Derante Davis spent hours of his childhood waist-deep in creeks searching for turtles. If he found one, he’d take it home—only to realize he couldn’t care for it, and would promptly release it back into the wild.

In his grade school classroom in Columbus, Georgia, Derante was delighted by the turtles, hamsters, guinea pigs, and other animals his homeroom teacher kept in her science classroom. She taught him how to properly feed and care for them, offering a treasure trove of knowledge about the natural world and the creatures that fascinated him.

Derante once thought he might follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become a preacher. Instead, he found a parallel path to serve his community. He wanted to know the things his teacher knew about the natural world, and science became his guiding light.

The oldest child of seven, Derante became the first in his family to graduate from college, earning his Bachelor of Science in biology from Albany State University. He didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do with his degree, but, true to his churchgoing roots, he wanted to help people—and he wanted to work in a lab.

Science jobs were scarce in Columbus when he graduated. Until a lab position opened up, Derante worked at the local ASPCA. He fell in love with a dog from his first rescue mission and took Blue, the poodle, home to become part of his family.

Today, Derante is a lead lab technician in the serology department, where he oversees a team of technicians who test hemolysis samples that are later used to formulate medicines to treat hemophilia.

As a scientist, Derante pays respect to the human being behind the anonymous plasma sample that he analyzes for early detection of hemophilia. “It’s a joy that I’m helping somebody that I don’t even know,” says Derante. “It could be my grandmother, it could be my neighbor. It could be you.”

Derante is an active member of the engagement committee at the office. He enjoys planning events and activities to boost team morale and remind everyone to have a little fun at work.

Every evening after a long day in the lab, Derante comes home to his lovely wife, Dynasty, their two dogs, Lola and Blue, and his beautiful Russian tortoise, Shelly. Derante and Dynasty love shopping and spending time with family. Most of all, they love spending time together with their animals.

It started with the cacao tree. Growing up on a farm in rural Nigeria, Yemisi “Yemmie” Oluwatosin was fascinated at an early age by the crop that provided a livelihood to her large family.

She asked her farmer parents endless questions about pest management and the fermentation process.

Flashes of insight stimulated her innate curiosity about natural transformational processes and how things work.

She did not know at the time that she was asking questions about chemistry and science, which would become her lifelong passion.

Growing up in a family of sixteen, reading provided Yemmie a sense of order amidst the chaos. By the age of eight she read anything she could get her hands on, from fiction and textbooks to torn scraps of newspaper.

One day at her local library, Yemmie read a graphic novel about chemists who wore white lab coats and worked in a lab, conducting experiments to find answers to questions like the ones she asked about the fermentation of cacao.

It clicked for Yemmie that people who wore white lab coats worked in science, and she knew right then and there that her dream was to become a scientist.

Yemmie became the first in her family to graduate from college, earning a degree in biochemistry in Nigeria.

While in college, one of her professors insisted she go to the United States to further her education, and her older sister took out a loan to support her.

She received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from State University of New York Upstate Medical University, and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. She later earned her MBA at the University of Delaware.

Yemmie has now worked for AstraZeneca for over 20 years, where she is involved in research and development of groundbreaking new drugs, making sure the drugs we take are safe and effective, and that doctors have up-to-date information for the appropriate use of the drug.

She started as a (lab coat-wearing) Research Scientist studying Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases and has since held many different roles within the company.

As part of AstraZeneca’s response to combating the COVID-19 pandemic, Yemmie was deployed to the newly formed COVID-19 Global Medical Task Force where her responsibilities included training staff on the rapidly evolving scientific knowledge about the virus and the AstraZeneca vaccine (then under clinical development).

She is currently a Sr. Medical Director in AstraZeneca’s Renal (Kidney) Therapeutic Area.

For years, AstraZeneca has been making a large effort to advance the care of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and related conditions. Yemmie is very passionate about helping translate science to clinical patient care.

She develops disease awareness programs to help bring patient needs and new research findings to the medical forefront with the goal of improving treatment outcomes.

She is currently leading clinical studies for two products to determine the effect on common complications of chronic kidney disease.

In her spare time, Yemmie enjoys mentoring young students and encouraging them to pursue STEM education. She wants kids to be excited about life-science work and loves to inspire passion in them.

She is a regular volunteer and planning committee member for the annual FAME (Forum for Advancing Minority in Engineering) event which brings high school students to AstraZeneca for a full day onsite learning.

She serves on the board of directors of Delaware’s top ranked STEM high school and regularly volunteers as a judge in local and regional science fairs.

Yemmie enjoys long hikes and walks in the park to cleanse her mind, recharge, and fuel her creativity. She recently retired from globetrotting as soccer mom to her son and dance mom to her daughter.

Your life can change on a dime. This was the case for a young girl named Denarra Simmons who never expected to become a scientist, let alone a biopharmaceutical senior researcher.

It began one day when a traveling salesman stopped by her parents’ house in Irvington, New Jersey.

He was selling encyclopedias – the full, glorious, gold embossed set – and Denarra convinced her family to buy them even though they could scarcely afford it.

Denarra was fascinated by the volumes and the knowledge they held. As it turned out, poring over this trove of information sparked a lifelong passion for learning.

A few years later at her school’s career day, a chemist stood in front of Denarra’s class to explain how he created drugs that helped sick people.

As he drew chemical structures on the board, the Black chemist in a lab coat was something Denarra had never seen before. This became another turning point in her life when suddenly, a career in science was possible for her.

Denarra attended a high school summer program at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and fell in love with biochemistry.

And from the group lunches she’d have with the other high schoolers that summer, she met a classmate who would later become her husband.

Her passion for science continued through her college career. She’d stay late in the lab, splitting cells and documenting the results. The hours passed quickly because, for Denarra, it never felt like work.

Today, Denarra is a Senior Scientist running tests to determine the stability of new drugs.

She helps predict potential effects a treatment can have which is one of the most important phases in the formulation of a new medication.

Those insert labels on the medicines in your bathroom cabinet? You might just be reading the results of Denarra’s findings.

Denarra and her husband, daughter and son, now live on the same block in Newark where her mother grew up.

They love going to the Newark Museum of Art together, something Denarra grew up doing with her family. On the weekends, her kids show her the latest dances on TikTok. Maybe one day, they’ll get her to do one.

Until then, Denarra never misses an opportunity to teach them the basics of science – even while making dinner. There are ingredient reactions, changing states, and differing chemical properties. She says, “After all, cooking is just science you can eat.”

Three times a week, Mark Davis covers some serious terrain on his bike. It’s a way to unwind after time in the lab where he’s a Principal Process Engineer in gene therapies tech research.

Hitting the trails also gives him time to reflect on the path that led him to this exact spot today.

When he was 10, Mark lost his mother to breast cancer. That’s not something you ever get over, but it’s possible to find and understand different ways to process a loss that profound.

In high school and college, Mark was drawn to science but didn’t think much of it. He loved reading and there happened to be a revival of the science fiction genre in the 90s. Mark embraced everything from the sci-fi fantasies of Louis McMaster Bujold to the time travel novels of Connie Willis.

At the same time, biotechnology was evolving. The gene therapy field was a newer discipline than traditional cancer treatments and, as he saw it, a way “to get back at cancer.” Mark leveraged his Bachelors in Philosophy from Syracuse University into a Masters in Biological Science from the University of Massachusetts.

It was in the early 2000s when one of his co-workers was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and Mark’s career path became more defined.

A drug was being developed to treat this kind of lymphoma and it wasn’t long before he found himself in the position of lead scientist in the manufacturing of the very drug he’d been studying for his friend’s cancer treatment. That’s when it clicked for him. It was as if everything in his life had led him to that role.

His day-to-day work has been largely unchanged by COVID-19. Mark works in the lab every day running experiments to ensure consistency and reliability of new therapies. The work is steady yet urgent. There are just fewer people around which suits him fine.

The Davis family and their terrier mix rescue dog live in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Mark and his six-year-old son bike together and play with radio-controlled trucks, because you’re never too old to play with RC toy vehicles. And there is the occasional bear sighting, but that’s all in a day’s work for a family who thrives in nature.

Adriana Tovar-Salazar can recall the moment she fell in love with science. Ninth grade. A lesson on protein synthesis. And she was, to put it in her words, “blown away.” How could she know that one class was about to shape the course of her life?

While she was in high school, her family moved from Bogotá, Colombia, to New York City so they could be reunited with her father who worked in the States. In college, Adriana focused on marine science but when her father was diagnosed with colon cancer, she began involving herself in conversations with his doctors and oncologists.

Her father passed away, and with this loss came the strong motivation for her to pursue her interests in biochemistry and cancer research. Adriana received her Masters in Applied and Recombinant DNA Technology at NYU which was the beginning of her pursuit to understand how something as clinical as science can connect each of us on such a deep, personal level.

Adriana started working in the pharmaceutical industry about a year ago. Of course, none of us could have foreseen what 2020 would bring, but she has adapted to the changing landscape that COVID-19 brings.

The day-to-day challenges are mostly solvable. No gym membership? The kettlebells in a corner of the living room work just fine. Wellness inspiration? She follows fitness gurus on Instagram. Limited indoor dining at local restaurants? She bakes bread at home which reminds her of helping out at her grandparents’ panadería in Bogotá.

She finds her work in biopharmaceuticals fulfilling and endlessly fascinating. Adriana is in the lab about 2-3 days a week where she researches CAR T-cells and cancer therapies. She is part of an early research team whose purpose is to find new ways to engineer patients’ immune cells to treat their cancers. Their ultimate goal is to have a positive and lasting impact on patients.

Though her journey has led her from South America to the U.S. from coast to coast, her North has always been science. It’s the calm in the chaos and it’s what keeps her grounded. And after all, there’s nothing quite like that first love. Adriana and her fiance live in Seattle. They are settling into a new home where they co-parent his two energetic young kids.