Life's a Biotech - Jade

Featured - Is bioinformatics the new hot career choice for scientists?

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:54:44 -0500

Anyone with strong bioinformatics skills looking for a job with a fantastic energetic new PI at the University of Arizona? Today I spent time with a friend and new PI at the University of Arizona talking about her metagenomics projects. She's been advertising for an opening for a computational biologist for quite a while. She tells me that she can't find anyone to fill this position beca; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: Careers

Featured - Biotech update: Life Tech layoffs sign of the times?

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:49:08 -0500

 Last week the biotech community in San Diego suffered a tough blow as many positions were eliminated as part of a plan to save $20 million dollars in the hopes that Life Tech will please their investors.  People who lost jobs included veterans with the company, many who were loyal and hard-working to the almighty borg of biotechs, sacrificing their nights, vacations, and weekend; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - Negotiating Salary in Biotech

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:40:27 -0500

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 compa; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - How to Find a Job in Biotech and Resume/CV Tips

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:32:03 -0500

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; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - Please, Learn How to Give a Good Talk

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:48:46 -0500

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 ; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: Careers

Featured - Career Advice from a Rock Star of Science

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:53:32 -0500

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. ; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: Careers

Featured - Operations: another role for scientists in biotech

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:18:38 -0500

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 ; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - Should I get a PhD?

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:51:05 -0500

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 you; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: Careers

Life's a Biotech - What I would study if I could choose a new field of science

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:02:28 -0600

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; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: Research

Featured - The Science of Marketing: How Products are Born Part III

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:54:16 -0600

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; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - The Traveling Life

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:58:34 -0600

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 no; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - How Products are Born: What exactly is going on in research and development anyway?

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:18:06 -0600

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 s; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - How Products are Born

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 13:57:56 -0600

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 inv; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - My Biggest Lab Mistake (and why I don't leave home without socks)

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:10:30 -0600

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 obnoxio; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: Misc

Featured - Communication Skills 101 (and some tips for managing others)

Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:40:24 -0600

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, ; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - What is the biggest difference between academic research and industrial research?

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:06:16 -0600

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; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - Position Yourself for a Job in Industry

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 09:00:00 -0600

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. ******************Hi Jade,I'm a frequent reader of the blog, if a rare c; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Featured - Know Thy Genome, Know Thyself - Coriell Personalized Medicine Collaborative

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:35:16 -0600

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; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Life's a Biotech - The Marketing of Science

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:00:00 -0600

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 t; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Life's a Biotech - Marketing Dictionary for Newbies

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500

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 o; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech

Life's a Biotech - The Unknown Legend

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0500

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 wi; (read more)

Source: Jade - Discipline: BioTech