Jennifer Chain | The Leukopak Lady – Why Starting Materials Matter More Than You Think
In this episode of She Leads Biotech, host Sharron Cox sits down with Jennifer Chain, immunologist, consultant, and founder of CSM Consulting, to explore a topic most people in biotech overlook, the strategic importance of starting materials in cell and gene therapy.
Known on LinkedIn as The Leukopak Lady, Jennifer shares her journey from academia to entrepreneurship, her deep expertise in donor qualification, and why collection centers and therapy developers need to start thinking upstream if they want downstream success.
Chapters:
00:00 – Meet Jennifer Chain: From West Texas to starting materials expert
03:00 – Why she chose gamma delta T cells over cancer research
06:30 – Why donor selection is critical to manufacturing and clinical outcomes
10:30 – What most execs misunderstand about leukopaks
13:00 – How she built a consulting business (and the startup that didn’t work out)
17:00 – The viral video series: “The Leukopak Lady” on LinkedIn & YouTube
20:00 – The regulatory grey zones no one is talking about
23:00 – Centralized vs decentralized manufacturing: hidden bottlenecks
27:00 – Why donor stewardship is the new frontier in cell therapy
30:00 – Her advice for early-career scientists breaking into the space
Whether you're in CMC, clinical, regulatory, or BD — this episode will shift how you think about supply chains, success rates, and what it really means to build therapies that work.
Listen now and follow Jennifer at #LeukopakLady for more insight.
