and listen to the deep scientific presentations,” says Mohindru. “The level of science at Northwestern is amazing and it takes me back to my roots.”
She also appreciates the interaction with other board members and the opportunity to interact with and help guide cohorts of CLP graduate trainees.
“One thing I have realized in my corporate journey is that failure is not the end of the game. It’s a step towards success. Take risks, even if you are hesitant. Don’t let the feeling of I’m not good enough hold you back,” says Mohindru. “The other important learning is that don’t seek perfection because no one is perfect. Don’t hold back from applying for a job or trying something different or new just because you did not check every box. Just be yourself and be comfortable.”
by Lisa La Vallee