Marianne Skals,
Team leader of Pharmacology

My name is Marianne Skals, and I lead the pharmacology team in the research department at NMD Pharma.

In the pharmacology team we support the different drug discovery projects at NMD Pharma with in vivo pharmacology studies performed in various models of neuromuscular diseases. Our team is responsible for testing new compounds that have passed the required threshold for further investigation. These studies include testing the efficacy of new drugs in vivo from the early discovery process to later stage pre-clinical investigation used for dose selection in clinical studies. My daily tasks vary and include planning, executing, and evaluating in vivo studies as well as data analysis, data presentations and research report writing. Besides leading the pharmacology team, I am also project manager for a drug discovery project.

I finished a PhD in Physiology from Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University in 2011 followed by five years of post-graduate research at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital before transitioning into the pharma industry by joining NMD Pharma in 2018. The research area of my PhD was cell membrane physiology followed by post graduate research where I worked with in vivo models of infectious diseases.

Before joining the pharmacology team, I worked within ex vivo research at NMD, which included testing new compounds for target engagement at an early stage in the drug discovery process. The years of working in research laboratories with cell-based assays and in vivo studies have given me skills that I have used from day one at NMD Pharma.

NMD Pharma is a very ambitious and fast-moving company which motivates me – it has been four exciting years with continuous challenges along the way. We recently had our first clinical data on NMD670 published, and I feel proud to have been part of that journey. We took a compound from early pre-clinical studies into the clinic which now has the potential to work and make a difference in patients, which is highly encouraging.

The work culture at NMD is also very supportive and collaborative, and one thing I would like to highlight about working here is all my colleagues. The whole team is highly dedicated and always willing to help each other out.