Meghan (McCabe) Pryor, Ph.D.

Dr. Meghan (McCabe) Pryor is as devoted to motherhood, fitness, and professional development as she is to her love for quantitative modeling – and she brings that passion to everything that she does. She is a QSP and PKPD modeler with a PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of New Mexico (B.Ch.E. Chemical Engineering & B.S. Quantitative Biology, University of Delaware). After a post-doc at Johns Hopkins University, Meghan moved to her first role in industry at Rosa & Co as a QSP modeler under the mentorship of Christina Friedrich where she was able to build a strong foundation of expertise in a broad range of modeling techniques as well as therapeutic/disease areas. She eventually moved to J&J Innovative Medicine (Formerly Janssen) where she currently focuses her modeling efforts on driving efficient discovery/early development of small molecule (SM) and beyond rule of 5 (bRo5) compounds, including PROTACS, in the DMPK group by applying her expertise in QSP and PKPD modeling approaches to design optimized studies, reduce uncertainty/risk, and determine efficacious first-in-human (FIH) dose strategies. Meghan is passionate about professional development, supporting women in leadership, and developing the next generation of women leaders. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading books, crocheting, and riding her Peloton.

17+ years of experience through a series of higher education and industrial roles, 12+ years industry specific experience

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Therapeutic Areas

neurology (Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, frontotemporal dementia, opioid), immune-oncology, oncology (TNB, lung,heme), dermatology (atopic dermatitis, psoriasis), respiratory (COPD, asthma), fibrotic disease (acute kidney injury, endometriosis, acute respiratory distress syndrome), and rare disease (innate immune system, complement)

Industry Highlights (12+ Years of Experience)

J&J Innovative Medicine (Formerly Janssen)

In my 5 years at J&J Innovative Medicine, I have helped enable teams to progress 3+ compounds through the NME stage and currently have 2 compounds in the clinic.

My key role at J&J IM is to develop a robust human dose projection strategy via quantitative pharmacology to enable efficient compound discovery and translation from early preclinical discovery through early clinical development.

Quantitative pharmacology includes pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PKPD) modeling, semi-mechanistic modeling, all the way through quantitative systems pharmacology (QSP) modeling and beyond.

PKPD modeling lead on 13 small molecule, 3 targeted protein degrader, and 1 peptide programs and counting. Due diligence modeling lead on more than 8 reviews of possible external assets
Select Key Impacts:
- Declared 3 new molecular entities (NMEs) with 2 first in human (FIH) starts that are ongoing in the clinic
- Enabled confident no-go decision on multiple programs allowing valuable resources and time to be reallocated to projects with a higher probability of success
- Informed go decision on a high priority program by establishing pivotal structure-activity relationships (SAR) for compounds to balance the exposure necessary for efficacy with the potential for on-target toxicity

Rosa & Co

I joined Rosa as a full-time PhysioPD Engineer in January 2016 after consulting as an engineer since 2012.

Rosa’s PhysioPD Research methodologies involve developing QSP style mechanistic mathematical models to support and assist drug development in all stages of the discovery and development pipeline.

Lead QSP modeler on 10+ projects including small molecule platforms, large molecule platforms, & target ID/biomarker assessment focused platforms
Select Key Impacts:
- Facilitated rigorous in vitro-in vivo extrapolation, boosting confidence in the translation of preclinical data to clinical applications
- Helped clients identify the optimal biomarker for clinical use to demonstrate successful target engagement building confidence in understanding clinical outcomes and reducing risk in the clinic
- Evaluated and ranked uncertainties and data gaps in clients’ programs, allowing them to design studies that enhance the likelihood of success or facilitate quicker no-go decisions

Academic Research Highlights

Postdoctoral Fellowship

After finishing my dissertation, I moved east to be a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Popel Systems Biology Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. My research focused on building multi-scale models, molecular through tissue scale, to study immune checkpoint blockade therapies for immuno-oncology and investigate the progression of breast cancer metastasis.

Graduate Dissertation

I successfully defended my Chemical Engineering Ph.D. dissertation, with distinction, on April 29th, 2014.

My dissertation research was focused on membrane proteins implicated in various forms of cancer progression. I developed spatial stochastic mathematical models to study how transmembrane protein kinetics and dynamics impact activation of signaling pathways in the cell. I also developed an algorithm to reconstruct cellular membrane confinement zones from Single Particle Tracking (SPT) data.

Undergraduate Research

I received dual Bachelor degrees in Chemical Engineering (B.Ch.E.) and Quantitative Biology (B.S.) from the University of Delaware in 2010. While at the University of Delaware, my research focused on developing a deterministic multi-scale process model to aid in creating an online controller for MAb glycosylation.