Meet Radha Krishnan, StageBio's Vice President of BioSolutions and Project Management, bringing over 20 years of expertise in biospecimen management to help drug developers protect and maximize the value of their research assets.

In this Employee Spotlight, we sit down with Radha Krishnan, VP of BioSolutions and Project Management at StageBio, to learn about her role leading the company's storage and archival division. With a career spanning central lab, CRO, and biospecimen management, Radha combines deep operational expertise with strategic vision, ensuring clients have the infrastructure, processes, and partnerships in place to safeguard their most valuable scientific assets throughout every stage of drug development.

1. Can you introduce yourself, share your role at StageBio, and what initially drew you to join the team?

My name is Radha Krishnan, Vice President of BioSolutions and Project Management at StageBio. With over 20 years of experience in central lab, CRO, and biospecimen management, I specialize in operational strategy, business integration across people, process, and technology, and change management.

When the opportunity at StageBio came along, it strongly resonated with my professional ambitions. The chance to contribute to innovative strategies, foster sustainability, and work alongside a dynamic team convinced me that this was the right environment for growth, impact, and meaningful collaboration.

2. What does a typical day look like for you at StageBio - from your first client interaction to wrapping up internal collaboration?

A typical day at StageBio revolves around collaboration. Whether I'm working with our internal teams to streamline operations, engaging with clients to understand their evolving needs, or overseeing project milestones, the through-line is always the same: making sure our clients receive consistent, high-quality service. No two days are identical, but the commitment to getting it right for our clients never changes.

3. How do you see your role supporting both our internal scientific teams and our clients throughout the lifecycle of a program?

My focus is on our BioSolutions division, which offers adaptable, temperature-controlled storage and archiving services to support clients at every stage of drug development. Our facility provides a full range of storage options, including ambient and controlled room temperature (21C), refrigerated (+4C), long-term (-20C), ultra-low temperature (-80C), and cryogenic storage, all supported by precise indexing, inventory management, temperature monitoring, robust chain-of-custody procedures, and strict quality compliance.

At the leadership level, my role is to shape strategy and build a sustainable operating model that drives business growth, while ensuring our teams have what they need to meet client deliverables day in and day out.

4. What types of challenges or questions do clients most often come to you with, and how do you help guide them toward the right StageBio solutions?

Clients typically come to us facing one or more of a familiar set of pressures. Many are managing a fragmented approach to storage, working with multiple providers without a cohesive strategy. Others are feeling the weight of infrastructure and operating costs, including the significant and ever-increasing real estate value occupied by freezers and vaults, resources that could otherwise support commercially productive lab work.

Scalability and capacity are also recurring themes, as programmes grow and timelines shift. Underpinning all of this is the need for quality, compliance, and risk mitigation. Clients want a partner they can trust to maintain sample and material integrity, provide 100% chain-of-custody traceability, ensure quick access when it's needed, and support logistics end-to-end, including onsite assessment, packing, transport, and temperature-controlled global shipping.

StageBio addresses all of these needs under one roof, offering clients the convenience of consolidation without sacrificing quality or compliance.

5. How does your team leverage advanced tools and technologies to enhance evaluations, and what sets StageBio's capabilities apart?

What sets StageBio apart is a combination of deep experience and purpose-built infrastructure. With 20+ years in this business, we have designed our facilities with redundancies and security built in from the ground up.

We offer full-service biorepository and archival solutions spanning preclinical, clinical, and commercial phases, with flexible storage to accommodate a wide range of materials, including clinical and preclinical samples, data records, manufacturing materials, APIs, lot retains, and test articles. Our comprehensive indexing, sample registration, and regulated data management systems ensure nothing slips through the cracks, and our well-defined chain-of-custody processes and electronic tracking provide complete traceability at every step.

Quality and compliance are non-negotiable. We operate to GLP best practices, with a zero-loss approach to material handling and 24/7 emergency response capability.

6. What's one thing drug developers often overlook in their programs that you wish they better understood?

One of the most common oversights is the absence of a unified strategy for consolidating study material and samples during ongoing trials or post study close. When decisions are delayed, storage costs accumulate quickly, particularly when material remains with central laboratories or CROs that are not optimized for long-term storage. Engaging a specialized provider early, one focused specifically on short, medium, and long-term storage and archival solutions, can significantly reduce costs and operational complexity while better protecting the integrity of the research asset.

7. What emerging technologies or methodologies in your field are transforming how therapeutic assets are evaluated, and how is StageBio adapting?

Two areas stand out. First, AI-driven innovation and automation, including smart robotics, are transforming sample management by reducing manual tasks, improving efficiency, and enhancing data integrity across the board.

Second, robust digital platforms are enabling a new generation of biobanking, harnessing sample data in ways that support individualized or precision medicine. This is not a distant prospect; nearly a quarter of new drug approvals over the last decade were in precision medicine. StageBio is actively adapting to these shifts, investing in the tools and infrastructure needed to support clients as the science evolves.

8. For biotech teams evaluating - sample management and archival, what questions should they ask to ensure their partner adds true value?

BioSolutions is a little different from traditional scientific CRO services, but the right questions are just as important. When evaluating a storage and archival partner, teams should consider:

• Have you thought about the efficiency gains of consolidation? Managing storage across multiple providers, or keeping it in-house, adds complexity and cost. A single, specialized partner simplifies operations significantly.

• What is the intrinsic value of your research assets? Samples, data records, and materials represent long-term scientific and commercial value. They are intellectual property with the potential to unlock future medical discoveries and should be treated accordingly.

• How does your partner mitigate risk around quality and traceability? From chain-of-custody procedures to compliance standards, the right partner should be able to demonstrate robust, proven processes that protect your materials at every stage.

9. How do you like to spend your time outside the lab?

Outside of work, I stay active playing tennis and pickleball, and I love listening to music. Keeping that balance between movement and mindfulness helps me bring my best to the work each day.

Radha's two decades of experience and hands-on approach to operational strategy make her a cornerstone of StageBio's BioSolutions offering. Her ability to translate complex storage and compliance challenges into practical, client-centered solutions reflects the kind of thoughtful, outcome-driven partnership that StageBio is built on. Whether you're consolidating biospecimens across a growing programme or planning for long-term archival, Radha and her team are ready to help.

Connect with our team today.