Sheldon Baker03.09.12
Nancy Booth, PhD, is a senior science consultant at Spherix Health Sciences Consulting, providing scientific and regulatory support to clients for the purpose of assuring the safety and benefit of their products, and achieving successful outcomes in regulatory approvals and compliance. Dr. Booth provides guidance specifically in the areas of pharmacognosy (natural products), dietary supplements, food ingredients, chemistry, biochemistry and analytical method development, particularly as regards the preparation of Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) dossiers, New Dietary Ingredient Notifications (NDIN) and Novel Foods submissions. Her goal is to provide clients with a clear understanding of the science that is appropriate to use in demonstrating the safety and/or efficacy of their products. Dr. Booth has worked on numerous projects, including natural product extracts, proteins, lipids, vitamins, oligosaccharides and probiotics, and has written special topic reports, data gap reviews, and contributed to a hazard analysis and many regulatory dossiers on behalf of her clients. She has authored a book chapter on red clover for the Encyclopedia of Dietary Supplements and several peer-reviewed and editorial publications, and has critically reviewed manuscripts for Food and Chemical Toxicology and the Journal of Natural Products. Dr. Booth is a member of the American Botanical Council, the American Chemical Society, the American Society of Pharmacognosy, the Chemical Consultants Network, and the Institute for Food Technologists, and is a fellow of the American College of Nutrition. Dr. Booth holds a BS degree in chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA, an MS degree in chemistry from the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY, and a PhD degree in pharmacognosy from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in Chicago, IL. She received a predoctoral research fellowship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support her doctoral research in the area of botanical dietary supplements and was later awarded a postdoctoral fellowship to work at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the NIH, where she developed a new screening assay to detect anticancer natural product compounds
Health E-Insights: What excites you most about your company?
Dr. Booth: Spherix has two wholly-owned subsidiaries that, at first glance, appear to serve very different functions; however, in practice these independent businesses overlap quite a bit regarding the scientific expertise that is required to manage each. Biospherics is focused on drug development for chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemias, metabolic syndrome, obesity and more. The energy is high, the pace at which Biospherics moves is quick, and novel scientific approaches toward therapies are under discussion daily. This makes for a very energizing atmosphere. Spherix Consulting is our service-oriented subsidiary that provides the food, beverage and dietary supplement industries with support in the areas of safety assessment, dossier preparation, manuscript publication and regulatory approvals. Many employees at Spherix work on both sides of the company, which provides exposure to two very different business models and the detailed day-to-day operations that support each. This is a very rare and valuable experience from an employee’s point of view, as it teaches one to use different approaches to problem-solving, depending on what the goal is, while drawing on the same toolbox of personal skills and talents in each case.
Health E-Insights: What do value most in your day-to-day life?
Dr. Booth: Regarding my career, I am grateful that I work in an environment where my scientific contribution is taken seriously and has an impact. By necessity, creative problem-solving is a way of life among our core team of scientists. The environment is very dynamic and we often stir up lots of enthusiasm when brainstorming ideas for new projects. Spherix has this palpable, think-tank kind of atmosphere as a direct result of the overt guidance of excellent management, who has an entrepreneurial type of vision for where we are going as a company. Regarding my personal life, my largest daily joy is beginning and ending my day with my daughter and my husband, who is very much a modern dad. I can appreciate that my life partner is a fellow scientist who will banter with me about theories and ideas over dinner only to then turn around and teach our child to say Coriolis effect in the bathtub. Life is much more rewarding and humorous this way. Something always happens at home that reminds me not to take myself too seriously. My daughter and I did our first chemistry experiment together the other day and she was bouncing with excitement for hours afterward. This is what living is all about.
Health E-Insights: What is one mistake you witness business leaders making more frequently than others?
Dr. Booth: When writing business proposals and contracts, my biggest challenge is to convey to a client, in words, why we will provide them with the specific services we have tailored to their needs, and how critical the output information will be for the success of their project. Sometimes, corporate decisions are made to place work with the lowest bidder, due to budgetary considerations alone. Unfortunately, this practice may or may not necessarily save cost in the long run, especially if time, effort and budget must be redirected at a later date to fill an inadequacy that is found in the lesser-costing work. Any amount of time that can be spent to better understand what is needed for success, prior to investing the entirety of one’s resources on a dedicated task, is well worth it, in my opinion.
Health E-Insights: How does your business ‘give back’ to the community or to society?
Dr. Booth: By taking aim at addressing chronic diseases during a time in our history when obesity and metabolic syndrome rates are soaring, Biospherics aims to better the human condition by confronting the chronic disease epidemic head-on. On the other hand, the work carried out by Spherix Consulting is much less visible to the general public, versus Biospherics, because we are working confidentially with food and supplement companies to route their ingredients through the regulatory framework of various countries. However, this position actually puts us on the front lines of assuring food and supplement safety both in the U.S. and abroad. Our corporate motto for Spherix Consulting is ‘product safety is the foundation of consumer trust.’ Spherix staff also frequently engages with the press regarding the application and implications of regulations governing food and supplement safety, in order to educate decision-makers in the industries we serve.
Health E-Insights: What words come to mind when you think of your brand?
Dr. Booth: Creative problem-solving, innovation, data-driven.
Health E-Insights: Are you satisfied?
Dr. Booth: Extremely. I realize that the work we do as science consultants is directly related to the safety of a product that will ultimately be put on the market for consumers to buy. I like the idea of being able to point to a product and know that I had a personal role to play in assuring its safety. My work with Biospherics has only begun to ramp up recently, but I already sense that there are many opportunities to contribute in a significant way to new project development on that side of the company as well.
Sheldon Baker wants to interview you. Contact him at SBaker@BakerDillon.com. Follow him on Twitter @NutraInk and visit his website at www.BakerDIllon.com.
Health E-Insights: What excites you most about your company?
Dr. Booth: Spherix has two wholly-owned subsidiaries that, at first glance, appear to serve very different functions; however, in practice these independent businesses overlap quite a bit regarding the scientific expertise that is required to manage each. Biospherics is focused on drug development for chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemias, metabolic syndrome, obesity and more. The energy is high, the pace at which Biospherics moves is quick, and novel scientific approaches toward therapies are under discussion daily. This makes for a very energizing atmosphere. Spherix Consulting is our service-oriented subsidiary that provides the food, beverage and dietary supplement industries with support in the areas of safety assessment, dossier preparation, manuscript publication and regulatory approvals. Many employees at Spherix work on both sides of the company, which provides exposure to two very different business models and the detailed day-to-day operations that support each. This is a very rare and valuable experience from an employee’s point of view, as it teaches one to use different approaches to problem-solving, depending on what the goal is, while drawing on the same toolbox of personal skills and talents in each case.
Health E-Insights: What do value most in your day-to-day life?
Dr. Booth: Regarding my career, I am grateful that I work in an environment where my scientific contribution is taken seriously and has an impact. By necessity, creative problem-solving is a way of life among our core team of scientists. The environment is very dynamic and we often stir up lots of enthusiasm when brainstorming ideas for new projects. Spherix has this palpable, think-tank kind of atmosphere as a direct result of the overt guidance of excellent management, who has an entrepreneurial type of vision for where we are going as a company. Regarding my personal life, my largest daily joy is beginning and ending my day with my daughter and my husband, who is very much a modern dad. I can appreciate that my life partner is a fellow scientist who will banter with me about theories and ideas over dinner only to then turn around and teach our child to say Coriolis effect in the bathtub. Life is much more rewarding and humorous this way. Something always happens at home that reminds me not to take myself too seriously. My daughter and I did our first chemistry experiment together the other day and she was bouncing with excitement for hours afterward. This is what living is all about.
Health E-Insights: What is one mistake you witness business leaders making more frequently than others?
Dr. Booth: When writing business proposals and contracts, my biggest challenge is to convey to a client, in words, why we will provide them with the specific services we have tailored to their needs, and how critical the output information will be for the success of their project. Sometimes, corporate decisions are made to place work with the lowest bidder, due to budgetary considerations alone. Unfortunately, this practice may or may not necessarily save cost in the long run, especially if time, effort and budget must be redirected at a later date to fill an inadequacy that is found in the lesser-costing work. Any amount of time that can be spent to better understand what is needed for success, prior to investing the entirety of one’s resources on a dedicated task, is well worth it, in my opinion.
Health E-Insights: How does your business ‘give back’ to the community or to society?
Dr. Booth: By taking aim at addressing chronic diseases during a time in our history when obesity and metabolic syndrome rates are soaring, Biospherics aims to better the human condition by confronting the chronic disease epidemic head-on. On the other hand, the work carried out by Spherix Consulting is much less visible to the general public, versus Biospherics, because we are working confidentially with food and supplement companies to route their ingredients through the regulatory framework of various countries. However, this position actually puts us on the front lines of assuring food and supplement safety both in the U.S. and abroad. Our corporate motto for Spherix Consulting is ‘product safety is the foundation of consumer trust.’ Spherix staff also frequently engages with the press regarding the application and implications of regulations governing food and supplement safety, in order to educate decision-makers in the industries we serve.
Health E-Insights: What words come to mind when you think of your brand?
Dr. Booth: Creative problem-solving, innovation, data-driven.
Health E-Insights: Are you satisfied?
Dr. Booth: Extremely. I realize that the work we do as science consultants is directly related to the safety of a product that will ultimately be put on the market for consumers to buy. I like the idea of being able to point to a product and know that I had a personal role to play in assuring its safety. My work with Biospherics has only begun to ramp up recently, but I already sense that there are many opportunities to contribute in a significant way to new project development on that side of the company as well.
Sheldon Baker wants to interview you. Contact him at SBaker@BakerDillon.com. Follow him on Twitter @NutraInk and visit his website at www.BakerDIllon.com.
