5 Questions with Angela Stoyanovitch, Vice President, Business Development, PBL Assay Science

Learn all about Angela Stoyanovitch, Vice President of Business Development at PBL Assay Science. Angela is our new Lead Takeover Ambassador for the North Carolina LinkedIn Showcase Page!

August 30, 2024

1. What did you want to be when you grow up? How’d you get from there to here?

I could not imagine my life without science even from a young age. Everything was an experiment or discovery for me from making backyard perfume from pine needles to asking my parents if I could perform a necropsy of my pet bird after it died, suddenly (of which never happened but spoke to my curiosity about biology as an adolescent.) Much of this came from my parents exposing my sibling and I to Nature Centers and fostering early STEM education as a homeschool family (before homeschooling became as popular is it is, today, and perhaps had a more hands-on meaning than just virtual education.) I think I knew as early as I could remember that I would work in the science field. I entered college with my major already in mind, Biology, and later added Neuroscience, as a minor. What I didn’t anticipate was an interest in research which led to scholarships and international travel in the field. My curiosity only grew and the pivotal memory of my future career started with a question I asked my mentor and neuroscience professor which was as simple as “why?” Why were we conducting the research on peptide and fibers in the brain that may one day lead to a drug? “What was the mechanism?” That famous and endless question in early research many of us know so well. Today, as the self-named Queen of Questions, I allowed these early research experiences to shape a career in drug development and later business development in the same field to support biomedical research.

2. How are you helping to build a more connected community?

Perhaps I see science and research as more than just exploration and curiosity rather the hope for a more fulfilling future impacting humanity. I recognized, through my own learning style, that the ‘oral talk’ is a powerful way to convey research findings at scientific conferences I had attended in college.  Today, I recognize the power of storytelling as an influencer and business developer for contract research, biotech, pharma and beyond.  As a result, several years ago, I founded Legal Drugs Podcast (LDP), a podcast dedicated to uncovering the mysteries and impact of the pharmaceutical industry on our everyday lives. LDP will be relaunching after a three year hiatus this Fall 2024 with more personalized stories and interviews from those affected by disease, those aiming to find new treatments, therapies and cures and those working in and around the (commercial or “legal”) drug development and regulated research arena. It’s my goal to highlight contributions and innovations alongside BioBuzz, as an ambassador of community connection, collaboration and amplify voices of hope together.  

3) What are currently buzzing about? Anything and everything…

I have been leaning in to my career as a #WomeninStem lately by taking on a new role as Vice President of Business Development (for a 34-year old lab out of NJ, PBL Assay Science) as well as motherhood. This past Spring, I welcomed my daughter and first child, Sovereign Xochitl Sosa Stoyanovitch, or Baby Sov-X for short. As a mother of “advanced maternal age” the new label for moms over the age of 35 (rather than “geriatric pregnancy”), I was beyond grateful to experience a natural and healthy waterbirth at home. This was by far the most phenomenal biological experiment I could undergo (beats that necropsy on my pet bird I tried to talk my parents into!) Talk about biology! Beyond the (literal) study of life, I am now in awe and empathic of working moms. I look forward to exposing my daughter to as much hands-on, co-op, collaborative and immersive #STEM education as what my mother did for me (whether she chooses this path or not.) 

4. If you could travel back in time – what early career advice would you give yourself?

I realized early in my career (in my first job out of college as a research associate for a contract research organization) that no one was every going to tap me on the shoulder and tell me to raise the bar or that I need to live up to my potential.  Sure, I’ve had mentors, managers and coaches encourage me to grow but none of them could do that for me. This realization remains a driver in my career. It takes self-realization and guts to go against the grain, ask questions, and dare to lead. 

5. The fun (and rotating) one… If you could have any superpower what would it be?

In the book,  Brave New Work, the author, Aaron Dignan, points to a less bureaucratic approach to innovation than historical hierarchies of the workplace. Dignan suggests we are not machines to be predicted and controlled and there are human complex systems full of potential waiting to be released! With the increase of AI, we continue to explore ways to innovate but some things are left to the human touch.  Perhaps that touch is curiosity, the type that drives true science exploration.  I’d like to believe that Curiosity is my superpower, as with every human being. Because our minds are an endless pit, we are forever exploring the nature of life itself.

Read Angela’s previous 5 Questions feature here.

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