Faul received her undergraduate degrees from University College, Dublin before embarking on doctoral studies with Professor David A. Evans at Harvard.
Her studies focused mostly on metal-catalyzed nitrene transfer reactions[1] to produce aziridines, strained nitrogen precursors valued as pharmaceutical intermediates.
Faul introduced multiple new wrinkles into this chemistry, including using chiral copper(I) catalysts[2] to produce enantiomerically-enriched aziridines, and using a variety of different nitrene sources for the transfer.
According to a biosketch at Organic Syntheses, Faul has expertise in Good Manufacturing Process scale-up of both chemical and biological therapeutics, and coordinates groups of external partners through licensing, regulatory, and program development issues.
[3] She attributes much of Amgen's success in this area to early adoption of new technologies, such as supercritical carbon dioxide purification and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (uPLC).