Trailblazing Science: Dr. Isabelle Raymond on Curiosity, Menopause Research and Raising the Bar

In this episode of Supplement Source, CRN’s Jeff Ventura sits down with Dr. Isabelle Raymond, Senior Vice President of Global Medical and Clinical Affairs at Nutrafol and a nominee for CRN’s Annette Dickinson Trailblazer Award.  

A neuroscientist by training, Raymond shares how her career took her from pharmaceutical and biotech research into the dietary supplement space—and why that move opened new possibilities for scientific exploration. She discusses her groundbreaking research on hair growth in menopausal women, including leading the first published randomized, placebo-controlled trials in a population historically underrepresented in research. 

Raymond also talks about bringing rigorous scientific methodology to supplements, challenging misconceptions about the industry, and why creativity, curiosity and even failure are essential parts of scientific discovery. Her advice to the next generation of scientists is simple: stay curious, keep learning and follow what interests you.

About the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) 
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), founded in 1973 and based in Washington, D.C., is the leading trade association representing the dietary supplement and functional food industry. Bringing together manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and service providers, CRN unites its member companies around a shared commitment to science, transparency, and responsible business practices—advancing a strong, credible marketplace that supports consumer health and industry growth.

In an increasingly complex regulatory and media environment, CRN serves as the industry’s front line—shaping science-based policy, defending market access, and countering misinformation. Through strategic advocacy, self-regulatory leadership, voluntary guidelines, and evidence-based communications, CRN ensures that responsible companies are recognized, protected, and positioned to innovate and compete. Learn more at crnusa.org and follow @CRN_Supplements on X and LinkedIn.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Please note, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, CRN, does not endorse any guest appearing on this podcast or any products or services they may discuss. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of CRN. Thank you and enjoy the episode.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

You are listening to Supplement Source, the official podcast of the Council for Responsible Nutrition. And now your host, Jeff Ventura.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Hello, and thank you for listening to Supplement Source. My name is Jeff Ventura, and I am the Vice President of Communications here at the Council for Responsible Nutrition. It is my sincere pleasure to be joined today on our little podcast by Isabel Raymond. She is the Senior Vice President Global Medical and Clinical Affairs at Neutrophil. Hello, Dr. Raymond. How are you today?

SPEAKER_03 0:58

I'm good. Thanks, Jeff. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Good, good. I love uh the the reason why we have you on the show today. You are a nominee of the for the Annette Dickinson Trail Blazer Award for this year. Uh we are certainly coming up to award season with the conference on the horizon in Carlsbad. First of all, congratulations for uh being nominated. That's a that's certainly a a great honor, especially when you consider Annette Dickinson's legacy. What did it feel like when you found out you were a finalist for the award?

SPEAKER_03 1:32

You know, honestly, I I was shocked because I think we do our job every day, and and there's no expectations in science to ever get an award. It's the award is getting the publication right finally through the reviewers and publish. And so to be to have an award A that exists, I think is truly important. And to be nominated uh was uh just a shock and so um happy, you know, honestly, just like, yeah, thank you. We work hard, you know, but scientists are never recognized. So I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Yeah, like we actually get to pause and take inventory of our accomplishments. That's pretty fantastic. So let me ask you this you spent years in pharma and biotech before moving into beauty and wellness. What made you want to make that jump?

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Oh man, that was it was a jump, let me tell you. Um, I actually came from, I'm a neuroscientist by training. So I came from, you know, neuroscience and worked uh in drug development, et cetera, and came uh through the neuroscience into dermatology, if you will, through aesthetics with the neurotoxin. And then from then spent some time in dermatology and worked, you know, medical derm, um, topicals, injectables, all the things, medical devices. And so hair really was not so much a leap from that standpoint, but what was a huge leap was the supplement space that I was really not familiar with. And I will be honest, at the beginning, I was very reticent to join Neutrophil because I felt that it would really affect my reputation as a as someone who's been taken seriously. And what a mistake that was thinking that, because it really has truly opened gates and doors and uh possibilities that that I don't think I could have done if I'd stayed in front of you.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah, I mean, it's it's interesting because my background is uh the FDA. And so for me to leave the agency and and and you know come into supplements, even though obviously supplements are regulated, um, I didn't realize either how much science was actually behind the supplements. So to be working for an organization where that's the tagline, uh, I think uh I I I share in your pleasant surprise. Yes. Um was there a specific moment where you thought, okay, I I can actually do something different here?

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Yeah, because you know, when you are in in an irregulated space to have a product uh pre-approved before it's on market, you are you need to um you're mandated to conduct studies for the endpoints that the FDA sets for you, right? And and I don't think there's a lot of companies that want to be creative there because it's just let's spend all this money getting the endpoints that are needed from us, and we can do things after, right? I've worked at companies that we did a lot of phase four trials afterwards, but once you get through that, those those hurdles of uh uh FDA approval, it you know, the money tends to go away because you're just wanting to get through that. So for supplements, because the studies are not necessarily needed to get the product on market, it opens up endpoints, it opens up populations and it really allows you to think, well, why aren't we studying this? So the crutches of having to do what we're told are are gone. And so that just that's like, wow, we can do all these things, including studying menopausal women and really a population, because they were our customers, uh, we're making them a priority. And what a what a change that was.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

It sounds like you really need to have a sort of, you know, true sort of sense of confidence and uh kind of a willingness to push back and do things a little differently when it's when the path's not sort of laid out before you. Um, you know, especially when you're you know stepping off of that sort of you know traditional science path with you know working for you know big pharma, etc. Um how do you man how did you manage that?

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Well, I think it's where does it come from? Yeah, yeah, no, it's still the same path. I mean, science is science. I don't where wherever you practice science, the the methodology is the same. And I think some people are so lost when they're like, well, your industry, your science is different. It's like, no, it's this, it's a method. It's a methodology, right? And I apply the methodology same as I would if I was in academia, if I was for big pharma. And now it's, you know, as I'm applying it for supplements, the methodology is the same. So I think where uh where it's a little bit different is is the uh the creativity around the endpoints. And I think for hair, it was there's so many things you can measure for hair, but also what is meaningful for for your customers. And really, like the mindset was a lot different than again just being focused on endpoints that are probably sometimes outdated, a little bit old. Um, and it just allows you to kind of shift the mindset of we're gonna be looking at all of these different things and with all the different methodologies, but it's still the scientific methodology that we're applying.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

To borrow sort of a phrase from the younger generation, why did you lock in on menopause research? What specifically about that was compelling for you?

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Well, you know, it's serendipitously, I was kind of going through it at the same time as I was learning about hair. And it is really during the pandemic when, you know, I joined Neutrophil uh like January 2020. So just before the pandemic hit, and uh, and as we were starting to talk about all the effects of stress on hair, et cetera, and I was looking at my part and in camera because we're on Zoom and everything is highlighted on Zoom, and you're like, wait a second, is that my part changing? I'm like, what is happening? Is this the stress? And it's like, no, that's actually more of a pattern that's related to to menopausal changes. And so I'm like, wait, why did how am I a scientist and an educated woman not knowing anything about these changes that could be happening? And so it just kind of led to that. So it was very uh selfish, if you will, to also um uh study that. But you know, it was already ongoing, and I just kind of really added that element of um, I care about this because it's happening to me. And if it's happening to me, it's happening to you know, so many w women um around the country. So uh it was interesting also because there's nothing, there's so little information on on menopausal women in general, but also less so on hair.

SPEAKER_02 7:48

I can relate to your story. I for me, it was those self-checkouts like at Target where you you're on camera and you you know you see you see your hair. I'm like, who is that guy?

SPEAKER_03 8:01

Yes, and it's just constantly staring at your face all day. You know, and there's whole papers about it. So yeah, it became a thing.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Um, you ran the first published randomized placebo-controlled trials on hair growth supplements, many people may not know, uh, in menopausal women, a population that's been kind of ignored by research. Um tell me what that was like for you to sort of be breaking that ground.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

So I will be honest and say like how disappointing it is that we are the first, not because we did it, but because there was nothing before. And so it was um it was needed, I think. And since then, there's been such a boom in this space of uh speaking and understanding menopausal women, but there's still very little research. And so to be part of that and to have a randomized control trial, and since then we have done other studies. So we have uh at least four or five studies on menopausal women at this stage looking at different endpoints again be and different timing. And as we, you know, when we published this paper, we weren't quite sure what to call menopause. So we uh perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause because there was no language. And so today I cringe a little bit because I wish we had used the right um nomenclature because as we as we talk about it more, we understand it. And so I think we were at the cusp of really uh uh a market that has boomed, really, but it just re-emphasizes that this is a population that is looking for data and they are looking for endpoints that are studied on on them, on us. And so it matters. Um, so I'm really proud of that. And I hope, you know, I think our marketing team will hate me for saying this, but I hope we're not the first for for much longer because I think more uh companies should invest in this population.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Coming from pharma and biotech, as we've established, uh in terms of your career uh path, what did you see in the supplement world that made you want to raise the bar on how research gets done on this side of the fence?

SPEAKER_03 9:57

You know, I think there's there is a misunderstanding that I also have that supplements are not regulated. And I think that's first of all, it's not true. They are regulated just in a different manner. Um but it doesn't mean that science cannot be applied. And I think there it makes a lot of sense. Supplements are fantastic, you know, they serve a purpose. It's just I think sometimes they are they are overhyped in a way or they get a bad uh rap because of of um the misunderstanding and the the misinformation, I should say. And there's a lot of it out there, unfortunately. So I think adding legitimacy to to to a field is uh is really cool. It's it's really fun. And it again it's just bringing methodology and an application of a process that on a group of products. It's not the product.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah, so go ahead, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 10:46

No, no, I should say it's not the products themselves, it's not the supplements themselves. It's just sometimes people are expecting to see something, and when they don't, they assume it's not regulated. But um I think that's um that's something that we can easily do.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Well, and we we encounter that a lot here uh at CRN, where you know, obviously that's uh a mischaracterization of the industry that happens all the time uh in the press. And so we, you know, we we relate to that's perpetuated constantly.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

And I was like, how do we stop this? You know, so I think you know, even as as I've developed this, it's just it's it's it's science, but it's also public relations, and it's really changing people's mindsets by educating. It really is about education, and I think some companies stand out very well in this, and it's it shouldn't be diluted with every other company that maybe not don't do as much research as others.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Exactly, exactly. Um, so we've read uh that you have said that singing, painting, dancing, sewing aren't so different from research. How does that creative side actually show up when you're in the lab?

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Well, you know, I'm I'm less in a lab, more in a like, you know, a world, a real world space these days. Um I will say, you know, to me, science is art. It is it is an art to be able to think through a hypothesis and study it and fail multiple times. Science, the scientific method is an exercise in failure. You are trying to disprove something on a constant basis, right? And so you are expected to see those pitfalls, uh, but they don't bring you down. You just think about solutions around it. So I think same for you know, dancing or singing, like you will practice and practice and practice until you get it right. And uh it's just the there's no there should be no fear. Um, and I think sometimes people assume like you, you know, especially generations today, they watch YouTube and they think they get from zero to great, you know, right away and and and you don't see all the efforts that go into it.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

But um it's so true. I started painting. Yeah, I mean, I I started painting in the pit during the pandemic, and I can tell you that um there there are many, many failures along the way.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

But you learn from the it's not a failure because you know, it's not to quote, you know, the faint the great Dolly Parton, but like she said, I always learn something, right? And you're always learning something. And science, that's the whole point of learning. We know we know this today, and tomorrow we'll we will know better because we've learned something new. And so it's it's it's not being afraid of changing, not changing your mind, but like as new evidence is is put in front of you, you change your perspective. And so as you practice, as you fail, you say, well, maybe I'll try this way or I'll try this way. And it just allows you to you know circumvent um a problem. It's not a problem, it's it's a it's a goal, it's a never-ending goal.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

You've been so generous with your time. Um, but I do have one last question. Um I'm curious to know what's the one thing you'd want someone earlier in their career to take from your story, a story that has uh obviously culminated in uh being recognized by uh your peers in the industry.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

I think same as what we just talked about, like the not being afraid of failing. There's no such thing as failure. It is just learning experiences, and life will take you places if you have an open mind. And whatever you learn in school, whatever your training is, it will be applicable to what you do, and it'll take you to places that you never thought. If you told me I would I'd be studying menopausal women and supplements and hair, I would have said you're crazy, starting as a neuroscientist. Um, but and follow what's interesting to you. Just you know, you it takes all sorts of people to study um and to change the world for the better, especially when it comes to science. And so stay curious and apply what your interests are to what you do.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Dr. Isabel Raymond, such great advice. And we again really thank you for taking the time out to share with us um the excitement around your nomination. I certainly, I certainly am excited for you and um and thank you again for coming on. Please, please don't hesitate to come on again.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And I also want to thank um Jen Bone for nominating me um and recognizing all the work that me and I will say my team as well have done. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Fantastic.