Can you believe April is over? Where does the time go?

My fabulous female musician is an artist I've never heard before until very recently. Perhaps, if you are Danish, you are already a fan. It is Asteroid Galaxy Tour and the song is The Golden Age. Haven't heard of that song before you say? I think you have.

From Copenhagen, this six piece band is classified as psychedelic pop and acid jazz (ooookayyy) and led by female vocalist Mette Lindberg. They launched their first single in 2008 and became best known for one of their other singles being featured in an iPod Touch commercial (Around the Bend).

But the song featured today is not that one. However, you may have heard this on a TV commercial too....for Heineken! This tune was driving me crazy so I googled it to find out, who is this girl with this unusual voice?

Here it is for you to enjoy. I am posting the official video and below that is a really cool acoustic version.



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This question is about the hiring process and the discussion around salary. The answer is quite involved so it would be easiest to post it separately so we can discuss the topic and also, as always, I welcome others to share their experiences.

Just wondering if you might be able to comment on the hiring process.

Specifically in my case, I'm just wondering how salary negotations occurs in a company.  Who at the company has the power to say "you will be paid x" or "we agree to your proposal of making x".

Or do you (the person hiring) get a salary range that you're "allowed" to offer/accept?   I'm almost wondering if it's like buying a car where the dealer needs to talk to managment... :)

Nervously awaiting to have the negotiating talk... :)

In the case when I was hiring (and I am at a small privately owned company), I had a range that I could offer but I fully expected to pay at the top end of the range. Having worked at the large biotechs, I know what a scientist with a PhD should be making and I firmly believe that you get what you pay for so I wasn't going to low ball the right candidate.

So for those of you wondering what that range is, on the west coast, for a Ph.D. with no prior job experience (so fresh from a postdoc . . . More

This week I will answer questions sent to me by a LabSpaces reader. I welcome additional input from readers who have their own experiences with industry job hunting and using recruiters. Please do feel free to share your knowledge.

Questions:

I have really been enjoying your posts on your experience with working in industry. I am coming to decide that I want to jump off the academia boat and try something else. The main problem with doing that is that I have no idea where to start. Would you mind discussing the "hows" of finding a job in industry? How is an industry type resume compare to an academic CV? Where should I look for PhD level positions? Are there recruiters or head hunters that help people find positions? Answers to any of these questions would be extremely helpful and appreciated.

How to find a job in industry and where should I look for PhD level positions?

There are a couple of approaches one can take for biotech job hunting. I would recommend using the typical search engines to start. Monster.com is one and . . . More

My Fabulous Female musician post for last week wasn't finished in time because of my travel schedule, but Nina Simone was and still is my choice. This month I am honoring musicians who battled cancer. Nina Simone died in 2003 from breast cancer at the age of 70.

Nina was a very accomplished singer and songwriter, recording more than 40 albums during her career. Her music spanned the genres of jazz, folk, blues, and gospel with some classical music mixed in. Her first musical inspiration was Bach and she wanted to be the first black concert pianist. Her plans didn't work out, due to poverty but also racial discrimination. She was denied a full scholarship at the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia, despite being qualified, so instead went to New York and studied at the Juilliard School of Music.

She received several honorary degrees in her life, one of which from the very school that rejected her application for admission, the Curtis Institute....two days before she died.

. . . More

I read a lot of posts about being a mom in science and all of the challenges involved. In my daily life at work, and when I am traveling, most of the business women or scientists I speak to and interact with are moms. Certainly, I find that I am in the minority when it comes to motherhood. Very few women get to my age without having a couple kids. Even in Dr. Blackburns' talk, she probably spent the most time on the question about being a mom and a scientist and it was very interesting to hear how she managed during her child rearing years.

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After attending a conference a couple months ago and being forced to sit through some pretty bad presentations, I had in mind to discuss the importance of grad students learning how to put together and deliver a good presentation. This skill is critical and I can't believe how many scientists struggle with presentations. I know it's tough and I know when you're nervous it is easy to forget some things you wanted to say. But there are ways of making your presentation easier for your audience to understand, and make it so it triggers reminders for you, so when the nerves come in, you don't forget what you wanted to say.

My most recent experience really highlighted this problem because as soon as the speaker was done, a man behind me raised his hand to ask a question. He said, "I COULDN'T HEAR A WORD YOU SAID AND I CAN'T READ ANY OF YOUR SLIDES!" He was pissed off. I was too, but I wasn't going to stand up in a room of 100 people and yell at the speaker. But it was true. So many things were wrong in every talk presented.

Honestly, if I pay several hundred dollars to attend a conference and I get up at 7 am to make your 8 am talk (which is waking up at 4 am for me on west coast time), and I get to the room, and now I sit through . . . More

Continuing with featured singers who have survived cancer, in honor of all the hard working scientists leading the fight to uncover the processes behind cancer, today's Friday Fabulous Female is the great Carly Simon.

Carly Simon was born in New York City and raised in the Bronx. Her father is the co-founder of Simon & Schuster and her mother was a civil rights activist.

Carly's music career began in 1971 at the age of 26, but her biggest success came with the release of the song "You're so Vain" in 1973. Carly dated many egotistical men and no one knows which man was the inspiration for that song. The top contenders are Mick Jagger and Warren Beauty, although Kris Kristofferson is a close third. In 2003, the name of that man was auctioned off at a charity function for $50,000 with the condition that the winner could not reveal who it is.

"You're so Vain" was one of the best selling songs of the decade, staying at #1 for six consecutive weeks when it came out. It achieved Platinum status 25 years later in 1997.

Also, in 1997, Simon underwent chemotherapy and a mastectomy for breast cancer in 1997 and 1998. She had the lump in her breast for several years but her doctors advised against surgery. Finally one doctor said, . . . More

I walked past the mini-conference room area that AACR set up in the middle of the exhibit hall and my eyes immediately zeroed in on the name of one of my science idols: Elizabeth Blackburn. She was going to be speaking about careers to young scientists and allow them to ask her questions.

I noted the day and time. It wouldn’t matter to me what she was talking about. I would be there.

The next day at 10 am, I watched her walk in to the roofless cubicled room and you could feel the excitement as she hurriedly walked to the front. I stood in the back by the entrance. All of the chairs were reserved for scientists who were post-docs and grad students but I was just grateful to be there early enough to have a spot to stand and listen.

How I wished I had this advice when I was young and ill-informed!

If you ever have the opportunity to listen to Dr. Blackburn speak, go out of your way to see her. Words can’t describe her magnetic presence and gentle, sincere smile. I could use some California new age terms here to describe her positive energy or radiant aura, but I’ll spare you.

Just a little introduction for people who don’t know . . . More

This week I will be attending the American Association for Cancer Research conference in Orlando, FL. This is a pretty big conference with long booth hours and plenty of networking opportunities.

In honor of all the hard-working scientists in cancer research, this month will feature female musicians who have battled cancer. I haven't decided who all the fabulous females for April will be yet, so it will be a surprise for both of us.

For this first week of April, I have chosen a female singer whose music I am totally unfamiliar with. Her name is Anastacia.

Anastacia hails from Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a showbiz family but her music is most popular in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In fact, her song “Not That Kind” was the biggest Australian single in 2000 and was in the top ten in eight different countries. Worldwide she has over sold over 20 million albums.

Anastacia was diagnosed with breast cancer identified during a routine mammogram in 2003 (at age 35) and she has successfully completed her treatment and is doing fine. Anastacia also suffers from Crohn’s disease, diagnosed at age 13, but has never . . . More

The next artist to enter my video archive of the world's most fabulous female musicians is New Yorker Cyndi Lauper. I picked her famous song "True Colors" but from The Body Acoustic album. The original reached #1 in 1986 and this 2005 version is a quieter, more mellow rendition.

The second video is Cyndi singing "Time after Time" on the TV show Australian Idol in September 2008.

I'm stickin' with slow, soft music again this week because I'm feeling a bit melancholy and need to chill. How about you? Hope it's a good day for the rest of you.

Enjoy this Friday's Fabulous Female.

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I began a series of posts that explained how products are born, that is, how they go from a concept or idea to a product on the shelf waiting to be bought. So far we've discussed what R&D does and what marketing does to make sure that a product has the greatest possibility for success. Well there is another person on this team who plays a critical role in the product development process and launch.

While the title of this person can vary, their department is in operations and their function is to control and organize all the tasks required to get the product manufactured. I want to talk about this leg of the product development lifecycle because I think it would be helpful to those of you looking at jobs in biotech and trying to figure out some of the job descriptions you might see advertised on websites. A position in manufacturing, QC, QA, or managing teams working in these areas are all viable job options for . . . More

I hope everyone is enjoying a mellow Friday night. I am unwinding from a wretched week of work, sucking down an icy cold ML, and listening to music.

I didn't want to miss honoring a female muscian for the week even though I haven't had time to look up some interesting facts. Never the less, this week's honor goes to Irish singer Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries, and my choice of song to mellow you out is Ode to my Family.

So get a good buzz going, then put on your headphones, and listen to this:

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I get asked this question a lot. There are two questions, actually, that students ask me all the time. One is: how did I get my job? The other: do I really need a PhD?

Today I will attempt to answer the second question.

So I was going to start out by saying that whether or not a PhD is the right choice for you depends on what you want to do with your life. Essentially- where do you see yourself in 5-10 years? And then I read the article by Image Goddess about how annoying this question is (and I laughed). So let's not go there.

I understand that not everyone has a clear vision of what they want in life. They aren't sure what makes them happy at age 21, or even 25, so how can you choose whether or not to devote 6 years of your life to working slave hours for barely living wages? This certainly complicates things.

The decision as to whether or not to get a PhD really does depend on having some idea of what you want to do in the future. If you don't really want it, I think you'll be miserable and chances are you won't make it through. According to this article, only 57% of st . . . More

I've been watching this video all week so I might as well add it to my Friday Fabulous Female video archive. I've always been a fan of KT Tunstall but after watching her perform her tune "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" solo, I might be in love.

If this isn't one of the greatest displays of musicianship you've ever seen, I'd like to know what's better.

Below is the video of her very first appearance on national television on a show called Later---with Jools Holland. She had only 24 hrs to prepare as she was filling in for another performer who cancelled. It was after this performance that her album, Eye to the Telescope, originally released in December 2004, was re-released in January 2005, and made it to #3 on the UK charts (in contrast to making it to only #73 after the first release). It was released in the U.S. in February of 2006.

This is a great tune but watching KT perform it solo proves what an incredible, creative artist she is.

The second video is the song "(Still a) Weirdo" from her third studio album, Tiger Suit, released in September 2010 in the UK and in October 2010 in the US and Canada. Her US and European tour dates are available on her webs . . . More

I thought long and hard about the blog topic today because really, when you think about the subject of "what would I be doing now, if I could be doing something else" well, that's a complicated question.

There's the thing you could have been doing if you had chosen a completely different path a long, long time ago. That's totally different from what I would like to be doing now if I could do something different. And the answer would be very different if asked, what would I do if I could do anything in the universe. And the answers to all of these change based on where you are in life too as well as, say, if I hit the lottery tomorrow, what would I do instead of what I do now, if money didn't matter.

So I was thinking about what else I would have liked to study if I could study something else. Still be a scientist but studying something else. And I know what the answer is.

I would make it my life's mission to cure multiple sclerosis. If I could quit my job right now and work for free in any lab I wanted, fully funded, I'd find an MS lab and work on that. Because MS bother me. It bothers me that this disease is still so mysterious and u . . . More

This week I've chosen one of my own personal favorite woman singers to feature for Fabulous Female Friday. I love the combination of a unique voice with a singer who can bring out the intention or emotion behind a song. To me, that's art. And that's how Dana Fuchs makes me feel when I watch and listen to her sing.

You may remember Dana in the role of Sadie in the film Across the Universe. She sang several tracks for the soundtrack of that film. Dana has two albums of her own music available on CD and just released her new album, Love to Beg, in Europe, Feb. 3rd, where she is currently on tour. The new album will be released in the US on April 12th.

For today, here are two of my favorite live performances by Dana. The first is her singing "Helter Skelter", which she sang for the Across the Universe album. Here she sings it live at the B.B. King Club in New York City.

The second song is a soulful acoustic performance of her tune "Holding onto Misery". I especially love watching this performance because she expresses the emotion so deeply when she sings it.

I hope you enjoy these tunes and check out more of Dana's work. Have a wonde . . . More

Picking up our discussion on the new product development life cycle, we last talked about R&D and before that feasibility. The next department to work on the new product is marketing. The person who will announce to the world the arrival of this new kit is the Product Manager or Marketing Manager.

(If you do not recognize some terms used here, please ask or check the Marketing Dictionary.)

Today's article is a lesson on how to calculate the size of a market and how to estimate how much money one can make in that market.

During feasibility, marketing provided the committee a financial analysis of the product. This is called the "business case". The key concerns are always around the numbers. There are numerous tasks to keep track of in preparation for a product launch and most of the early tasks revolve around market and cost analysis. The later tasks revolve around the creative aspects of marketing the product (design of . . . More

This week's pick for Fabulous Female Friday was inspired by @kzelnio on twitter by his tweet extolling the virtues of Mya. So I searched Mya on youtube and what do you think is video at the very top of the list?

Lady Marmalade

The original Lady Marmalade was recorded in 1974 by Patti LaBelle with her bandmates and reached number one in the US in the spring of 1975. It was also on the top of the charts in Canada that year.

The most recent cover of Lady Marmalade in 2001 was performed by Mya, Lil' Kim, Pink, and Christina Aguilera for the film Moulin Rough!

This first video is the original by Patti LaBelle and the second is the newest version. I chose a live version of the 2001 song so we can compare similar performances. Which do you like better?

1975 Lady Marmalade

*This entry contains a YouTube video*

2001 Lady Marmalade

*This entry contains a YouTube video*

Previous FFF

Erykah Badu

Tracy Chapman

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My travel schedule is set for another year. Every year I tell myself I’m not going to commit to so much travel but whenever I am asked to cover some event, it’s an opportunity for me to talk to people in diverse and burgeoning fields and get new ideas for products, so I don’t say no.  And who doesn’t enjoy attending conferences? So I’ll be traveling to a conference every month from now until October with a break in September.   

Does it sound like fun? There are pros and cons to traveling for work. If you like visiting different cities and enjoy meeting people and talking science all day long, you would love it. If you would rather chain yourself to the lab bench than talk to a hundred people in an 8 hour day, then this part of a biotech job may not be for you. Fortunately, it’s not required for all jobs and you can always decline.

I came up with my list of what I like and dislike about traveling for work.  Maybe this will help some people considering careers in marketing or sales, because this is a big part of the selling life.

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The Good: I love meeting scientists, hearing about their work, and getting compliments on our products by scientists

The Bad: Talking for 8 hours a day to strangers makes me want to go back to� . . . More

We're celebrating Black History Month and the next Fabulous Friday Female chosen to rock your day is the eccentric queen of neo-soul, Erykah Badu. Erykah brings the funk with this song she recorded with her super-group side project band Edith Funker.

On some sites it is called "Don't Forget the Hot Sauce" and on others "Annie Don't Wear No Panties" but either way, it's awesome. I guarantee you'll be singing this later. Enjoy!

*This entry contains a YouTube video*

Previous FFF

Tracy Chapman

Joni Mitchell

Katie Melua

Melissa Etheridge

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OK, let’s pick up our discussion where we left off last week, at feasibility. You did it. You successfully convinced a room full of vice presidents and directors, or maybe even the CEO that they should take your fabulous product idea to the next level. You’ve got marketing on board, excited to promote it and now it’s time for the work to begin.

You are the lead scientist so this will be your baby. You most likely are working on other projects too so you have to divide your time wisely. An R&D scientist always has multiple projects as various stages of the development process. You don’t get to spend full time on one thing. You know what your deadlines are and the target dates for giving updates to the committee and you make it a point to meet them.

I think to fully explain how a product is developed it would be helpful to have an example. Let’s use an example of something that no one has ever figured out how to do yet but almost everyone wishes they had a solution for. How about:

A novel method that allows for any protein of any size or sequence or species to fold correctly when recombinantly expressed in E.coli cells.

No inclusion bodies, no toxic . . . More

I wanted to change the flow of Fabulous Female Friday and feature different themes. While looking up what theme to do next, I was reminded that it is Black History Month in February. So for the next four weeks, let's honor the black women in music.

Of course I will not limit the focus on black women to one month only. There are an incredible number of women to choose from. But this month is a great time to pay special attention to inspiring African-American female musical artists.

One of the greatest women singers/songwriters in music today, in my opinion, is the soulful Tracy Chapman. I chose two songs for you today. The first one is a video of her singing her song "Talkin' about a Revolution". It is an incredible performance and apropos for the current events happening in Egypt. This song and the next are from her 1988 self-titled debut album. "Fast Car", the second video, became a top 10 hit after Tracy performed it for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday.

Please enjoy listenting to the tunes from this Friday's fabulous female, Tracy Chapman.

Talkin' About a Revolution

*This entry contains a YouTube video*

Fast Car

*This entry contains a YouT . . . More

Think about all of the products you use every day, both at home and at work. Every single thing you use started out as an idea or concept from someone who thought, “If I had something like this, it would make life so much easier.” We all have those ideas. But how does a product go from concept to solid object sitting on a shelf waiting for you to buy it? The process is long and complex and involves many people. Even the simplest more inexpensive item requires the touch of dozens and sometimes hundreds of people.

Most of us never think about how that thing or kit came to existence and what was involved to make it happen.  But if you knew how much work went into every last detail down to the way it looks when you open it and how you heard about it, you would never look at a product the same way again.

Today I am going to tell you how this works.  Naturally this process varies greatly depending on the size of the company and the type of product (for example, software vs a DNA kit, vs a sequencing service are totally different). I am going to describe the process in more general terms. Because the truth is that even in a small company, this process must be followed. The system is in place to make sure mistakes are not made, that lemons are killed before too much t . . . More

My choice of female musician to highlight this Friday is the most important and influential female recording star of the 20th century, according to AllMusic, and "one of the greatest songwriters ever" by Rolling Stone Magazine.

It is the beautiful Joni Mitchell. There is no science lesson for this week. I picked Joni because I love watching her sing and I thought maybe you would too.

The first video I picked is her classic "Big Yellow Taxi". Many of the younger generation readers are probably very familiar with the 2002 cover of this song by the Counting Crows with Vanessa Carlton. But to watch Joni sing it brings it to life.

Big Yellow Taxi was released in 1970 and was a hit in Canada, her native country, along with the UK and Australia. It only reached #67 in the US that year. It reached #24 on the charts in 1975 when it was re-released in a live version. I'm not sure why the song didn't achieve higher rankings in the US. I am sure we can speculate on that.

This first video below, I am not sure what year it is, but I think it must be 1975 based on her awesome hair and dress. I really love the style from the 1970's.

The second video is from 1970 and yo . . . More

My grad schools days are long behind me, and as time goes on, my memories of the pain and suffering become more of a blur. But, there was one day that I will never forget. Not only did I lose an entire days work, but I was lucky to avoid serious injury. It was the day I made the biggest mistake I ever made in the lab.

My graduate school was in a southern area of the country where obnoxious humidity hovered over you, causing you to sweat just from the act of breathing. Homes in this state were built during the confederacy, and as such, did not have air conditioning. In fact, running an air conditioner, if you actually could afford a window unit, would use so much power that you could turn nothing else on in the place without blowing two of the four fuses which powered the apartment from an outside fuse box.

So, just like all good graduate students, I spent most of my weekends in the lab where the air conditioning liberally blasted away with no concern for the electric bill. Because of the unbearable humidity, and because I rode a bicycle four miles to the lab in this sweltering heat, typical clothing was always shorts, t-shirts, and plain white keds with no socks. I was dripping sweat on arrival but achieved immediate relief once inside the arctic air of the med . . . More

My choice for this Friday’s Fabulous Female is a woman whose voice I first heard in San Francisco, soaking in the smells and sights of the incredible Ghiarardelli chocolate store near the Fisherman’s Wharf. Her voice was so mesmerizing and spine-tingling, I had to figure out who was singing this song. The answer was Katie Melua, a singer-songwriter from Georgia (Russia), now British citizen and one of the top selling artists in the UK.

I did a little research on Katie for this article and found out that she actually caused quite a scientific stir with one of her songs. A Guardian writer and former scientist, Simon Singh, took offense to her new 2005 hit , “Nine Million Bicycles” for being scientifically inaccurate because of this line:

“We are 12 billion light-years from the edge. That's a guess - no-one can ever say it's true, but I know that I will always be with you.”

He felt this line was an assault on the work of cosmologists, since we are actually 13.7 billion light-years from the edge, and it is not a guess.

His comments sparked a . . . More

Thank God it's Thursday because I am already burnt out from the first three days of this week. It has been an inordinately stressful week for multiple reasons, one of which I will talk about today.

It's not the lab. Lab work is like heaven for me. I love escaping to the bench, avoiding human contact, and focusing on how to get something puzzling to work.

It's not the next looming product launch, although it does have my stomach in knots and feels a little like a 800 lb gorilla on my back. I am still 75% sure we'll finish on time.

What’s really causing me mad stress this week is managing people.  I can see why experience in managing people is so critical to employers. Because it is tough and every problem situation is unique so there is no way to train for this.  You just have to learn through doing and then figure out what you could have done better after.

It all started with an email. Doesn't it always start with email? Email is so tricky, you know. Intentions and tone can be misinterpreted through email and this happens on both sides. When you send an email to someone, you have no idea what their day was like. They might be having the worst day ever and even the slightest comment may be perceived antagonistically. Even dealing with people you . . . More

It's time for the weekly #FFF and this week I want to share with you one of my all time favorite videos of female musicianship. This video displays the power and emotion of two of the greatest women musicians to grace the planet: Melissa Etheridge and Janis Joplin. When you watch this performance, you will feel the intention behind every word, every syllable, and every pause. You cannot watch Melissa Etheridge perform this Janis Joplin song and not feel it. Many people have covered the music of the illustrious Janis but few, if any, have ever captured the feeling behind the lyrics like Melissa does here.

This performance took place at the 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony where Melissa Etheridge had the honor of inducting Janis Joplin. I read her speech and it was really touching how influential Janis was to young up-and-coming artists of the day. I copied an excerpt from her speech to share with you here. The reason I wanted to share it because it has meaning to us as women scientists also. Just like the way many of us talk about how to inspire young women to be scientists, so was the way for women in music not so long ago. Janis, desp . . . More

I would like to thank AGreenMonster for these great questions for discussion. I am going to answer these from my perspective, which is from a life science company. I welcome anyone to give their feedback as well. In fact, if any of the readers out there feels like they have a lot to share, I would be happy to host your article on my blog so that you may provide more details. Just drop me a line.

Hi Jade!

The question from me would be, what would you say is the biggest difference between academic research and industrial research?   You say you don't have the same independence- how does that translate day by day?  Does that mean that you're given a project and are told what procedure to do at every step?  Or do you mean, that you told you need to work on x and get y in whichever manner you can?

To answer this question, let's first list some of the pros about working in an academic setting. You get to ask your own questions, questions that are interesting to you personally. No one is telling you what to do, how to do it, or for that matter keeping track of your time in any way. As long as you are productive and moving forward, you are doing well.

In contrast, in a company, you may have to work on a project that doesn’t interest you much. You ma . . . More

I'm not a big fan of the whole "follow friday" tradition on twitter. I can't choose everyone I wish to acknowledge and I don't like the idea that people might feel left out if they aren't mentioned.

So instead, I'd like to use Follow Fridays to pay tribute to the fabulous women of music! Each week I will feature a video from a talented female musician. Feel free to send me requests as I am always looking for new music from both vintage and up and coming artists.

Now to kick off FFF, I have chosen a woman that has captivated my heart and mind with her music for the last few weeks. I honestly can't stop listenting to her and I think her album, Lungs, is one of the best albums of the last two years, in all of music. (I was going to say in 2010, but I found out that her debut album released in July 2009, but I've only just discovered it).

Florence + the Machine is the band that I am talking about and the gorgeous Florence Welch is the red-headed indie rock artist that leads the band.

She recently appeared on Saturday Night Live so I chose this video because she looks absolutely stunning in it and also because her vocals are amazing. But this glam look is not her real style. So below is another video that is more down- . . . More

Many thanks to the scientist who sent in these great questions for discussion.  I welcome input from everyone so please share your advice with this reader. If anyone has more questions, please feel free to email me privately if you prefer. These questions were edited to remove specific details and indentifying information.

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Hi Jade,
I'm a frequent reader of the blog, if a rare commenter. I thought I would ask your advice on moving into biotech jobs. To give you a bit of background, I am doing my PhD at a UK university and still in my first year, but I'm certain I would like to work in industry. I spent two and a half years before grad school at a small company, working in a contract research division that ran tests looking for acute toxic effect in pre-clinical compounds from pharmaceutical companies. I found I liked the company environment for research, and quickly figured out that tenure-track faculty positions aren't what I'll be looking for. My work has mostly been happenstance, not that I don't find it interesting, but I have many other research interests, like cancer biology, immunology, and virology. I want to have a game plan in moving forward in my career, and figure now is better than later to have one. I am curious for your opin . . . More

This morning, enjoying having a day off from work, and thinking about all the friends I shared gifts with this year, I was suddenly hit by a feeling of ...something between pain, absence, and sorrow. I remembered my friend who is not here any longer.

I became friends with *Greg through acquaintances at work about 3 years ago and we hit it off instantly.  Meeting Greg was like finding a long lost best friend and just as if we had known each other our whole lives, we were fully at peace when together. Or so I thought.

A wonderful man and father, a talented musician and one of the sweetest souls I'd ever met, for a while, at least in that first year after he committed suicide, a day did not go by when I didn't think of him. My kindred spirit vanished from the planet without a goodbye or even a sign. Well, there were signs. I just didn't open my eyes to see them.

Greg and I talked about everything that was going on- and a lot of things were going on in his life. He was in the midst of personal turmoil with his marriage, serious financial issues, and on top of it all, had lost his job because the company he worked for went out of business.  At the time, all of his problems seemed manageable and not that serious. I felt he had everything under control. . . . More

For those of you who follow the tweets of @DivaBiotech, you are already familiar with the varied interests and activities of outgoing world traveler and international marketing guru in the area of genomics, Ruby Gadelrab. Ruby is one of my favorite tweeps, keeping me up to date on the personal genomics scene and the latest biotech science news. I asked Ruby to guest post on LabSpaces so we can hear more from this former molecular biologist turned marketing executive supertalent. Her background and experiences in biotech and her love for cutting edge science make her an excellent source of information and inspiration for up-and-coming biotech scientists.

Thank you Ruby for sharing this article with us. I hope we can print Part 2, when you report the results of your genetic profile. Depending on what comes back, I may do the same.

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During the summer of 2009, I came across a fascinating Genetic Study that I decided to participate in. Part 1 of this blog will describe the study and some of its features I particularly liked. In Part 2, I will share some of my personal experiences in participating in the study.

The Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative ( . . . More

I am a scientist for profit. This means, as you are well aware, I have to work with marketing people to generate pretty pictures showing perfect results with any product that we sell. You know those flyers and brochures and ads in BioTechniques where a tiny picture of a gel or a qPCR assay with photoshop perfect curves or bands is plopped on the page next to some meaningless picture and supposed to convince you to call or go to a website? Those things.

Before working for a company, I would take a look at those pictures but I never put much stock into them. I mean, of course they're going to show perfect data. What else will they show? Their kit sucks next to a competitor? So marketing data never really did sway me much. I looked at it, but not in any depth. I guess, I expect there to be some attempt at science in the ad, but it's merely representative data.

My first biotech job wasn't in marketing. The company I worked for was and still is considered one of the best in the world and I was so very proud to be a part of that company. When they would introduce a new product, the product manager would come present all the beautiful R&D data proving the product works and it was convincing. I would walk away from those meetings absolutely positive that . . . More

I woulda been a nun. Truth.

I think it would have been a much more fulfilling life but I think life as a scientist is/ has been a bigger challenge with more difficult lessons. Plus, there is a lot of good one can do in the world without requiring celibacy.  And why pigeonhole yourself to one religious doctrine?

I was always drawn to Mother Theresa so I probably would have joined her group. She never told people she was Catholic and or put attention on her religion. She focused her energy on being loving and compassionate to all people unconditionally. 

But like Gerty, my calling to science started young, around age eight or so, and I never questioned it.  I just went with the flow. 

My scientific life didn't work out the way I thought it would.  Too many bad decisions, mistakes, naivete, idealisms, and expectations.  But I'm still here, despite a few soul-crushing learning experiences from several PIs along the way.

I have no regrets. I would make a ton of different choices if I could go back and do it all again, but I'd still be a scientist.

 

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I have to stop working to address this very important issue. This isn't the first time I've seen what appears to be people of intelligence promoting the hate and persecution of another religion. And then more questionably intelligent people jump on the bigot bandwagon and fuel the messages of hate and intolerance to others.

What is going on here? Have people lost their minds?

This is no different than hating people for their skin color, sexual orientation, or gender. It's all prejudice. Don't think for one second that the same person who hates another religious group doesn't have the same bias against other groups that are different from themselves.  A person who has the audacity to, in public, make themselves feel superior by attempting to make others feel inferior doesn't limit this to only one particular race or creed. It is part of one's beingness.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, well I'm not going to direct you to the blog where a certain person asked their "followers" to make a rude tweet about a particular religion today.

As scientists, we have to be open-minded. That doesn't mean we agree with what other people think or believe and we don't have to even listen. I don't pay any attention to my friends' love for the fly . . . More

In the past six weeks, I will have worked four scientific conferences as an exhibitor. It is exhausting work that saps my energy- mentally and physically. Although I dread working the booth at the conference, once I get there, I usually can put on a happy face and play the role of biotech cheerleader for my company. I really do love talking to scientists about their work. That is the only thing about tradeshows that makes all the work worthwhile.

In marketing speak, when I use the term "tradeshow", I mean a scientific conference. For us it's often just called "a show". We usually do not have the opportunity to experience much of the science. It is strictly work: 8-10 hours of standing, handshaking, networking, and selling. I hate selling, just FYI. I'm good at it, but I hate it.

What I LOVE is flirting. Yes- that is what I do at tradeshows. I flirt. Just selling is boring and exhausting- talking about features and benefits and why this product is better than everyone else's and how we can "guarantee it". Ugh. But, add the challenge of getting someone to smile or laugh or want to contact me later for help? Now we're talking! Flirting techniques are great skills for marketing and sales people, and scientists. How does it work? Here is how I do it.

People rea . . . More

As more and more of my academic scientist friends become disillusioned with their prospects for a balanced life or financial freedom, moving to industry seems the logical choice. If you really want to make the big dollars, you'll want to move out of the lab and try out marketing or sales.

Now, you won't be able to go directly to a marketing position from the lab without some marketing experience or maybe having taken a few marketing classes. But scientists can transition from an industry lab position to a marketing position or go straight into sales, which only really requires that you are a scientist that is outgoing and friendly to others. (An oxymoron, I know).

If you do make the change to a company, even as an R&D scientist, you'll be interacting with marketing a lot. To aid in your understanding of your first marketing meeting, I’ve put together a list of marketing lingo that would be good to know. This isn’t so much a jaded article as much as my attempt to help those of you, who despite my bitching, still want to cross over to the dark side.

So here you go and please let me know if you have anything to add or need further explanation.

In alphabetical order:

Bandwidth: People
When used: To get out of doing something someone asks . . . More

In between topics to rant about, I thought I would tell you a little bit more about what it's like to be a biotech scientist. I've been in many different sized biotechs and even between them, the culture can vary quite a bit. Therefore, I'll try and describe it in general terms to give you an overview of the life of an industry scientist in research and development (R&D). Of course, some people will disagree. Just like academics, there are good labs and bad labs with good managers and bad, and in some companies you get to do mostly R (which is the most fun) and in others it's mostly D (which can be tedious and not as inspired) and this will make a big difference in your perception of industry science.

These are my own perspectives but feel free to leave comments about your experiences if you like.

Time Management

Let's start with your freedom. In biotech companies, your time is heavily monitored. Unlike the days in academics where you could disappear to the library for a few hours to read or write, or have a coffee break at any time of day as your schedule permits, this is not possible in biotech. People will miss you. People will look for you. It doesn't matter whether you work long hours- or weekends- you are expected to be at the beck and call of your co- . . . More

How many times have you said to yourself, "Does anyone else work here besides me? or "Is everyone here a complete moron?" And yet, at times it seems to be the case.

In all companies, not just biotech, there are two types of people: people who get things done and people who struggle to accomplish the smallest task without asking a million questions within 40 square feet of their cubicle. This second group are the people dragging me down. It is this behavior that makes it so I have to work late to make up for lost time spent helping their sorry ass, while they go home early to their families. Meanwhile who do they blame when things don't work out? Give you one guess. Sound like any marketing people you know? OK- not just marketing, I'll agree. Although marketing attracts a much wider proportion of ineptitude.

Scientists are in general a whole lot smarter than the average population. Scientists are trained to work independently and getting a PhD is basically sink or swim. You either figure your shit out or you don't. The wheat is separated from the chaff, and the strong survive. The chaff get a non-thesis masters.

Marketing? Mostly bachelor degrees but many have an MBA. You would think that getting an MBA should mean something about your intelligence level, righ . . . More