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Stem Cell research was hot in the early 2000s. Sadly, 8 years of George Bush effectively eliminated America's competitive edge in the field, primarily in embryonic stem cell research.  Consequently, it is no surprise that there is little emphasis or discussion about stem cell research in the US.  To that end, a recent Gallup Poll was conducted to determine American attitudes and perceptions of stem cell research.  The results of the poll (originally posted the the Assay Depot blog) are shown below.

The poll results suggest that over 50% of Americans surveyed believe that all forms of stem cell research are morally acceptable.  Interestingly, while increasing number of American believe that stem cell research should progress, government funding for it has markedly declined since 2009 even though the ban on embryonic stem cell research was removed.

The take home message is that Bush's 8 year band on embryonic stem cell research has seriously affected American competitiveness in the field and that it is no longer a priority of the US government.  The bottom line: I would not plan a career in stem cell research unless you are willing to relocate outside of the US.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!

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Vincent Racaniello, PhD podcaster extraordinaire and a BioCrowd co-founder, has long contended that Twitter is an ideal medium to conduct scholarly research especially in the life sciences. Unfortunately, many scientists, who have yet to try Twitter, steadfastly disagree with Vincent. To that end, I received a message from the folks over at Onlinecollege.org alerting me to an article that they published entitled “15 Fascinating Academic Studies Done on Twitter."

While none of the studies mentioned in the post were conducted in the life sciences, they run the gamut from computer science to sociology, music and science education. Twitter, which is still in its formative stages, is clearly emerging as the social medium of choice to track real time events and to stay informed about current events. As the platform matures and more people sign up as users, it is likely that it will become a player for online scholarly research studies in the life sciences and an ideal medium for science education.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Tweeting!!!!!!!!!!

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In many cases, people looking for jobs in healthcare will pursue job search strategies no different from any other line of employment. These jobseekers browse career websites, like BioCrowd and BioJobCenter, attend job fairs, send emails to hiring managers, and check corporate websites for job listings. Also, they will talk to friends and network with colleagues to get the inside track on job opportunities. No matter what healthcare opportunity or laboratory position that you may be seeking, the approach taken will often be a relatively straightforward and predictable one.

But certain subsets of the healthcare industry including biotech and the pharmaceutical industries have their own unique features and considerations when it comes to the job search. For example, academic research positions – while not necessarily the most difficult to obtain – are certainly the kind of jobs where a slightly different search approach may be helpful. If you are currently looking for laboratory work, (especially in academic settings) and want to maximize your ability to find a job, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Contact Professors/ Principal Investigators Directly

Rather than visiting job boards or directly applying to your institution for an academic research position, it is a much better idea to directly contact the professor whose laboratory you are interested in working in. Unlike CEOs and hiring managers in the private, professors and principal investors (PI) are usually easy to email and initiate a conversation with. Take advantage of this opportunity. Find academic institutions in your region and start sending emails to individual researchers. If you interest them, and they have funding, the likelihood of securing a position is much higher than those who take a more passive job search approach.

Grant Money Is a Limiting Factor

A major factor that that impacts the availability of many academic research jobs is insufficient grant monies. Obviously, if a lab that you may be interested in working in doesn’t have sufficient grant money  then the chance of working in that laboratory is unlikely. However, graduate students or postdocs who are able to obtain their own funding will have little difficulty in landing positions in most laboratories.  Sadly, this pathway to employment is not open to those who are not graduate students or possess a PhD degree in the sciences.

Develop A Plan And A Pitch

Landing a research job is not much different than those used to secure other types of employment. The key is developing a focused job search strategy that highlights your skills, unique talents and past work (laboratory) experiences. In addition, it is vitally important that you learn how to “sell” yourself to prospective employers. Unfortunately, many persons seeking research positions almost exclusively focus on putting together“killer” curriculum vitae (CV) or resume. It is important to remember that a CV is simply a vehicle to help procure a face-to-face interview. Once a job interview is secured, it is entirely up to a jobseeker to convince a prospective employer that he/she is the best and only person who is right for the job. To accomplish this, jobseekers must spend time developing a convincing pitch. While many scientists are not very good at this, it is essential to land jobs in economically-difficult times. 

While this is not an exhaustive list, these tips may be helpful to those of you who may be seeking research jobs in academic laboratories. It is important to remember that looking for a job, especially in these trying economic times, take a lot of hard work, commitment and tenacity.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

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Fewer and fewer American college students are choosing to major in Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). This has been an ongoing trend in the US for the past two decades. However, within the STEM majors, the life sciences are faring the best. While I believe that the US needs more life sciences majors to remain competitive with the rest of the world, there are a few things you ought to know before you take the life sciences plunge.

1. More than 86,000 American biology majors graduate each year
2. About 58% of all bachelors’, masters and doctorates in the life sciences are awarded to women (who continue to earn substantially less than their male counterparts)
3. Entry level salaries for biology majors range from $40,000 to $50,000 per year (computer and engineering students start at salaries of $55,000 to $65,000 per year)
4. PhD degrees in the life sciences take on average six years to complete
5. Postdoc starting salaries range from $37,000 to $40,000 per year
6. More than a third of biologists are still working as postdocs or in other non-tenure track jobs six years after receiving their PhD degrees
7. Only 14% of PhD-trained biologists win tenure track positions within six years of receiving their degrees
8. Because of tighter funding for government jobs and the loss of 300,000 pharmaceutical jobs in the past decade, many newly-minted PhDs are forced to become serial postdocs (supported by soft money) or help senior scientists set up and run their laboratories waiting to see if they can win permanent academic employment
9. Fewer tenured life sciences professors are retiring because of the financial downturn

If you still want to be biology major after reading this post, then I think that you know what career path you ought to pursue! Just sayin’......

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

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In April 2011, The National Library of Medicine (NLM), part of the National Institutes of Health, invited people to show off their apps. NLM challenged people to create innovative software applications that use the Library’s vast collection of biomedical data, including downloadable data sets, application programming interfaces (APIs), or software tools – all of which are free and available for public use. 

One of the winners of the app challenge was Quertle. For those of you who may not have heard of Quertle, it is an innovative website for searching and investigating the biomedical literature. Quertle uses advanced linguistic methods to find the most relevant documents instead of traditional keyword searching, which often returns an overwhelming list of uninformative articles. It is geared to active life science professionals – both researchers and health care providers – and saves them considerable time and effort in finding the literature they need. Quertle, available on the web using any browser, simultaneously searches multiple sources of life science literature, including MEDLINE

The Quertle search engine was created by Jeff Saffer, PhD and Vicki Burnett, PhD mainly because they were not satisfied with search results for life sciences publications and information delivered by conventional search engines. 

Vicki and Jeff will receive their award on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 20011 in Washington, DC. The award ceremony will feature U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and Health and Human Services Chief Technology Officer Todd Park as speakers. 

For those of you who may not know, BioJobBlog and BioCrowd have partnered with Quertle in various business activities and it is the search engine of choice for both websites.

Congrats to Vicki and Jeff on a job well done!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

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Most aspiring young scientists tell me that they love doing bench work and that they want to do it for their entire career. I am never certain whether they actually feel that way or they are simply telling me what they think I want to hear.  Nevertheless, I want to share my own feelings about bench work because I think it may be instructive for jobseekers who may not be entirely certain about their chosen career paths.

While I enjoyed doing research, first as a graduate student and then as a postdoc, bench work was not much fun for me and I found that the less I did it the happier I was. This should have been a warning sign but I ignored it because I believed that once I landed a tenure track position and had my own laboratory that I would be spending much less time at the bench. Much to my dismay that assumption was completely wrong and for the next seven years I was always at the bench when I was not writing grants, papers, serving on committees or teaching. And, not surprisingly, I resented it! But, then again, what did I expect? After all, I was a research scientist!

Interestingly, I have come to know that I am not the only card-carrying PhD life scientist who was not completely enamored with bench work. Many graduate students and postdocs share with me their aversion to bench work and their desire to get out of the laboratory. If you are one of those persons who feel this way, then I highly recommend that you eschew a career as a research scientist and pursue an alternate career path. Like it or not, you have to LOVE doing laboratory research to be a successful research scientist. In fact, not being able to be in the laboratory should be a disappointment rather than a time to rejoice! I believe this to be true because every single successful scientist that I know always talks about a time in their career when they were able to spend every waking minute in the lab and could think of no better place to be! To wit, in today’s NY Times Science Times, Michael S. Gazzaniga, PhD, a renowned psychologist, shared the following tidbit with his interviewer:

“I would be getting up at midnight and heading over to the lab — these experiments took great preparation, and that was the only really quiet time over there. It was busy, busy; I was up and around at all hours. I was totally lost in it, and those were the greatest years of my life. It just couldn’t have been better.”

If you do not feel this way, then a life long career as a research scientist may not be a wide career choice for you. Take it from someone who knows!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Several years ago RNAi was hot and it was touted as a technology that would revolutionize modern pharmaceutical science. I never thought RNAi had much promise beyond being a research tool but what do I know? 

With this in mind, I felt exonerated today after reading that Roche had divested all of its RNAi assets to a small Madison, WI drug discovery company called Arrowhead Research. In exchange for the assets, Roche acquired an equity position in the company.  About a year ago Roche formally announced that it was exiting the RNAi business, but until now was unable to find a buyer. 

According to a press release, Arrowhead now owns the Roche Madison Inc facility (formerly the Mirus R&D facility in Madison, WI), which employs a team of 40 scientists. Arrowhead also gets licenses from several leading firms, including Tekmira Pharmaceuticals for RNAi drug delivery technology and Alnylam for RNAi intellectual property and short interfering RNA structures. Arrowhead was already in the RNAi delivery space.

Previously, Roche spent roughly a half-billion dollars to amass its position in RNAi, including $331 million paid to Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in 2007 for access to RNAi technology and $125 million for the purchase of Mirus Bio in 2008. Arrowhead, in contrast, is paying Roche no money for these and other assets; instead it is giving the Swiss firm an ownership stake of slightly under 10%.

Many other big pharma companies have also abandoned their efforts in the RNAi space. While RNAi works in the lab as a research tool, the inability to successfully deliver it to internal cellular targets has prevent companies from commercializing it. I hate to say it, but “I told you so.”

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

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I just returned from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) meeting in Washington DC where I gave three talks about biocareer development strategies. One of the talks, "Emerging Job Opportunities in the Life Sciences Industry" was reported on (see below) by a writer from Fierce Pharma.  While I don't usually "too my own horn." about my achievements, I thought a Number 2 ranking in the publications daily top 10 list was certainly worth a mention.  

 
New job opportunities emerging in Big Pharma
October 26, 2011 — 7:24am ET | By Maureen Martino

Since 2001, 300,000 pharma employees have lost their jobs, primarily in R&D and sales. That's according to Clifford Mintz, the founder of BioInsights, which develops and offers bioscience education and training. Mintz spoke at a session on new job opportunities in biotech and pharma at the annual AAPS meeting in Washington, D.C. While the losses have been steep, they're balanced by emerging, in-demand careers in the industry.

The industry's struggles are well-known: Many companies are facing loss of exclusivity on their biggest sellers but have little in the pipeline to pick up the slack. Productivity is dropping as the cost of bringing a new drug to market soars. Government and payors want more effective drugs for less money. The list goes on.

Developers are looking to new markets and new technologies to address these issues. But how do these trends play out for the pharma job seeker? Many people, particularly Ph.D.s, may have to consider getting additional training if they want to land their dream job. "Companies used to be willing to just hire smart people. But with the economic downturn and global competition, companies can no longer afford to invest in people who have promise. They need to see proven skills," Mintz explained. With the right blend of skills and experience, however, there still some pharma jobs that are in demand.

Clinical Research and Regulatory Affairs

"Clinical research is the lifeblood of the industry," Mintz said. As developers expand in emerging markets, there's a particular demand for people to manage and organize overseas clinical trials. "There's a huge need for clinical research professionals worldwide," he said, noting that most Phase I and II trials are conducted outside of the U.S.

Another one of the industry's perennial needs is regulatory affairs professionals. "Regulatory affairs experience is a skill that all companies large and small would die to get their hands on," explained Mintz. The increasingly complex and uncertain world of FDA regulation--particularly when it comes to new technology and science--means that companies are always on the prowl for individuals with solid regulatory knowledge and ability to interact with the FDA. You can read more about the demand for clinical research and regulatory affairs jobs here.

Biomanufacturing

The pharma industry's interest in biologics remains strong--just look at Sanofi's buyout of Genzyme, or Roche's purchase of Genentech. They're lured by disease-altering biologics that are less likely to face generic competition than traditional drugs. As a result, there's been increased demand for professionals who can navigate the complex world of biomanufacturing. Those with a background in upstream and downstream processes, large-scale protein purification, fermentation technology and bioengineering can make the transition to biomanufacturing.

Healthcare Information Technology

The rise of bioinformatics and genomics coupled with the push for electronic medical records has created jobs in healthcare information technology. Health informatics--the intersection of healthcare and IT--is ideal for people with expertise in genomics, bioinformatics or software that understand how to work with and manipulate large data sets and databases. The Obama administration has made EHRs a priority, and there's a need for software engineers and biologists who are comfortable working with medical information.

Medical Devices

"The medical devices industry has been experiencing explosive growth for the past decade," Mintz said. Regulatory hurdles in the medical device industry are much lower than they are for biologics or small molecules, making the industry a more stable alternative to biotech and pharma. The demand for devices, which address problems that can't be treated with medicine, will continue to grow as the population ages. Job seekers with strong backgrounds in bioinformatics, genomics, engineering and translational medicine are best suited to this field.

Medical Communications

Medical communications--which includes medical writing, editing, graphic design and science journalism--continues to boom. The demand for these jobs has risen because companies need a slew of communication materials to send to patients, physicians, researchers, investigators and the general public about their products and business.

Patent Law and Technology Transfer

Recent changes to U.S. patent laws have increased the demand for patent agents and patent attorneys in the life sciences field. Pharma's growing reliance on basic research from learning institutions means that there's a need for technology transfer experts. These experts manage the patent estate and intellectual property of universities and colleges that may engage in licensing deals with the industry. A law degree is a must to compete in this field.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!
 

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Scientific advances and discoveries are often made serendipitously. However, in some cases they occur when passionate scientists are willing or crazy enough to use themselves as “guinea pigs” in experiments to unravel a mystery. This was the case for a Dutch scientist named Bart Knols who first discovered 15 years ago that mosquitoes were attracted to foot odor by standing in a dark room naked and examining where he was bitten the most. But, it was difficult for scientists to figure out a way to put this knowledge to use.

Enter Dr. Fredros Okumu of Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute who put the knowledge to good use in a recent study that showed that mosquito traps scented with human foot odor attracted four times as many mosquitoes as human volunteers. The mosquitoes that fly into the traps are subsequently killed by poisoning. 

Okumu mixed eight chemical compounds together to perfect the “foot odor” attractant and then experimented with several poisons that killed up to 95 percent of the trapped insects Okumu believes that he can use the traps as a possible cost-effective way to reduce the incidence of malaria. The disease is caused by four species of Plasmodium parasite and is primarily transmitted to humans after being bitten by Plasmodium-infected Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes.

His research was originally funded by a $100,000 research grant but he recently was awarded $775,000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada to create an affordable mosquito trap that could be used outside of homes. Determining the correct location of the traps is one of the major hurdles that must be overcome to commercialize the product. 

According to Okumo, if the devices are placed too close to people it would increase the risk of mosquito bites (malaria) whereas if placed too far away they would be ineffective as malarial control devices. He is currently developing commercial traps that will cost between $4 and $27 per trap.

While worldwide malaria infection rates continue to decline (mainly because of bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying) there are more than 220 million new cases of malaria each year. According to UN statistics almost 800,000 of the infected persons die—most of them are children in Africa. 

Sometimes, low tech solutions to complex problems can make a world of difference!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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The loss of patent protection and a decline in revenues for a number of blockbuster brand name antibiotics has caused many big pharmaceutical companies to exit the antibacterial drug discovery market. The three remaining big pharma companies still actively engaged in antibacterial research are GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Novartis (all European owned companies).

A new report by UK-based Datamonitor entitled “Forecast Insight: Antibacterials” predicts that antibiotic sales revenues will decline from $19.6 billion in 2009 to about $16.4 billion in 2019. Not surprisingly, the report blames the projected decline on generic competition and the lack of new antibiotic launches over the past 10 years.

At present, the top seven antibiotic markets in the world include the US, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. According to Datamonitor’s analyses, total sales in these markets have fallen by about 1.6 percent annually since 2005 and will continue to decline by almost 2.0 percent a year through 2019. In 2009, three antibiotics had sales of about or more than $1.0 billion; Johnson & Johnson’s Levaquin (market leader), and Pfizer’s Zosyn, and Zyvox. Interestingly, Pfizer recently decided to shut down its US-based antibacterial drug discovery program and move it to China and Johnson & Johnson recently announced that it was getting out of the antibiotic discovery business. 

Big pharma’s decision to abandon antibiotic research could not have come at a worse time. The incidence of antibiotic resistance among both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria is rising at unprecedented rates. And while safe and effective treatments for Gram positive infections including MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) still exist, the number of treatment options to treat Gram negative infections caused by Acinetobacter spp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and enteric bacteria is severely limited. The recent description and rapid spread of a beta-lactamase enzyme called NDM-1 that inactivates the antibiotic carbapenem—the last safe and effective antibiotic to universally treat infections caused by Gram negative bacteria —is extremely troubling and worrisome.

While much of the focus over the last decade was on MRSA, infections caused by untreatable, multiple drug resistant Gram negative bacteria will pose the greatest public health threat over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, it is much harder to develop new antibiotic treatments for Gram negative infections as compared with ones caused by Gram positive bacteria. Further, at present, most of the companies that remain in the antibiotic space continue to focus on new treatment for MRSA and related bacteria. Consequently, new treatments for Gram negative infections may be more than a decade away!

Finally, like MRSA, most infections caused by multiple drug resistant Gram negative bacteria are nosocomial in nature (although the incidence of community acquired infections is also on the rise). This means that the most likely place to become infected with these bacteria is institutionalized healthcare settings including hospitals and nursing homes.

In the past, we have relied on pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to discover new antibiotic treatments. The decision of many of these companies to leave the antibacterial space for purely financial reasons is unfortunate and regrettable. However, the growing incidence of antibiotic resistance among both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria suggests that new antibiotics are necessary and that alternate approaches to new antibiotic drug discovery must be implemented. Whether this is through public/private partnerships or strictly through government programs is irrelevant. The bottom line is that we need new antibiotics; and if they are not discovered soon, many patients will die from previously treatable bacterial infections!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (start an antibiotic drug discovery company)

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According to a blurb in  today's NY Times, a recent Nielsen survey found that over the past year online video gained fewer viewers. More specifically, survey results showed that the number of people who watched online videos increased only 3.1 percent from Jan. 31, 2010 to Jan. 31, 2011. While the number of viewers showed only a slight increase, the amount of time individuals spent viewing video increased almost 45 percent to 4 hours 39 minutes during the same period.

The increase in online video viewing time was attributed to the growing popularity of websites like Netflix and Hulu that offer viewers access to long-form video streaming. This shift may signal the beginning of the end of the popularity of short-form videos offered by sites like YouTube. To that end, in recent months, YouTube (owned by Google) has signaled its intent to focus more on long-form video content.

Although there may be a shift taking place in online video viewing behavior, I think that rumors about the death of online video viewing have been greatly exaggerated. In my opinion, video is here to stay but it may no longer represent a “stand alone” web destination. In the future, video and other rich media assets will likely be bundled with text and other written content as part of the online viewed experience. A good example of this is being pioneered by companies like Atavist—a publisher of long-form journalism and fiction.

Interestingly, the popularity of short form videos is just beginning to take off in the life sciences and related industries. As usual, it appears that lay consumers are way ahead of the scientific community when it comes to cultural trends....go figure!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Viewing!!!!!!!

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Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis late yesterday announced that it would cut 550 jobs at it Horsham site West Sussex, England. At present, there are 950 workers at the Horsham site. The job cuts, 330 dedicated to respiratory research, will be made over the next two years.

This is more bad news for the UK pharma R&D workforce. In February, Pfizer said it would shut its Sandwich in Kent facility which employs 2,400 people. More job cuts are likely to take place in the US, UK and Europe as the pharmaceutical industry continues to scale back investment in R&D. 

Until next time..

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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Despite assertions to the contrary, scientists are pretty much like most other people. They eat, sleep, work, party and for the most part are social creatures. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that scientists are also susceptible to hype and succumb to research “fads.” In my former life as an academician, these fads were not so obvious and, for the most part, they unobtrusively helped to advance scientific research. However, after I abandoned academia for the private sector, these fads became blatantly obvious to me.  And, for the most part, were primarily driven by potential profits rather than advancing scientific knowledge for the common good.

First, there was combinatorial chemistry in the mid-1990s. Honestly, I never understood the hubris of the pioneers in this field who thought that by randomly mixing chemicals in a laboratory they could outdo nature when it came to creating new drugs. Nevertheless, the combinatorial chemistry fad over time resulted in high throughput screening, laboratory automation and sophisticated assay development technologies which serve as the foundation for modern drug discovery and development.

Next, there was the Human Genome Project that was supposed to provide drug developers with a plethora of previously undiscovered, potential new drug targets. While sequencing the human genome did provide scientists with a treasure trove of new biological targets, drug makers quickly ascertained that progress in drug discovery was not being hindered by the lack of targets but by a dearth of new drug candidates! Ironically, the lack of drug candidates resulted mainly from abandoning natural product drug discovery in favor of combinatorial chemistry. Like combinatorial chemistry, sequencing the human genome helped to improve DNA sequencing technology, sequence analysis and ushered in the fields of genomics and bioinformatics.

After the human genome was sequenced, scientists began to focus on the fields of computational biology and molecular modeling to help to discover and develop new drugs. While computational biology and molecular modeling yield some small successes, its use in drug discovery and development was limited. Ultimately, these fields morphed into something called translational science or medicine; a discipline that I don’t fully understand.

Finally, in the early 2000s, RNA interference (RNAi) became the technology du jour. RNAi was a powerful laboratory-based discipline that was sexy enough to garner its creators a Nobel Prize. Because of this, many drug companies had high hopes for RNAi and quickly jumped on the RNAi bandwagon. Billions of dollars were invested in the technology with the hope that RNAi would speed new drug discovery and also yield new drug candidates. At the outset, it was clear to many industry experts that RNAi molecules would be difficult to develop as new drug candidates. This is because RNAi molecules are difficult to deliver to cell-based targets and have short biological half lives. Despite these obvious shortcomings, many venture capitalists and large drug companies adopted a “damn the torpedoes, full-speed ahead” attitude and invested countless dollars and hours into RNAi research.  A doubter from the beginning (and pretty vocal about it too), I was not surprised to read an article in today’s Science Times entitled “Drugmakers’ Fever for the Power of RNA Interference Has Cooled” which describes the likely demise of RNAi as a source of new drug candidates.

Today, the new fad appears to be personalized medicine. While I don’t think that personalized medicine is yet “ready for prime time” I believe that it will become a commercial and medical reality in the next 10 to 20 years. Yet, despite lessons learned from past research fads, personalized medicine is being over hyped and oversold by the scientific and medical communities as well as the lay press.

Fads come and go in science as they do in real life. After all, we scientists are humans! That said, scientists are obliged to “go where the data takes you rather than where you (financially or intellectually) want it to go.  If scientists fail to live by this credo, countless research hours will be spent on ideas that cost a lot but yield little.

Until next time..

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

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BioCrowd (www.biocrowd.com) and Quertle (www.quertle.info) announced today that BioCrowd has enhanced its site by embedding Quertle's semantic biomedical search engine. BioCrowd is an online networking site for bioprofessionals that offers it members discussions, blogs, podcasts, job searching tools, and research product reviews. With the addition of literature searching capability via Quertle's new generation biomedical search engine, BioCrowd has evolved into a one-stop site for persons involved in biomedical research.

Quertle's search engine uses advanced linguistic methods to find conceptual relationships, not just query terms scattered throughout a document. Searches yield highly relevant documents instead of the long lists of sometimes incomprehensible results offered by other literature search sites. Quertle's pioneering approaches, including Power Terms™ - which represent entire classes of related concepts such as "diseases" - provide its users with a means to quickly get answers and make discoveries through literature searches.

By accessing Quertle through BioCrowd, community members will now have full access to a gamut of web resources routinely used by life scientists. "Embedding Quertle in BioCrowd adds the best literature searching capability to an existing tool chest of key web resources," said Professor Vincent Racaniello, a virologist at Columbia University School of Medicine and a BioCrowd co-founder. "There is no longer a need to visit multiple sites to gain access to the tools and functionality demanded by life sciences researchers." Clifford Mintz, PhD, BioCrowd's Chief Business Officer added, "We talked to a variety of biomedical search engine companies and Quertle's product surpassed its competitors."

About BioCrowd

BioCrowd is an online networking site exclusively designed for bioscience professionals. It was started by Clifford S. Mintz and Vincent Racaniello, two longtime bioscientists, who recognized a need for junior and senior scientists to network with one another and other bioscience professionals to realize and achieve professional or career goals.

About Quertle

Quertle is a biomedical search engine focused on delivering informative results to biomedical researchers using advanced linguistic technologies and an in-depth understanding of the biomedical field.

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Twitter was largely ignored by college-age students after it was introduced over three years ago. At that time, Facebook was on the rise and texting appeared to be sufficient to meet the needs of much college students. Nevertheless, over the past year or so, university researchers have begun to assess Twitter as an education tool in addition to the role it has played in shaping today’s social media usage. 

According to a recent study published in the Computer Assisted Learning, Twitter can apparently bolster student interest and engagement and grade-point average. The study followed 125 undergraduate health studies majors at a public mid-sized US university. Half of the students used Twitter whereas the other half (control) group did not. The results of the study showed that Twitter users had an average GPA half a point higher than their non-tweeting counterparts. Also, the tweeting cohort more frequently participated in class and sought out their professors to discuss course material outside of class. 

Tweeters mentioned that Twitter was a less intimidating means to express themselves in large classes. In other words, Twitter was a less anxiety ridden means to ask questions during lecture. And, perhaps more importantly, Twitter users had much greater access to instructors outside of class. Also, instructors we able to send out tweets during lectures to keep their students engaged and awake! After all, who doesn’t look at their cell phones when they are vibrating and buzzing?

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Tweeting  

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A recent Pew Research report released this December showed that 43 per cent of adults aged 55 to 64 who have Internet access regularly use social networking sites. This is compared with only 9 per cent of persons in this age group, who used social networking sites in December, 2008. 

While the use of social networking sites grew among all age groups to 83 percent (from 67% in 2008), the largest amount of new users can be found in persons ages 45 or older; their numbers doubled over the past few years. Interesting, usage amount adults 74 or older has quadrupled and roughly 16% of folks in this age group use social networking sites to stay connected to others or to research medical conditions.

Not surprisingly, social networking site usage has declined somewhat amongst teenagers as they increasingly go mobile and texting is the way they stay connected. A troubling trend amongst teenagers is a 50 percent reduction in blogging that has taken place from 2006 to 2009. This suggests that teens may be writing and reading less which is quite troubling since most college freshmen need remedial training in reading and writing. Unfortunately, blogging seems to have been replaced with Facebook and Twitter updates: another ominous trend.

There is no doubt that social networking sites are beginning to reach their full maturity. It isn’t clear what will be the next big thing on the web. But, whatever it is, I hope that it will be as exciting as social media!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (use social media to find a new job it is de rigueur)

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Aptuit, a drug discovery and development company announced that it will be cutting 340 jobs in Scotland over the next year. The company cited the worldwide economic downturn as the culprit. Likewise, the Austrian vaccine maker Intercell announced that it would be laying off an unspecified number of employees and dramatically cutting R&D expenses (by 40%) after it killed development of its enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli vaccine patch. The company pulled the plug on the vaccine after it failed to reduce the incidence of diarrhea in a randomized and placebo-controlled Phase III study involving 2036 participants.

On the bright side, PPD, a global contract research organization, announced that it plans to invest $28 million to expand its Lab Services Division in Henrico County, Virginia and add 190 new jobs over the next three years. 

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Virginia)!!!!!!

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There is no question that mobile apps are de rigueur and like other mobile devices users, life science researchers are beginning to regularly use them! After all, any innovation that can make the long hours spent doing laboratory research, easier, less time-consuming and enjoyable are likely to be welcomed by most researchers.

According to Alex Hodgson, one of the founders of the antibody review site called BioHub Online “mobile apps for science-types are popping up everywhere.” These apps range from lab timers, to mobile notebooks and science journals. 

Alex recently reviewed several mobile science apps on the BioHub Blog  that “piqued her interest” Some of the apps may be familiar to you while others may not. This is what she had to say:

'Bio-Apps: Technology Meets Science'

By Alex Hodgson

Mendeley iPhone App
Free

This application indexes and organizes all of your PDF documents and research papers into your own personal digital library. It gathers document details from your PDFs allowing you to search, organize and cite. It also looks up PubMed, CrossRef, DOIs and other related document details automatically, importing papers quickly and easily from resources such as Google Scholar, ACM, IEEE and many more at the click of a button. 

Sync with Mendeley
Mendeley (Lite) for iPhone syncs seamlessly with your Mendeley research collection. This means that you can now carry your personal digital library with you wherever you go. 

Read your Papers Offline
If there is a paper you want to check out later, you can download it over wifi straight to your iPhone from your online library. It will remain available to read offline at any time, making it easy for you to read what you want, when you want.

Share Citations
If there is a paper that you just need to let your colleagues know about right now, you can share the citation to that paper from within the app via email.

Molecules
Free

Molecules is an application for the iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad that allows you toview three-dimensional renderings of molecules and manipulate them using your fingers. You can rotate the molecules by moving your finger across the display, zoom in or out by using two-finger pinch gestures, or pan the molecule by moving two fingers across the screen at once. The combination of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad's unique multitouch input system and the built-in OpenGL ES 3D graphics capabilities enable you to feel like you are manipulating the molecules themselves with your fingers.

New molecules can be downloaded from the RCSB Protein Data Bank

Primer Jot
$0.99

This molecular biology application aims to help you keep track of your oligos, all in one place, calculate the primer melting temperature (Tm) (based on a standard set of conditions) and categorize it, assign a project, as well as physical location details. Search feature ever allows you to quickly search primers/oligos based on name, project, sequence, Tm and even your notes. A must-have for anyone who works with PCR.

BioLegend Tools for the iPad/iPhone Application
All Free

BioLegend CD Molecules Applications
The application compiles information on all of the Human and Mouse CD Markers based on the findings of the HLDA workshop. Now you can find CD molecule information quickly and conveniently in the palm of your hand.

Cytokines & Chemokines Application
This application provides you with important information about your mouse and human cytokines and chemokines. Now you can find information about cytokines and chemokines quickly and conveniently in the palm of your hand.

BioLegend Tools for the iPad
This application includes information on Human & Mouse CD Molecules from the HLDA Workshop and Cytokines & Chemokines,an Antibody Usage Calculator as well as a lab timer.

Apps from Invitrogen
Free

DailyCalc
Calculate molarity and formula weight, or find unit conversions and cell culture references all with this smart calculator widget.

Alexa Fluor Selection Guide
This handy app serves as a quick reference guide for selecting the perfect Alexa Fluor® dye for your research.

Promega
Free

This application provides lots of great information for life scientists, including quick access to molecular biology calculators, technical tips, protocols, and multimedia presentations. The calculators provide a range of functions essential to molecular biology experiments, including DNA and protein conversions, melting temperature, molarity and dilution calculations.

The Protocols & Applications section of the App covers molecular, cell biology, DNA and protein analysis procedures, and is divided into chapters covering a comprehensive range of topics --from basic amplification techniques to real-time PCR, from simple cell-based assays to complex imaging techniques, and from protein expression to more involved protein interactions assays.

All are available through iTunes

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Researching!!!!!!!!!!

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Unlike most of its competitors, which are downsizing operations, the Swiss drug maker Novartis yesterday announced plans to double the size of a planned office and laboratory complex in Cambridge, MA. A company spokesperson said that the expansion which will cost $600 million was part of a plan to bolster Novartis’ research operations and strengthen partnerships with local universities and biotechnology start ups. 

Novartis, Cambridge, MA largest corporate employer, expects to hire an additional 200 to 300 employs over the next five years increasing the size of its workforce in the city to 2,300.

Cambridge has become a something of a Mecca to pharmaceutical companies looking to tap into scientific information and intellectual property at Harvard and MIT and forging alliances or partnerships with early-stage biotechnology companies. In addition to the Novartis Research Institute, other companies in and around Cambridge include Sanofi-Aventis—which, last summer, unveiled a $65 million expansion in Cambridgeport that will house a new cancer research division and create 300 new jobs—AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Shire and Pfizer.

In addition to its plan to expand operations and R&D capability in Cambridge, Novartis has agreed to build a $1.0 billion complex of offices and laboratories in Shanghai, China. Novartis like most other big pharma companies is trying to leverage scientific information and talent anywhere in the world to bolster their rapidly dwindling drug pipelines. 

The upside of Novartis’ Cambridge project is that it will help to create new construction, support and additional pharmaceutical jobs and help the city weather ongoing recessionary times. Who knows; maybe this is a sign that the US economy is growing and good times may be just around the corner!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (I highly recommend Cambridge MA)

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Several years ago a television show appeared on the BBC entitled “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” which follows the life of a seemingly ordinary, but struggling, student named Hannah aka Belle de Jour who, unbeknownst to family and friends, secretly moonlights as a prostitute to make ends meet. The BBC series (which starred the British actress Billie Piper) was based on an anonymously written blog (later books) that began appearing in 2003.

Last November, the author behind the blog and bestselling books revealed herself to be none other than Brooke Magnanti, PhD a researcher in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology at a hospital in Bristol, England. And, while a doctoral student in 2003, actually worked as a prostitute (£300 per hour) for an escort service to help pay rent and make ends meet when writing her PhD thesis. At the time, she was already an experienced science blogger and began writing about her experiences on a blog entitled 'Belle de Jour: Diary of a London Call Girl' which was later adapted into the books and the television series. 

Magnanti said she was working on a doctoral study for the department of forensic pathology of Sheffield University in 2003 when she began her secret life. "I was getting ready to submit my thesis. I saved up a bit of money. I thought, I'll just move to London, because that's where the jobs are, and I'll see what happens. She added "I couldn't find a professional job in my chosen field because I didn't have my PhD yet. I didn't have a lot of spare time on my hands because I was still making corrections and preparing for the defense and I got through my savings a lot faster than I thought I would"

Dr. Magnanti has no regrets about the 14 months she spent working as a high priced call girl. "I've felt worse about my writing than I ever have about sex for money," she said. "I did have another job at one point, as a computer programmer, but I kept up with my other work because it was so much more enjoyable" she added. Interestingly, Magnanti has kept her day job as a researcher and writes in her spare time.

While this alternate career option may not appeal to most, it certainly was a creative choice that demonstrated at least one scientist’s commitment to “doing whatever it takes” to pursue a scientific career!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!

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There was an illuminating review today in the New York Times of a new book entitled “Higher Education? How Colleges are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids-and What We Can Do About it.” Its authors are two longtime faculty members Andrew Hacker (tenured professor) and Claudia Dreifus (a freelance writer and adjunct instructor).

While I haven’t read the book, some of the problems with higher education asserted by the authors (and mentioned in the review) are consistent with my observations and experience. For example the review mentions that:

“Mr. Hacker and Ms. Dreifus list a host of crimes, or at least flaws in the system, some in the control of universities and others built into the external political, cultural or economic environment, or indeed into human nature. These include the narrow self-interestedness of academic departments; the greed of faculty members and administrators alike; the near-universal hypertrophy of “the athletics incubus”; unfunded government mandates; lifetime employment for pampered professors (thanks to the combination of tenure and Congressional abolition of mandatory retirement); and the demands of students and their parents for frivolous extras (driving what the authors call “the amenities arms race”).

The authors raise interesting questions about tenure and its alternatives. Like many critics of tenure, though, they have a keen eye for abuses of power but are remarkably sanguine about the capacity of the First Amendment to shield scholars from pressure exerted by those with the power to fire them.

The authors’ deepest scorn is reserved for the claim that good teaching depends on research, and their most extreme proposal is that universities drastically reduce the amount of research they support, by “spinning off” medical schools and research centers, discontinuing paid sabbaticals and abolishing the current system of promotion and tenure, a system that tends to reward research productivity more than effective teaching.”

While I tend agree that the emphasis on research, the pressure to publish and obtain extramural funding has had a negative impact on teaching, I disagree that teaching isn’t positively impacted by faculty members who are actively involved in scholarly research-what a conundrum!

Nevertheless, this book written by two long-time academicians provides compelling arguments for abolition of tenure and the need to improve teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try teaching)!!!!!!!!!!

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I came of age in the late 60s and early 70s and the women’s movement was in full swing. Other men and I worked hard to ensure that future generations of women were treated equally and have the same rights and opportunities as their male counterparts. However, some of the earlier and more radical members of the moment believed that society should be genderless and that there were no differences between the sexes. While that notion was intellectually, emotionally and psychologically appealing, nobody can deny that there aren’t obvious, anatomical, hormonal and genetic differences between human males and females. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that women behave differently than men and visa versa (of course in biology there are always exceptions).

Over the years, researchers have determined that differences in female and male behavior can be attributed to a variety of things including physiological environmental, enculturative factors. Like it or not, behavioral differences between men and women have been ascribed to hormonal differences and fluctuations. For example, it is commonly accepted that higher levels of testosterone in men are thought to be responsible for male aggressive behavior whereas in women small amounts of testosterone enhance female libido. With this in mind, a new study published last week in PNAS suggests that testosterone may also play a role in a woman’s ability to trust or distrust others: most notably men.

The study was conducted by a group of Dutch researchers at the Utrecht University. Twenty-four women participated in the double-blind study over two days. On the first day, half of the women were given a dose of testosterone under their tongue, while the other received a placebo; the treatments were switched on the second day so that each participant experienced both treatments. 

After the testosterone treatment, the researchers administered a facial trustworthiness task, in which each subject was shown a series of human faces and asked to assess how trustworthy the person in the image is. Economic exchange tasks, which are usually employed in similar experiments, were not used because of the possible confounding effects of testosterone on risk-taking and reward-seeking behavior. By administering mood tests and asking participants to guess which treatment they had received on either day, the researchers reduced the likelihood that either subjective preconceptions or mood changes may have affected the outcome.

The results of the study showed that women who received testosterone were less trusting than those who received the placebo. Moreover, the study revealed that “naturally distrustful” women were affected less by testosterone as compared with “more trusting” females where hormone-induced effects were the greatest. These findings led the researchers to postulate that the trust-reducing effect of testosterone may be adaptive and especially advantageous for less-socially aware women. For example, when competition is high and resources scarce, highly trusting women may be at greater risk for being cheated or taken advantage of and might benefit from a little jolt of testosterone-induced distrustfulness.

Interesting, female levels of testosterone have been observed to peak right around ovulation. Evolutionarily, it makes complete sense that a woman’s libido (remember testosterone stimulates this) would be highest at the time that she is most likely to conceive. However, the results from the Dutch study suggest that testosterone-induced distrustfulness may actually push potential mates away (and possibly explain why there are so many discerning women out there). 

This led Nicholas Wade, the New York Times reporter who wrote a piece on the study to quip: “So guys, you knew women were complex, but it is even worse than you thought: at the moment you are most desired, you are least trusted.” Women—go figure!

Until next time.....

Good Luck and Good Hunting (for the few cavemen who still exist)

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I want to state at the onset of this post that I am an ardent supporter of online patient communities because I believe that the exchange of information between people who suffer from the same or similar medical conditions is vital to their health and well being. Further, I believe that social media will force physicians, the medical community and the US healthcare system to become more transparent, open and interactive. That being said, in this past Sunday’s New York Times, Natasha Singer wrote an extremely revealing article about some possible, unforeseen “side effects” associated with membership in online patient communities.

The reason why these online communities exist is for patients to commiserate with one another and exchange personal stories and medical information. While personal stories may be emotionally satisfying for patients, it is their medical information and demographic data that is extremely valuable to drug makers. To that end, many online patient communities inform their members that they reserve the right to share information and data for research purposes. And many of them do!

To be clear, I am not suggesting that the people who create or manage online patient communities have avaricious, nefarious or otherwise unsavory ulterior motives for the medical and patient demographic data that they collect. However, these communities need to generate revenue in order to stay in business and drug makers are willing to pay for access to it.

According to Singer, the popular PatientsLikeMe community admits that it sells health and medical data gathered from member profiles (but with certain identifying information removed) to pharmaceutical companies and others for scientific and marketing research purposes. Further, a large number of unbranded “disease awareness” pages have recently begun to appear on Facebook and YouTube. In her article, Singer contends that “drug companies may pay people to moderate patient forums [in the community] or give testimonials but might not prominently display that fact to participants. Other sites collect consumer health data to help drug makers’ aim at specific kinds of consumers, using psychological cues.” At a medical communications meeting that I attended several years ago, a MySpace sales rep freely admitted to me that it allow pharmaceutical companies to mine profile data in order to develop targeted marketing campaigns. Is Facebook next?

Finally, while the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) restricts the way health care providers use and disseminate patients’ information, consumer health websites and online patient communities aren’t subject to its privacy provisions. In other words, there are no regulations guiding the privacy and use of medical information and data collected using social media tools! Essentially, this means that the persons who run online patient communities can do pretty much whatever they like with the medical and personal information that they collect!

As I stated at the beginning of the post, I am a social media enthusiast who subscribes to the notion that if used correctly, social media can help to better inform and improve the lives of people suffering from various disease. That said, I also believe that people who choose to participate in online communities MUST be fully informed about the potential uses of the personal information and data that they contribute. Until the Food and Drug Administration provides some regulatory guidance on the use social media to collect and disseminate medical information patients will be at the mercy of the entities that run online patient communities. Let’s hope that they see fit to “do the right thing.”

Until next time...

Good Luck and Be Careful What You Say Out There!!!!!!!!!

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Virologist and BioCrowd co-founder Vincent Racaniello, PhD recently gave a talk at the Spring 2010 meeting of the Society for General Microbiology in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The talk, entitled ‘Social Media in Microbiology Education and Research’ reviewed how Professor Racaniello uses blogging, podcasting, and other social media tools to teach the public about viruses.

To learn more about Vincent and how he uses social media to increase the publics’ awareness about viruses and other infectious agents, please visit the BioCrowd website.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!

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My father was an elementary school teacher who eventually became an elementary school principal, a position that he retired from about 15 years ago. As you might imagine, education was an important part of the lives of my three siblings and me. Like my father, three of four of us eventually pursued careers in education: my sister teaches art to high school students in California; my brother is a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Vermont and I have been a science educator for most of my adult life.

When I first entered graduate school in the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I intended to pursue a teaching career at a small liberal arts institution. My career goals changed during my graduate school experiences, and ultimately I chose to pursue a career in academic research rather than teaching. Despite that decision, my first and perhaps only love has always been teaching. Ironically, it was my love of teaching that prevented me from winning tenure at the University Of Miami School Of Medicine. While I have reinvented myself no fewer than 10 times during my admittedly circuitous career path, the one common and constant element that links together some of my seemingly disparate career choices has been my love of teaching.

No matter what the experts may say, there is no middle ground in teaching—you either love it or hate. Put simply, there are those who were born to teach and others who were not!

When I give my Alternate Careers for PhDs talk to graduate and postdoctoral fellows who are looking for career options, I always mention teaching. Not surprisingly, I wax romantically about how noble a profession teaching is and the acute need for qualified science teachers. However, I always temper my remarks by emphasizing that “unless you are passionate about teaching, then becoming a teacher may not be an appropriate career choice. In other words, unless you are “all in” you never be an effective teacher. To that end, I came across an article in this Sunday’s New York Times by Peter Wilson; a former executive who decided to eschew a successful public relations career in his mid-30s to become a middle school English teacher. 

If after reading Peter's story, you find yourself energized or “moved” by his story, then I believe that you possess the “right stuff” to pursue a career in education. As the old Nike ads urge: “Just Do It!”

Hat tip to Peter Wilson!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Despite the announcement late last week in the London Sunday Times that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will eliminate 4000 jobs worldwide, company official are refusing to disclose the number of worker who will lose their jobs in the US. Cuts are expected throughout the US including GSK’s R&D facilities in the Philadelphia, PA area and at its US headquarters in Research Triangle Park, NC which employs roughly 5,000 people.

GSK officials typically refuse to share detailed information on how layoffs affect its Triangle work force. Nearly a year ago, the company cut an undisclosed number of workers at a customer response center in RTP. GSK announced a first cost-cutting initiative in October 2007, eliminating thousands of jobs worldwide, and then it expanded that effort in February 2009 with many hundreds losing jobs at it North Carolina facilities in RTP and nearby Zebulon.

This coming Thursday is expected to be pink slip day at GSK.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget RTP)!!!!!!!

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Let’s face it; scientists aren’t generally regarded as being funny. While I have met several very funny researchers during my almost 35 year career, the vast majority of my colleagues have been mostly serious and, at times, difficult to amuse; especially when things weren't going so well in the lab.

I consider myself to be a funny guy. And, hanging out and playing softball with Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld and star of Curb Your Enthusiasm, for three years while a postdoc at Columbia Medical School convinced me that I have some talent. However, while I have often fantasized about a career in comedy, I never had the courage to turn in my lab coat and give it a try. The same can't be said about Tim Lee; a card-carrying PhD-trained biologist who after realizing laboratory research wasn’t for him decided to embark on a career as stand up comedian.

While Powerpoint presentations (modeled after scientific seminars) serve as the centerpieces of his stand up routines, Tim is also exploring other comedic vehicles to help him continue to make a living as a stand up comic. As he told BioCrowd co-founder Vincent Racaniello and I in a recent podcast that we did with Tim before a mid-week stand up gig in San Francisco, 'you gotta lead with your strengths."

Tim has been working as a comedian for the past seven years and, much to his surprise and pleasure, is "making more than he would have if he had chosen to do a postdoc after completing his PhD degree." Tim's star is rising and was recently featured in a New York Times article entitled “Did You Hear the One about the Former Scientist.”

Vincent and I had a wonderful discussion with Tim about his difficult decision to abandon science and what it feels like to embark on a new career (that you didn’t spend 10 years training for!) He still takes science seriously and frequently peruses journal articles and other scientific sources for material. And, for the record both Vincent and I thought Tim was pretty, pretty good (as Larry David would say) at what he does!.

To listen to the podcast and to see a video of one of Tim’s stand up routines visit BioCrowd!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (the comedy clubs can use a few more good scientists)

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Ed Silverman, over at the newly reinvigorated Pharmalot Blog, today reported that a recent study publicized in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that, after a decade of doubling, the rate of increase in biomedical research funding slowed from 2003 to 2007, and after adjusted for inflation, the absolute level of funding from the National Institutes of Health and industry appears to have decreased by 2 percent. The NIH remains the largest federal contributor to biomedicalresearch, accounting for 84% of total federal funding in 2007 

Further, the report indicated that research funding provided by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and medical devices and diagnostics manufacturers rose from $40 billion in 2003 to $58.6 billion in 2007; an increase (adjusted for inflation) of roughly 25 percent. Most of the funding came from large pharmaceutical companies. Interestingly, however, the sector of the life sciences industry that exhibited the greatest increase in growth over the same period was diagnostic and device makers (59 percent), followed by biotechnology (41 per cent) and lastly, pharmaceutical companies (25 per cent).

While the results of the study are not surprising, it is clear that the life science sector is beginning to focus more on device and diagnostics than on small molecules and even biotechnology products. Further, reductions in federal funding are forcing researchers to increasingly rely on grants and contracts from private sector companies. This suggests that an ever expanding percentage of the research conducted at many academic institutions will be financed and underwritten by for profit companies. Although more product-focused academic research is not necessarily a bad idea, it does call into question the direction and possible breadth of academic research and the availability and sharing of important scientific information, data sets and discoveries. 

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Grant Writing!!!!!!!!!

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I just returned from the 2009 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) that was held in Phoenix last week. I attended ABRCMS for the first time last year and decided that it was a meeting not to be missed in 2009. Once again the students (mainly undergraduate life sciences majors) were outstanding, knowledgeable and exceedingly professional—something that is frequently missing or absent in their non-minority counterparts. Like last year, every major academic institution, professional society and research organization attended the meeting to recruit minority students to their programs. However, despite the similarities to last year’s meeting, there were several noticeable differences that are worth pointing out.

First, the number of women undergraduate life sciences major who attended the meeting was substantially greater than the number of men in attendance. This shift is indicative of enrollment changes that are taking place in medicine, law and life sciences graduate programs where women now outnumber men. Second, many more students were seeking career development counseling and resume critiquing this year as compared with last year. This likely has much to do with the ongoing financial crisis and rising unemployment which now exceed 10% nationally. Third, many more students I talked with this year were interested in attending graduate school rather than medical school. This shift may have something to do with anticipated changes to the US medical profession that may result from healthcare reform. Alternatively, more minority students are interested in research as compared with medicine and related healthcare professions. 

Finally, the conference keynote address offered by Mae C. Jemison, MD a former astronaut and life science entrepreneur was one of the most inspirational and informative talks that I have ever heard about career opportunities in the life sciences. Dr. Jemison clearly articulated her belief that society ought to stop differentiating between artists and scientists. Further, she added that the two professions are not mutually exclusive from one another! This is likely because, she, in addition to her medical interests, is a professional dancer/choreographer and also a fashion designer. Coincidentally, earlier that morning I was talking with several female scientists who also happened to be life long dancers and choreographers.  I urged them to continue to draw on their dancing experience to channel that creativity to their research. It was humbling to learn that someone as successful and talented as Dr. Jamison shares many of my beliefs and ideas.

On the plane trip back to New Jersey, I happened to sit next to a young assistant professor from Princeton University who will likely earn tenure next year (he was invited to apply for an early decision). Like most other scientists, he initially challenged my notion that PhD students and postdoctoral fellows ought to be offered courses— or at the very least some information about non-academic careers—before they complete their training. After all, only about 10% to 15% of US life sciences PhDs are able to land tenure track positions upon completion of their training. Initially, many of his remarks were expected: “If you want a job you should go to medical school or law school or do something else...nobody said that getting a PhD would help you find a job” and “we train students for academic jobs because it is a way for us to ensure and preserve our legacy as scientists.” It was a good thing that I had my seat belt on at the time because I almost bolted out of my seat after hearing that!  I tactfully (which isn’t easy for me as those who know me will tell you) suggested to him that that kind of thinking is blatantly self-serving and extremely egotistical. Further, I suggested that it is ethically and morally disingenuous for tenured faculty members to continue to train students for jobs that they know don’t exist anymore.  Luckily, he is young and open minded and ultimately conceded that the system is kind of broken and perhaps things need to change. He also offered that he, (unlike most of the people who I trained with the exception of my PhD advisor) discusses career options with his students (some of whom aren’t interested in academic careers) and helps them in any way he can to realize their goals and dreams. Finally, I suggested to him that offering students and postdoctoral fellows some formal courses or training in alternate career options will likely have better performance and outcomes for students and faculty members as compared with continuing to keep them in the dark about career choices and job prospects.

While there is still much work to be done, it appears that younger faculty members are finally recognizing that traditional academic training paradigms may be anachronistic and changes may be necessary for the US to continue to train the best and the brightest!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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e-Patients Connections 2009 (#epatcon) was held this past Monday and Tuesday at the Park Hyatt hotel in Philadelphia, PA. BioCrowd was one of several co-sponsors of the event. The theme of the conference, organized by Kevin Kruse a veteran medical communication and training expert, who now runs Kru Research, was to “reach, engage and educate empowered digital health consumers.” And, boy, did it deliver! While this was Kru Research’s first official conference, it was well organized, extremely interactive and the quality of the speakers was second to none! Topics that were featured included social media and the life sciences industry, technological advances in e-based healthcare delivery, the relationship between the news media and healthcare information and the continuing evolution of online and e-based healthcare communities.

Conference attendees included representatives from the life sciences industry, medical communications experts, advertising and marketing professionals and a multitude of social media enthusiasts and consultants who kept the Twitter screen humming throughout the meeting (a big shout out to the “troublemaking table”). And, surprisingly, there was a representative from the Division of Drug Marketing and Advertising and Communications (DDMAC) at the US Food and Drug Administration, who I believe, was one of the most sought after individuals at the meeting. CNN reporter Elizabeth Cohen who writes the Empowered Patient and racecar driver Charles Kimball, a type I diabetic and company spokesperson for Novo Nordisk also gave talks.

My favorite talks were those presented by online patient community organizers including Tricia Geoghegan of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals who created the Facebook ADHD Allies community, Lisa Tate of WomenHeart and Robert Schumm of Bayer Consumer Care who created Facebook Strong@ Heart and Rachel Lewinson of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Organization and Susan Harrow Rago of Novo Nordisk who created Juvenation.org a website dedicated to those with Type I diabetes. These communities are outstanding examples of how partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and advocacy groups can help to better educate the public and heighten awareness about potentially life-altering diseases. Another example of a great online community and healthcare portal is Insomnia 123.com. This website was conceived and constructed by Christine Macadams and her partners’ one of whom is a practicing physician. Unlike the other online communities, which are sponsored and mainly supported by consumer healthcare division of large pharmaceutical companies, Insomnia 123.com was exclusively created by a group of concerned individuals who wanted to better educate and improve the lives of people with insomnia—a largely unreported and self-medicated condition.

On the technical side, the talks presented by Lee Segal of Klick, Kevin Durr of Avantera , Ian Kelly of Red Nucleus and Scott Ballenger of ListenLogic were illuminating and extremely informative. Some of the innovations taking place in digital media are exciting and almost overwhelming at times (even for a social media enthusiast like me). I think the company to watch is ListenLogic which uses semantic search engines to collect real time data and “chatter” on the web. This technology may provide a cost-effective solution to assuage the concerns of many life sciences companies that claim that collecting and analyzing overwhelming amounts of data is one of the main reasons why they are reluctant to entry the social media space.

Marc Monseau of Johnson and Johnson gave an illuminating talk on his experiences as a corporate blogger and Twitter user and described some of the challenges that had to be overcome before his company was able to break the “social media barrier.” Janice McCallum, an economist by training and a healthcare communications and media expert gave an informative talk about the growing role and impact of patient-generated healthcare content on patient awareness and education.

Finally, the novel and innovative Pecha Kucha sessions were outstanding and extremely well done! While all were expertly crafted, Dr. Val’s and Jonathan Richman’s Pecha Kucha were memorable. Dr. Val’s, which was extremely powerful and moving, was performed entirely in verse and Jonathan’s was—well, one of Jonathan’s always entertaining and informative presentations.

In summary, the “e-Patient Connections 2009” was a resounding success and in my opinion reached its goal to “reach engage and educate empowered digital health consumers.” That said, I can’t wait for “e-Patient Connections 2010” meeting!!!

Hat tip to @ellenhoenig and @eileenobrien for inviting me to my first tweetup (great fun) and finally meeting @janice McCallum, @christianeTrue, @stevewoodruff and Silja aka @whydotpharma! 

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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The Public Library of Science (PLOS) announced that it has launched a new website called PLOS Currents that is intended to serve as a vehicle for the rapid publication of scientific research and new ideas and themes. Not surprisingly, the first theme for PLOS Currents is influenza. On his Virology blog, Vincent Racaniello, a BioCrowd cofounder and prominent virologist, discusses why PLOS Currents is important and timely for scientist actively engaged in influenza research and vaccine development.  

The opening of PLoS Currents: Influenza was announced by Harold Varmus, Chairman and Co-Founder of PLoS. He wrote about the reasons for starting this website at The Official Google Blog:

The key goal of PLoS Currents is to accelerate scientific discovery by allowing researchers to share their latest findings and ideas immediately with the world’s scientific and medical communities. Google Knol’s features for community interaction, comment and discussion will enable commentary and conversations to develop around these findings. Given that the contributions to PLoS Currents are not peer-reviewed in detail, however, the results and conclusions must be regarded as preliminary. In time, it is therefore likely that PLoS Currents contributors will submit their work for publication in a formal journal, and the PLoS Journals will welcome these submissions.

Contributions that will be welcome at PLoS Currents: Influenza include research into influenza virology, genetics, immunity, structural biology, genomics, epidemiology, modeling, evolution, policy and control. The manuscripts will not be subject to peer-review, but unsuitable submissions will be screened out by a board of expert moderators. This policy will enable rapid publication of research.

The path to publishing original scientific research is often long and tortuous.  A manuscript describing the findings is prepared and submitted to a scientific journal (such as Nature, Cell, Journal of Virology). The manuscript is assigned to two or three expert reviewers, generally scientists involved in the same area of research. If their reviews are favorable, the paper is published. Usually additional experiments are called for, which may require additional time to complete. Many months to a year may pass before the paper is published, although some manuscripts (e.g. those on 2009 pandemic influenza) may be expedited. The point is that PLoS Currents: Influenza will allow everyone – including non-scientists – to read about research soon after the authors have prepared the paper.

PLoS Currents: Influenza is a terrific idea, and I welcome this venture with great enthusiasm. I hope that PLoS Currents will grow to include other areas of science. But Varmus warns:

Given that the contributions to PLoS Currents are not peer-reviewed in detail, however, the results and conclusions must be regarded as preliminary. In time, it is therefore likely that PLoS Currents contributors will submit their work for publication in a formal journal, and the PLoS Journals will welcome these submissions.

During peer review of submitted manuscripts, new experiments may be suggested that change some of the conclusions of the research. Hence, the papers that appear in PLoS Currents: Influenza may be different from final versions that are published elsewhere.

I wonder how other scientific journals will react to submissions of manuscripts that have appeared in PLoS Currents. Many journals do not accept manuscripts that have already appeared elsewhere. For example, the instructions to authors for the Journal of Virology state:

By submission of a manuscript to the journal, the authors guarantee that they have the authority to publish the work and that the manuscript, or one with substantially the same content, was not published previously, is not being considered or published elsewhere, and was not rejected on scientific grounds by another ASM journal.

It’s time for scientific journals to change this policy, and allow for preliminary publication at sites such as PLoS Currents.

Rapid and open-access publication will drive research forward and help inform and educate the public about science.

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BioCrowd co-founder, Vincent Racaniello, and I were chatting the other day with Crowdvine’s Tony Stubblebine (the guy who created the BioCrowd software platform) about the reluctance of scientists to embrace social media. Both Vincent and I, both scientists ourselves, posited that scientists are simply asocial or at the very least not comfortable engaging in social activities whether they be online or IRL. Tony, a self-anointed software geek, wasn’t buying into to our argument and noted that even software geeks are social!

This prompted me to do a little research and I found a blog post written by Nachiket Vartak a blogger and doctoral student at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology. While the blog post focused mainly on reasons why bioscientists won’t use Twitter, I think that many of his observations can be used to generally describe the chilly relationship between many scientists and social media. Before you read on, I must inform you that I paraphrased and embellished some of Nachiket’s original ideas on the subject. That said, here are some of the reasons why bioscientists may not use social media.

1. The reputation of social networking sites
Many scientists disdain social networks because they believe that social networking sites and microblogging platforms like Twitter are nothing more than places to waste time. Those scientists who use social media usually do it in-between experiments and when planning activities which usually involve copious quantities of alcohol, for after laboratory hours fun. In other words, social media is for fun not for work. Also, many so-called serious scientists contend that “real science discussions” only happen on closed e-mailing lists or forums and not in the “open” on social networking sites.

2. The social activation barrier
According to Nachiket, the stereotype that scientists are asocial is well.....err...true! He asserts that many scientists feel more comfortable focusing on themselves (and their research) rather than interacting with others to learn what they have to say or what they may be thinking. And, many times, unless an individual can demonstrate that they are “smart” they probably aren’t worse listening to anyway. Finally, scientists train for years to become independent investigators. Not surprisingly, there is very little emphasis and importance placed on teamwork or social interactions with others scientists or lay people for that matter. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that many scientists aren’t particularly social or inclined to participate in extracurricular social activities.

3. Privacy aka “secrecy”
Science is a highly competitive endeavor and, in many cases, the discoveries that are made represent many years of sacrifice, blood, sweat and tears. With this in mind, nobody wants to be scooped or beat out by their competitors. Consequently, scientists are generally instructed to be very hush-hush when it comes to sharing any information or data that might give the competition a “leg up” in the competition. Any leak, large or small, could mean the difference between fame and failure and, perhaps more importantly, a successful career as a scientist.

In marked contrast, the success of social media is contingent upon its openness, sharing and transparency. Thus, as Nachiket aptly pointed out social media is antithetical to the very nature of science and scientists.

4. Legitimate channels of communication
The only acceptable and legitimate means of scientific communications are presentations at meetings and publications in peer reviewed journals. These forms of communication are the lifeblood of scientific community and critical to the success of all scientists. If you aren’t published, you have no credibility as a scientist. The scientific publishing and communication industry is big business and “the rules of engagement” in the industry have been well established and institutionalized. Unfortunately, social media threatens to destabilize the science publishing world both financially and philosophically and possibly change the way science information is communicated. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that there is little support for social media in scientific publishing world and the science community in general.

While the number of science blogs and podcasts continue to increase daily, scientific social networking sites continue to struggle. This is because the information flow in blogs and similar forms of social media can be easily monitored and controlled. This is not the case for social networking sites like BioCrowd and microblogging platforms like Twitter.
However, if scientists are truly asocial beings then none of the existing science social networking sites will gain traction and be successful. Call me crazy, but I think social networking is an ideal medium for scientists to exchange information, ideas and develop relationships that can help them jumpstart their careers!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Networking!!!!!!!!!!

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During my recent trip to Vermont and Woodstock, NY I had several conversations about Twitter. Surprisingly, I was being asked to explain Twitter to my nephews, both of whom are in their early 20s and to family friends who are in their late 40s and beyond. Also, at several recent science career fairs that I attended many graduate students and postdocs had never heard of Twitter or it they had, they don’t use it. Initially, this was puzzling but after considering the most recent Twitterverse demographics –I think the average age of Twitter users is around 35 to 40—it made more sense to me.

Anyhow, I have found that it is time consuming to explain Twitter to people who have heard about it but don’t quite understand how it works. To that end, several people— who I follow on Twitter— (@ LaurieDesAutels and @Recruiting Animal) tweeted about an article by John C. Dvorak that offers an excellent review of Twitter and several practical ways to use it.

I hope that the article provides some insights into Twitter and how scientists might be able to harness its incredible power and reach. You can follow me on Twitter @biojobblog!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Tweeting!!!

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For those of you interested in the Canadian biotechnology scene I want to mention a good resource that I came across recently. The Canadian BioTechnologist 2.0 Blog (http://cbt20.org) has its sights set on helping to advance the development of the Canadian Biotechnology sector and the people who study biotechnology and life sciences at the college and university level and bench scientists and technicians who work in the field across the country.   

Readers are invited to contribute content: posters, tools, research and presentations, articles white papers, multimedia, music downloads and entertainment, conference announcements, videos.

The site is sponsored by the Canadian operation of Bio-Rad so it has a good selection of non-commercial content from the company including papers, tools, workshops and for fun some of their recent music videos. The blog manager, Howard Oliver of What If What Next  a Toronto based  Web 2.0-PR firm has done a great job of collecting content that covers Canadian biotechnology news and useful tools and career information for bench scientists and technicians and students.

Do drop by The Canadian BioTechnologist2.0 Blog (http://cbt20.org) to learn about the Canadian scene and get your voice heard.

 Until next time,

Good Luck and Good Jo

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This morning, while doing my usual Twitter review, I came across a tweet from the Scientist.com about John McCain’s recent anti-science Twitter rants.  Based on his tweets (and snarky comments) he considers the following projects blatant examples of pork barrel spending:

"$209,000 to improve blueberry production and efficiency in GA"

"$819, 000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama"

"$900,000 for fish management - how does one manage a fish"

Older McCain tweets include:

"$1,427,250 for genetic improvements of switchgrass - I thought switchgrass genes were pretty good already, guess I was wrong."

"$250,000 to enhance research on Ice Seal populations"

"$2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York - quick peel me a grape."

"$650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi"

McCain’s tweets underscore how little politicians—especially republicans(what do you expect from a party that endorses intelligent design over evolution) —understand about how science works. That said, some of the proposed projects cited by McCain may require additional scrutiny (by science experts not him) and may turn out to be projects that don't warrant funding.  Nevertheless,I believe that McCain's tweets are part of a well crafted Republican-led initiative intended to publicly discredit  these earmarked projects so that he and other Republican's can redirect public monies to their own pork barrel initiatives. Shame on McCain and his cronies for attempting to hijack Twitter to discredit worthy scientific, environmental,agricultural and conservation projects. 

Let’s try to disrupt McCain’s plan by tweeting that he is anti-science! 

Tweet away peeps!

Hat tip to the The Scientist!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Twittering!

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For the past decade or so, I have worked as a career counselor at national scientific meetings where I present seminars about resume writing, interviewing techniques and other career related issues. About two years ago, I started to hear about the fierce competition for H-1 and J-1 visas that foreign students must obtain to remain in the US to continue their studies and research. Many of the foreign students that I talked with sounded more like immigration lawyers than graduate students or postdocs—I was amazed at how well informed they were about visa availability and the changes and loopholes in US immigration law that can be exploited to obtain visas.

Since that time, it has become increasingly apparent that the visa problems experienced by most foreign students are beginning to wreak havoc on US science and engineering. Curiously, nobody at the US State Department seems to know why these visa problems exist. According to an article in today’s NY Times, a State Department official claims that visa delays can be attributed to “unfortunate staffing shortages.” Many of the students (and some immigration lawyers) that I talked with believe that it is annual visa limits and quotas not staffing issues that make it so difficult to obtain them.

It is no secret that American middle and high school students are no longer interested in pursuing careers in science and engineering. Because of this, American universities have come to rely on foreign students to fill open slots in graduate and postdoctoral sciences and engineering programs. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that, over the past decade or more, foreign talent has been largely responsible for much of the technical and scientific innovation in the US.  Finally, and perhaps most importantly, American universities can no longer assume that the US is the first choice or destination for many foreign undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students—teaching and research at many foreign universities have vastly improved in recent years and can now compete with the best research institutions in the US.  In the past, it was largely assumed that when given a choice foreign student would choice a US university over all others. Together these findings beg the question: “If foreign students and postdocs are largely responsible for maintaining America’s competitive edge in science and technology, why would the US government make it so difficult to recruit the world’s best and brightest?”

There is no doubt that the US government, in a post-September 11^th world ought to carefully scrutinize foreign students before they are issued visas to study or work in the US. But, why has it become increasingly difficult for foreign students to renew their visas to continue to study or work in the US? Interestingly, visa availability and renewal problems are not only restricted to foreign nationals from likely places like China, India, the Middle East or Russia.  Many students and postdocs from Australia, Europe and elsewhere are also experiencing major delays and difficulty obtaining student or work visas.

While the visa issues facing foreign students may not seem like a big one to most Americans (most of who are not involved in science and engineering), its effects on American science and engineering are beginning to become apparent. For example, conference organizers are reluctant to hold international meetings in the US because they fear that many students and scientists will not be able to attend because of limited visa availability. Further, many talented foreign nationals, who want to remain and work in the US, are frequently forced to return to their home countries (to find employment) because they are unable to renew or extend their US visas. There is no question that America has grown increasingly dependent upon foreign students to conduct research in science and engineering.  I contend, that without these students, America’s competitiveness in science and engineering will continue to wane as it has over the past 20 years.  I believe that America has two choices to prevent this from happening. First, we can somehow convince larger numbers of American high school students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Second, the US government can improve and simply the visa process so that talented foreign students can continue to study and do research in the US. Nevertheless, something must be done soon—the future competitiveness of American science and engineering depends on it!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Visa Hunting!!!!!!

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The compensation packages for CEOs of many publicly held companies have recently, (for obvious reasons), come under intense scrutiny. This has spilled over to the chief executive offices of many not-for-profit organizations including private colleges and universities. While the compensation packages for most university presidents and administrators are substantial in many instances, there are a few university employees who sometimes earn substantially more. 

According to an article in today’s New York Times, there were 88 private-college employees who made $1 million or more in 2007 (only 11 were college Presidents or chief executive officers). These were the results from an analysis conducted by The Chronicles of Higher Education of the compensation packages of more than 4,000 employees at 600 private colleges. The two top earners were Pete Carroll, the head football coach at USC and Dr. David N. Silvers, a Columbia University dermatologist both of whom made almost $4.5 million last years. Coach Carroll’s compensation packages was almost four times that of the university’s president whereas Dr. Silver’s salary of $4,332,759 compared with $1 411,894 earned by Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia’s president. Another Columbia professor, Dr. Jeffrey W. Moses, earned a paltry $2,532,713 last year. Check out the salaries of the top ten earners!

While the pay for college and university presidents has risen sharply in the last decade the same hasn’t been true for many faculty members. Not surprisingly, over the same period, the gap between administrator and professor salaries has substantially widened. This parallels what has been taking place in the private sector where CEOs typically earn hundreds of times more than their employees. The disparity in administrator and faculty salaries led Patrick M. Callan, the president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education to muse: “It may be reasonable for these people to be well paid but if faculty’s getting 2 per cent raises, I don’t see why senior administrators, who are already high-paid, should get much larger increases. It reflects a set of values that is not the way most Americans think about higher education.” The Chronicle survey found that on average, university and college presidents make about $500,000 annually.

This poses an interesting question: Unlike administrators, are most university and college professors overpaid? Based on my own experience as a medical school faculty member—absolutely not! Nevertheless, over the 10 years or more, there has been a growing disparity in the salaries of research faculty members as compared with teaching faculty. Typically, the researchers, who bring in large sums of money from grants and other extramural funding, command much higher salaries than faculty members whose primary function is teaching. While this may seem reasonable from a financial/business perspective, it raises a fundamental question about higher education: What is more important—making money or teaching? 

Set standards for your education at the Albertus Magnus College

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Training!

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Vincent Racaniello, a pioneer in RNA virology and world class researcher on the pathogenesis of polio, believes that social media can be used to enhance scientific research and improve science education. Vincent recently blogged about this on his virology blog and graciously allowed me to repost it to BioJobBlog. It is an interesting perspective from an innovative and creative scientist.

Science and the Social Web

In a previous post about why I blog and podcast, I discussed how these activities allow me to think more about virology and to teach far more people than I ever could in a laboratory or classroom. Is there even more value in the web for scientists?

There are three different web activities, besides blogging and podcasting that enhance science in new ways. The first is the ability to post comments on blogs and podcasts. In so doing, people can interact in ways that were not previously possible. Scientists who have never met, or students hoping to learn, all can connect and create an instructive and creative dialog. Don’t understand something in a post? Just ask. Have something different to contribute? Post it. Science can only benefit from interactions not limited by geography or time.

The second powerful web tool for science is the social networks. We know how MySpace and Facebook made it easy to meet and interact with new people. These networks also allow scientists to connect and talk about their profession. There are various groups on Facebook that enable focused, productive discussions among scientists. Even more useful are the social networks that have been developed specifically for scientists - well over 20 according to this  blog post. These networks exist to foster interactions - meeting other scientists, looking for jobs, troubleshooting experiments, finding answers to thorny questions. The value of scientific social networks is that they enable dialogue far beyond what you could achieve on your floor, in your building, by telephone or email. The result is scientific interactions at unprecedented levels.

The third web tool for scientists is Twitter. This microblogging platform restricts users to posts of 140 characters or less - the end result is concentrated information. For scientists, Twitter can be either a distraction or a gold mine. If you choose to follow individuals who are interested in science, you will, in the course of a day, find tweets with links to interesting science - news or journal articles; comments on science; questions about science or science methods - in brief, the kind of exchange originally facilitated by email but far more immediate and pithy. Follow the right people on Twitter, and receive useful information. I keep an eye on Twitter to find tips on how scientists use the web, the latest science news, and comments on science in general. In turn, when I learn of an interesting science news event or article, I tweet it. Mr. Tweet’s discussion of  the evolution of a twitter user crystallizes this concept.

There is also great value for scientists at FriendFeed. No, it’s not a fourth category - it’s an aggregator of the three activities described above, one-stop for all your blogging, podcasting, social networking, and twittering.

These three aspects of the social web are revolutionizing science. By using them, I am learning more about my field than I ever have before. Those who choose not to take advantage of the social web will miss the opportunity to become more creative and productive scientists.

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Long rumored, Pfizer announced yesterday that it will eliminate another 800 research jobs outside of its six core therapeutic areas: cancer, pain, inflammation, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. The new cuts represent 5 to 8 percent of Pfizer’s approximately 10,000 researchers worldwide. According to a company spokesperson, the company will continue to evaluate its current staffing to make decisions that are consistent with its future goals. In short, expect more layoffs to occur in the near future.

Industry analysts expect additional cuts to occur in R&D and Pfizer’s dwindling sales force. To date, Pfizer has eliminated about 10,000 jobs, mostly in R&D and sales. Pfizer became the world’s largest pharmaceutical after going on a 12 year buying spree that began in 1996 after its acquisition of Warner Lambert, the company that developed the blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor. The company currently employs about 85,000 people worldwide.

Wall Street rewarded Pfizer’s decision to layoff more scientists by pushing its stock share price up 1.3% yesterday. Rewarding a company for eliminating one of its most important and valuable assets has never made sense to me. But, then again, I am a scientist not an MBA-toting Wall Street analyst—what do I know?

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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Did you know that the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world spent close to $50 billion dollars last year on R&D? That sum could be used to purchase the entire US biotechnology industry except for the five largest companies—Genentech, Amgen, Gilead Genzyme and Celgene. Further, pharma’s R&D budget is about 4 times the R&D budget of all of the US biotechnology companies combined. According to a blurb in breakingviews.com, Pfizer alone spent $8 billion last year which was greater than the sum spent by biotech’s top five companies. What this tells us is that pharmaceutical companies are grossly unproductive when it comes to drug discovery and development. This would explain why nearly three-quarters of all new medicines approved for sale in the US last year originated at biotechnology companies.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that biotechnology companies are much more efficient at R&D than pharmaceutical companies. More importantly this suggests that something must change so that pharma can continue receive adequate ROI on internal discovery programs. Perhaps big pharma ought to spend a greater portion of its R&D budget on biotech mergers and acquisitions rather than continuing to invest in inefficient and failing internal R&D programs. While biotechnologynology companies are exceptional in drug discovery, they are severely lacking when it comes to clinical development of new drugs. This is largely due the high costs of conducting human clinical trials (which are required for regulatory approval of all new medicines). Most biotechnology companies are strapped for cash and don’t have sufficient funds to conduct clinical trials on their own.

Not surprisingly, given the recent financial downturn, there has been a recent spate of deals in which pharma has been willing to pay large sums of money for clinical development rights to promising new biotechnology drugs. Moreover, a majority of the almost 160,000 employees layed off by pharma companies in the past few years have been R&D scientists. This suggests that pharma is beginning to realize that its money may be better spent doing deals or buying biotech companies rather than continuing to invest large sums of money into it’s own unproductive R&D programs. Unfortunately, this paradigm shift doesn’t bode well for doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows who are training in the life sciences. This is because many entry-level biotech positions, traditionally filled by newly-minted PhDs and postdoctoral fellows will likely be filled by experienced, pharmaceutical employees who lost their jobs in the recent rounds of layoffs. As much as I hate to say this, if I were a life sciences graduate student or postdoctoral fellow considering an R&D career in industry, I would begin to explore alternative career options.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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A European friend of mine sent me a link to a video of Sarah Palin espousing her understanding of the relationship between basic research and it application to solving human disease. Along with the video (see below) she sent the message "Please ,please don't tell me they (McCain and Palin) are going to win..."  I hope for science's sake they don't....

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

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There was an article in today’s NY Times biz section which suggests that the recent financial crisis is starting to have an effect on the growth of the biotechnology industry, once thought to be a recession-proof sector. The article contends that the lack of available institutional cash and venture money is causing extant biotechnology companies to “tighten their belts.” And, if the trend continues, this lack of capital will stifle innovation, which in turn, will threaten and undermine the stability and future of the entire biotechnology sector. While times are certainly tough, the biotechnology industry, in my opinion, is alive and well and will continue to expand well into the 21^st century.

It is important to note that many biotechnology companies that are struggling today are publicly-traded companies not privately held ones. Unlike publicly-traded companies, privately-held ones don’t have to answer to millions of shareholders or worry about their price per share on a daily basis.  Further, the expectations for privately held companies are much less than those for publicly traded entities. Based on recent discussions with venture capitalist friends and institutional investment bankers (those that still have jobs) there is still substantial funding out there for start-ups and companies that are trying to advance their products from development into clinical testing. Many of the financially-troubled public companies mentioned in the Times article were struggling (and on the verge of failing) before the recent financial meltdown. The recent financial crisis is simply hastening their demise. The reason why many of these companies are on the brink is that they went public in the late 1990s—a time when writing a business plan on the back of a napkin was sufficient for investment bankers to underwrite a company’s IPO. Unfortunately, many of these companies were little more than research or tool box driven companies whose founders failed to understand that products not technology would make their companies successful. Put simply, these companies should have never gone public in the first place!

Not surprisingly, almost all of the companies cited in the Times article fit the ‘product-less biotechnology company’ profile. For example, Maxygen, a company originally founded as a “molecular evolution” company (that went public in 1999) didn’t identify a lead product until a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, after spending millions of dollars on preclinical development, the company no longer has sufficient funds to move the product into human clinical testing. Late last week, Maxygen announced that it would layoff 30% of its workforce and consider selling itself.

Another example cited in the article is Iceland’s DeCode Genetics, once a high flying genomics and bioinformatics company that regularly made headlines for discovering new genes for cancer, cardiovascular and hereditary diseases. While DeCode has a great genomic and bioinformatics platform (and “did outstanding science”—largely because of the genetic purity of the Icelandic population) it was never able to use its technology to identify a lead therapeutic product. DeCode’s stock price has fallen more than 90% in the last year to 29 cents per share and will likely fail given the horrendous state of Iceland’s banking industry and economy.

The impending failure of many financially-strapped biotechnology companies in the current financial environment should come as no surprise to biologists—is very consistent with Darwin’s theory of natural selection which says “only the strongest and the fittest will survive. To survive in the biotechnology industry, companies must be single-mindedly product-driven. Companies that lack a product focus, in this or future economies will be able to survive for a short while but ultimately they are doomed to fail. That said, while there may be fewer companies as the biotechnology industry continues to evolve, the companies that do survive will undoubtedly be extremely robust and fiercely competitive.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!

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Novartis announced today that it will open a new research facility and hire an additional 150 people by the end of 2009 for a Research Center of Excellence in Virology in Cambridge, MA. That will increase the number of people employed by the company in Cambridge to more than 1,800 workers. Researchers at the new center will study vaccines for HIV/AIDS influenza, cytomegalovirus (CMV) and respiratory syncitial virus (RSV). 

The vaccine business once avoided like the plague by most pharma companies, has been growing by leaps and bound over the past five years and is sizzling hot these days. According to analysts, vaccines generated about $16 billion dollars last year. For example, Merck’s anti-human papilloma virus vaccine Gardasil generated $1.5 billion in sales in 2007.

Novartis clearly sees an upside in the vaccine business and is willing to make a wise investment for the future.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Over the past year or so, social networking has taken the Internet by storm. This is largely  because social networking software purveyors like CrowdVine and Ning have provided out-of-the-box solutions that allow people to easily create social networks that strike their fancy. That said, will the advent of social networks do anything more than allow musicians to sell records or provide an easy place for people to hook up? To that end, Jessica a regular BioJobBlog reader sent me a story (see below) about a survey that was performed to gauge the possible impact of social networking on scientific research.

Social Applications to Play Deeper Role in Future Research

The future of social media will not just build friendships but support groundbreaking scientific discoveries.

Scientists and researchers are using social media… but mostly for professional reasons. A recent survey from 2collab reveals that over half of science, medical and technical information specialists working in academia and government institutions believe social networking will play a key role in shaping the future of research. Additionally, the study suggests tomorrow’s university faculty (respondents aged 25 - 44 in academic research positions who have published 1-10 articles) are already heavily using social media and are eager for the applications to be further developed for use in their work.

According to the survey which included 1,800 respondents, the top areas where social applications will have a major influence on research in the next five years include:

1.      Professional networking and collaboration (34.4%)

2.      Career development (26.4%)

3.      Critical analysis and evaluation of research data (25.3%)

4.      Dissemination of research output (24.5%)

5.      Conducting primary research (23.4%)

6.      Grant application and funding (22.7%)

Much to my delight, the results from the survey confirmed my belief that social networking among scientists would stimulate and be a boon to scientific research. This strengthened my conviction to move forward with the bioscience networking site, BioCrowd, that Vincent Racaniello and I plan to launch by the end of September, 2008. Rumor has it that their may be gifts for the first 100 people who join after launch.

So, don’t wait and become part of the BioCrowd today.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Social Networking (it will help you get a job!)

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 I previously wrote a piece which suggested that being perceived as smart is typically what separates the great scientists from the mediocre ones. To that end, whenever a former postdoctoral mentor (who I think is really smart) wanted to “motivate me” he would invariably say “C’mon Cliff, you’re a smart guy…..” Of course, the implication was that I wasn’t being smart enough or —as I heard it — “if you want to be as smart as me you better think harder and better”. According to a post by Karen Ventii at the Science to Life Blog, I wasn’t the only fledging scientist who was treated this way.

Does making a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow feel stupid motivate or hurt them? To learn more, read this provocative article by Martin Schwartz, PhD a professor at the University of Virginia that appeared in the April 28, 2008 issue of the Journal of Cell Science.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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For the past 60 years, American science was second to none. However, the US is perilously close to losing that distinction. Put simply, American science, like its economy, is in free fall.

Federal funding, primarily through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is the lifeblood of American life sciences research. Between 1998 and 2003, the federal government doubled NIH’s budget every year—almost 25% of all grant applications were funded and life was good! However, since 2003, budget increases have vanished and the NIH remains trapped in a five year run of flat funding. Research funding rates have fallen to 10% or less and many academic scientists are voluntarily leaving or being forced out of their jobs.

This is not the first time that funding levels have plummeted. From 1989 to about 1994 (when I was a tenure track Assistant Professor), funding rates fell from about 20% to less than 10%. However, back then, there was little global research competition and American was able to recover to retain its scientific dominance. However, the world is a very different place now and the supremacy of American science, particularly in the life sciences, is clearly at risk.

According to an article in the Trenton Times, (my local paper), science and engineering have accounted for close to half of the growth in the American economy since World War II. Analysts suggest that without adequate research funding and ready access to research grants fewer scientists will enter the profession. “Already Asian countries are graduating 10 times the number of scientists and engineers as the United States. If the current trends continue in about a decade 90% of the world’s scientists and engineers will be in Asia” According to Elias Zerhouni, current director of NIH “In 10 to 15 years we’ll have scientists older than 65 than those younger than 35. This is not a sustainable trend in biomedical research.” Unless federal funding for research is increased this ominous trend will continue. That said, it may be too little too late. As you all know, finding science jobs in the US these days is becoming increasingly difficult even for qualified applicants. With this in mind, one of the most well attended talks that I give at career development symposia is entitled “The Road Less Traveled: Alternate Career Paths for Life Scientists”. As much as I hate to admit it, traditional career pathways for most life scientists may be things of the past.

Clearly, something must be done to fix the problem in order to maintain the quality of American science. The easy fix, which has been used ad nauseam for the pasts two decades, is to increase short term federal research spending. However, history indicates that this approach fosters the boom and bust cycles that have continually plagued American academic science. Although the boom and bust approach is quintessentially American, I don’t think that it will enable American science to sustain its scientific dominance in today’s increasingly competitive world.

The number of young people interested in or entering science continues to plummet in the US. Ironically, the quality and access to American science education has never been better! So, why the disconnect? It’s simple—science jobs are scare, the pay is not great and life as an academician has become almost unsustainable. In my opinion, something has to change very soon or America will almost certainly lose its status as the preeminent purveyor of science in the world.

Until next time,

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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The Avandia debacle is still ravaging the employee ranks at GlaxoSmithKline especially at its Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and in Philadelphia locations. According to a post at Pharmalot, the UK-based drug manufacturer is cutting as many as 350 jobs (2.0% of its workforce) at both locations. This represents an almost 40% reduction in drug discovery and development activities that take place at both sites.

These cuts come after GSK closed a factory and drastically cut its sales force late last year. To make matters worse (particularly for those folks who lost their jobs) GSK purchased an early-stage drug discovery company called Sirtris Pharmaceuticals for about $720 million earlier this year. Clearly, company executives have more faith in external rather than internal drug discovery at GSK.

The saga continues……

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget North Carolina)!!!!!

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Genzyme Corp announced yesterday that it plans to expand it research and manufacturing facilities in Waterford, Ireland. Genzyme originally set up the facility in 2001 and plans to add another 170 employees, expanding its Irish workforce to 600.

This is second time in less than a year that Waterford (internationally known for its crystal manufacturing) has received an investment from a foreign drug manufacturer. Israeli generic drug manufacturer TEVA made a $100 million dollar to expand its Waterford operations and boost its Irish workforce from 650 to 815.

The Irish government said it was offering assistance to subsidize the $200 million Genzyme expansion at the Waterford site. The amount and terms of the subsidiary were confidential and not disclosed. At present, drug companies with operations in Ireland  employ 25, 000 people.

Genzyme, with expertise in developing drugs to treat rare disorders, kidney disease and cancer, employs more than 10,000 people worldwide.

This is more good news for Ireland!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (in Ireland)!!!!!!!

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