From UBRP to the Forefront of Novel Cancer Therapy Drug Development
UBRP & BRAVO! Alumna Cynthia Carr Returns to Give Keynote Talk at 2026 UBRP Conference
Dr. Cynthia Carr’s keynote presentation at the 2026 UBRP Conference, “From UBRP to the Forefront of Novel Cancer Therapy Drug Development,” will cover her journey from undergraduate research programs (UBRP and BRAVO) to her current role as Associate Director, Global Scientific Communications at Eli Lilly. The talk will highlight her experience managing medical writing teams in both small and large pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Cynthia Carr, Associate Director of Global Scientific Communications at Eli Lilly
Cynthia credits UBRP and BRAVO programs for providing foundational research training, including many skills that are broadly applicable across a variety of science-related careers, such as reading and comprehending scientific literature, analyzing complex data, summarizing study results, interfacing with executives and key opinion leaders, project management, and more.
Cynthia began her UBRP experience using electron microscopy to study lipid delivery to developing insect oocytes under the guidance of Dr. Rik van Antwerpen in Dr. John Law’s biochemistry laboratory. She expanded on this work as a BRAVO student in Dr. Dick van der Horst’s laboratory at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Her UBRP experience culminated with the study of metamorphic changes in the olfactory epithelium of the African clawed frog (Xenopus Laevis) under the direction of Dr. John Reiss in Dr. Gail Burd’s neuroscience laboratory. Subsequently, as a neuroscience graduate student at the University of Arizona, Cynthia completed her dissertation research exploring the chronic effects of nicotinic ligands on nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the neurochemistry laboratory of Dr. Ron Lukas at Barrow Neurological Institute.
After finishing her PhD, Cynthia joined Medical Professional Associates of Arizona, where she gained exposure to clinical research as both a research coordinator and academic research director for the Department of Surgery at Maricopa Medical Center. This was a valuable introduction to human subject protections and clinical trial regulations. She later accepted her first industry job as a medical writer for CEDRA Clinical Research, a contract research organization (CRO) based in Austin, TX. In this role, Cynthia built a successful medical writing team responsible for authoring clinical trial protocols, case report forms, informed consent forms, and clinical study reports supporting Phase 1 clinical trials across multiple therapeutic areas. In 2009, Roche Tissue Diagnostics brought Cynthia back to Tucson for a 13-year stint as head of their medical writing function during an exhilarating era of rapid advances in personalized medicine. Cynthia considered it a great honor to have led a well-respected and highly productive medical writing team for the premier diagnostic partner of choice among pharmaceutical companies developing targeted cancer therapies.
Most recently, Cynthia has ventured into new opportunities at both pharmaceutical start-ups and within “big pharma.” Cynthia is proud to have contributed to several marketing applications for both diagnostic products and novel cancer therapies, which are now available to patients. Her professional journey has included invitations to serve on the American Medical Writer’s Association (AMWA) working group promoting the value of medical writing and developing a medical writer’s tool kit. Cynthia is currently a volunteer board member for AWMA Pacific Southwest Chapter and employed as Associate Director, Global Scientific Communications (GSC) at Eli Lilly and Company, serving as the GSC Regulatory Lead for their radioligand therapy portfolio.
For details and information on the 2026 UBRP Conference, please visit our event website.