Meet Celine Halioua, founder and CEO of Loyal, a biotech startup developing drugs to extend dog lifespan. In this episode of Lady Scientist Podcast, Celine reveals how a single cold email landed her an internship and then later a full-time job with the Longevity Fund, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco. This was the career shift that launched her into the biotech space where she later founded Loyal, which has raised $27 million and has already completed its first clinical study! You can find Celine at https://www.loyalfordogs.com/. Support the podcast by subscribing to our channels, signing up for our newsletter, and leaving a review or comment. Thank you for listening!Support our podcast through Patreon and get #LSP swag: https://www.patreon.com/ladyscientist...Episode Highlights:3:18 Celine made the difficult decision to leave Oxford, where she was previously a graduate student studying neuroscience and went all-in with Longevity.8:05 Celine speaks to the significance of Loyal’s first clinical study and summarizes the learnings.10:08 Celine breaks down the term ‘consumer-facing study’ and Loyal’s effort to both socialize the aging thesis and cultivate a consumer-focused pharma company18:06 Celine breaks down the basic thesis of Loyal - “The basic thesis of Loyal is that there is a pharmaceutical product out there that inevitably extends dog lifespan and healthspan safely and also has the variables to be a viable consumer product and the job of Loyal is to find that drug and bring it to market successfully.”18:10 Celine discusses the pros and cons of relying heavily on CROs for the experiments her company carries out.27:00 Celine opens up about what it was like fundraising for series A and shares tips for biotech founders going through that process.35:27 Celine talks about the negative impact she believes Theranos and Holmes trial has had on the current state of founder- led biotech. She chats about the role she feels sexism plays in media coverage on the biotech industry specifically.45:10 Celine discusses the work that goes into being transparent as a startup company49:00 Celine opens up about the challenging aspect of starting a company and what inspired her to get started and continues to inspire her to push forward with Loyal.