Medical Science Liaison, Allergan
UC Irvine – 2008, B.S., biological sciences
UC Irvine– 2013, Ph.D, biological sciences
Agnesa Avanesian is a Psychiatry Medical Science Liaison at Allergan where she works on numerous medical education initiatives and supports the clinical development of novel psychiatric drugs. Her love for research and drug development began here at UCI where through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) where she was able to participate in research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences department, focused on screening for compounds for their potential anti-aging properties. Agnesa then went on to complete her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology at the UCI School of Medicine. Her doctoral work focused on elucidating the pathways involved in methamphetamine induced accelerated aging and identify potential therapeutics to reverse these processes.
Following the completion of her PhD Agnesa spent the next few years as a Scientist at Ambry Genetics and Bio-Rad Laboratories where she worked on developing genetic clinical diagnostics used for identifying mutations in risk genes and for confirming diagnosing a variety of illnesses. Although, Agnesa really enjoyed her time working in the development of diagnostics, she was very happy to be able to get back to her first love of pharmacology when she transitioned to her current role at Allergan.
Agnesa lives in Huntington Beach and has two young daughters.