In this episode of She Leads Biotech, Sharron Cox sits down with Lusine (Lucy) Abgaryan, PhD, MBA, Co-founder of GrittGene Therapeutics, to talk about rare diseases, scientific serendipity, and what it really takes to launch a biotech company from the ground up.
Lucy’s journey is anything but typical. Raised in an Armenian observatory town by astrophysicist parents, she studied physics before diving headfirst into biology, earning her PhD in biophysics and working on what would become Zeposia , now an FDA-approved therapy for multiple sclerosis.
Now she’s leading GrittGene Therapeutics, an early-stage company pioneering new approaches to myotonic dystrophy type 2. From regenerative cell therapy to repurposing existing drugs, Lucy and her team are thinking differently about how this disease is understood, diagnosed, and treated.
📌 Chapters / Timestamps
00:00 – Meet Lucy Abgaryan
02:00 – Growing up with scientists in Armenia
06:00 – Biophysics, curiosity, and pivoting to biology
08:00 – Working on Zeposia and discovering applied science
12:00 – Patient-first vs. profit-first: Choosing impact over income
14:00 – Her first entrepreneurial lessons in a San Diego garage
16:30 – Why she went back for her MBA (and how it changed her path)
20:00 – The origin of GrittGene and the mission behind it
22:00 – Why DM2 may not be just a neuromuscular disorder
24:00 – Building diagnostics, drug repurposing, and personalized therapies
28:00 – Challenges moving from academia to startup life
32:00 – Hiring for heart, not just experience
35:00 – Her bold goal: clinical trials in just four years
38:00 – Advice for young scientists and first-time founders
🎧 Listen now to hear how Lucy is rewriting the rules, in science, in business, and in what it means to lead with grit.
#SheLeadsBiotech #LucyAbgaryan #GrittGeneTherapeutics #RareDiseases #WomenInSTEM #FemaleFounders #BiotechLeadership #AuthenticLeadership #Neuroscience #StartupJourney #CNAInternationalUSA
