Life Sciences – Graduate Profiles

What path has your career taken since graduation?   

During my masters I started looking for jobs and landed one as Research Communications & Engagement Officer at a type 1 diabetes research charity, JDRF. I believe the combination of my science undergrad, science communications masters and all the practical experience I had accumulated gave me a strong advantage in applying for the role. I had a two-month overlap between my dissertation and starting the job, which was very stressful but worth it in the end. It was the perfect first job as it allowed me to put to use many of the skills I had practised during the masters, and develop them further.  

After just over a year and half at JDRF, I joined the Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London, as their Engagement & Communications Manager on the TwinsUK study.

TwinsUK study.

I was looking for greater responsibility and a broader remit, which this role offered, and I worked on communications, public engagement, participant engagement and ethics, and line-managed one colleague.  

The pandemic hit in March 2020 and we quickly shifted our research focus to carry out COVID-19 research with our TwinsUK members. During this time, my responsibilities increased as I became involved in setting up studies and managing research collaborations with other universities also working on COVID-19, and I was promoted to Programme Manager.

 

What is your current role and what does your work involve?

I am currently Programme Manager at TwinsUK, Department of Twin Research & Genetic Epidemiology, King’s College London.  

In a nutshell, I work to set up and manage COVID-19 research studies, maintain relationships with external collaborators, keep our twins happy and promote the work that takes place in the department.  

TwinsUK was well-placed to help with COVID-19 research when the pandemic hit, and we are now part of a large, multi-university research programme investigating COVID-19.

TwinsUK to take part in key Long COVID research programme

In my role, I manage TwinsUK’s participation in this programme. For example, I set up and managed a study in which we sent finger-prick blood collection kits to our twins in the post, so they could collect and return a small blood sample in the post for antibody testing. TwinsUK was one of ten cohorts to take part in that study, and I worked to ensure TwinsUK was aligned with the other cohorts while taking into account the unique circumstances of our twin cohort. I am currently working on a study investigating long Covid, which is run by our partners at University College London (UCL) and includes volunteers from the TwinsUK cohort.  

Deep Phenotyping | Convalescence Long-COVID Study

I also oversee communications, public engagement and participant engagement, the day-to-day activities for which are now carried out by my two team members. This includes writing news stories, managing social media, sending out newsletters, carrying out consultations with our TwinsUK members and developing strategies for attracting and retaining TwinsUK members.  

The department is very active in carrying out and publishing cutting-edge research, so it certainly keeps me busy! I enjoy the variety of tasks and activities that my job entails, and the fact that I get to work with everyone in the department – the researchers, the clinic team, the data team, our admin team and of course, the twin participants themselves – as well as external collaborators.  

 

What experiences do you feel helped you get to your current position?

My Natural Sciences undergraduate degree certainly helped by giving me a strong grounding in science and research, and a scientific undergrad is almost always an essential criteria for jobs in this area. I believe the MSc in Science Communication and Public Engagement was important too as it gave me an extra edge over other candidates when it came to applying for jobs in this field. In addition, all the work experience I accumulated through extracurriculars during my undergrad years, summer work and on the masters was useful too when it came to applying for my first job, as it meant I already had practical experience in the field.  

How have you used the skills and/or knowledge developed during your degree in your career? 

I use skills learnt from my MSc in Science Communication and Public Engagement every day, for many aspects of my job. It’s possible to learn these skills on the job, but I believe my career progression would have been much slower had I not done the MSc.

 

What do you think was the most valuable aspect of your time at Edinburgh in preparation for your career?

(The MSc – not much new to add here without repeating myself)

 

What advice would you give to students who are interested in your area of work? 

Two pieces of advice from me:

1. Get stuck in – seize every opportunity to practise your skills and learn new ones. If you feel a bit uncomfortable doing something, it probably means you are learning, and next time it will feel much easier. It’s also by doing that you find out whether or not you enjoy something. I realised through doing research that I did not enjoy doing research myself. Likewise, I realised through doing science communication and public engagement (and more recently, research operations) that I really enjoyed it and wanted a career in it.    
2. In my experience, it’s definitely true that fortune favours the bold – it’s important to just go for it and apply for roles that you think you would be great for, or to suggest creative, innovative projects at work. The worst that can possibly happen is that they say ‘no’, but actually in many cases they’ll say ‘yes’.

 

Date received: 30/11/2021

What path has your career taken since graduation?

I graduated with a BSc in Biological Sciences from Edinburgh in 2013, I didn’t have a job lined-up and I didn’t have a plan. After final exams I spent some time reading and watching online talks, I became interested in epidemiology and how data could improve public health. This particularly appealed to me because I did not enjoy laboratory work and maths was a stronger subject for me at school.

I then joined the University of Edinburgh’s Master of Public Health programme. Here, I learned some of the fundamentals of epidemiological and statistical methods and coding. I completed my degree, and after a few months of applying for jobs was offered a role at IQVIA at first as an intern, and then a permanent job. At IQVIA, my role was to forecast profits from drugs to pharmaceutical companies as part of a small team. We would create forecast models and write-up reports explaining the results of our models, which would be sold to pharmaceutical companies. My specific role was to write the epidemiology background chapters and estimate overall and progression free survival times for each drug for our forecast models. I worked at IQVIA for around six months and realised that working in industry might not be for me, as I was more interested in disease prevention, so I started looking at PhD programmes.

I applied to a couple of PhD programmes and was unsuccessful, but eventually was offered a place at the University of Oxford funded by Cancer Research UK. At Oxford, I worked with Drs Tim Key, Ruth Travis and Aurora Perez-Cornago to investigate whether circulating hormone concentrations might affect the probability of prostate cancer later in life. Day-to-day, this mostly involved statistical coding, reading papers, and writing-up my research. There were also opportunities to travel, present at conferences and teach.

After completing my DPhil, I applied for my own funding for a research project and was awarded a fellowship to continue my research at Oxford University. After two years I decided that I wanted to travel and expand my research portfolio, and so I applied to the National Cancer Institute in the US and was offered a role as a Postdoctoral Fellow, where I have been working since August 2021.

 

What is your current role and what does your work involve?

I am investigating the relationship between physical activity and later risk of cancer with Dr Steve Moore. We use large datasets of up to 500,000 people who agreed to participate in epidemiological studies. At recruitment, participants were asked about their physical activity levels, and other questions to assess other factors such as sociodemographic status, diet and lifestyle and co-morbidities. Some studies also took blood/urine samples, used imaging techniques, or measured physical activity using wrist-worn devices. Participants are followed-up over time via linkage to their medical records and death certificates.

I use statistical models to investigate whether certain behaviours such as running might affect the probability of being diagnosed with cancer later in life. I am also interested in the shape of the dose-response relationship, whether different types of physical activities have different relationships, and which biomarkers may mediate the relationship. I discuss the findings with the research group and write-up the results for publication.

I like that academia is very collaborative and you meet all sorts of interesting people. Pre-covid there were also great opportunities to travel for conferences, it’s also relatively easy to work abroad if that appeals to you. I also enjoy coding and the problem-solving nature of the research, as well as knowing that you are helping to inform cancer prevention strategies.

 

What experiences do you feel helped you get to your current position?

For academia, your academic degrees and publications are probably the most important facets to help you progress, and later securing your own funding is very important. My time at IQVIA was also viewed as a positive for my DPhil application (although was not at all necessary). I think that having the time in industry was also a useful experience for me as I realised how important it was to me to have a narrative for the real-world implications of my work, and so I was much more motivated going back to University. Industry also had transferable skills such as writing, presenting, normalising working hours etc.

 

How have you used the skills and/or knowledge developed during your degree in your career?

I regularly refer to molecules and mechanisms that I learned about for my undergraduate degree, as well as the ability to understand molecular biological papers. The ability to read around the subject using PubMed, Google Scholar etc is also invaluable as well as the ability to write and present my work clearly. 

The Master of Public Health degree also built upon this further and taught me statistical methods, coding, and the fundamentals of epidemiology, which I use every day.

 

What do you think was the most valuable aspect of your time at Edinburgh in preparation for your career?

University degrees are highly translatable to academia. I was lucky to get a publication from my Master of Public Health dissertation, which was hugely beneficial to my DPhil application.

The Master of Public Health (or a masters in a related field) was also a prerequisite to apply for my PhD programme.

 

What advice would you give to students who are interested in your area of work?

Epidemiology isn’t generally offered as an undergraduate degree; therefore, a postgraduate degree is often needed, and if you want to progress in academia a PhD is usually necessary no matter the field. Epidemiology is becoming increasingly quantitative and so a strong understanding of statistics is very helpful. However, people come from a range of backgrounds including biology, genetics, medicine, computer science and statistics.

Working as a research assistant before applying to a PhD is also a good alternative approach to understand what working in academia is like, you may also get the opportunity to be listed as a co-author on publications, which really aids your PhD application.

My other advice is to reach-out to people in research groups that you might be interested in working for, even if you don’t know them. It will help you get a sense or whether you might be a good fit and aids your application if the manager already knows who you are.

 

Date received: 22/10/2021

What path has your career taken since graduation?

After graduating I was applying to any job I was qualified for. Having been waitlisted for a PhD in Molecular Plant Science during my fourth year I was looking to gain additional lab/field experience.

That summer I went back to Trinidad, where I had conducted my dissertation research as a guest of Glasgow University Expedition Society, the year before. I was working to set up an equivalent expedition from the University of Edinburgh. This was successful however planning was halted with the rise of Covid-19.

On my return from Trinidad I worked as a seasonal Ecologist, performing bat surveys around Glasgow. This was my first job within science and gave a glimpse of the scrutiny of research within industry.

Six months after graduating I secured a full-time role within a Flow Cytometry Laboratory, processing blood samples for a variety of clinical trials. This role exposed me to the world of clinical research and opened my eyes to the complexity of bringing new therapies to market. Nine months into this role I was starting to look at promotion, however a bottom heavy structure created a large backlog of people qualified for promotion. It was at this time I was approached by a recruiter from ICON (then PRA Health Sciences) on LinkedIn. They described the role of Clinical Data Coordinator and invited me for interview.

The deciding factor that made me accept the job was the culture of the new role, work-life balance and hitting it off with the interviewers, with whom I would be working. I found myself loving the active problem solving of real-world issues, this lead to me digging deeper into data Management. This proactive approach lead to me being promoted within six months of starting in data management, to Senior Clinical Data Coordinator. This promotion has given me leadership responsibilities and the chance to further push myself within clinical research.

 

What is your current role and what does your work involve?

I am a Senior Clinical Data Coordinator at ICON plc. We perform clinical trials for a variety of products in collaboration with Pharmaceutical companies. Currently I am working within Oncological Trials, aiming to develop better cancer therapies.

I fulfil the role of Lead Clinical Data Coordinator for data management. I ensure that all data for a trial is reviewed effectively, providing assurance that data reported are correct and an accurate reflection of real-world events. I perform my role in collaboration with a team of clinical specialists who are monitoring the study on the ground.  

The role can encompass some more monotonous tasks and a lot of spreadsheets. However, it provides freedom in how I complete tasks, developing leadership and prioritisation skills as well as allowing me to work with a global team on a daily basis. The review process regularly brings up complex problems that I get to spend extra time really digging into in order to accurately establish what has happened to the patient.

And at the end of the day I get to log off and look forward to the next day, knowing that the work we are doing is genuinely making a difference to people’s lives.

 

What experiences do you feel helped you get to your current position?

• University: Although Zoology is not directly related to my work, throughout my degree I developed the skills that allow me to critically analyse what is in front of me and present complex problems and solutions in a simple manner
• Medical Laboratory Technician: My first experience of a ‘proper job’. I learned discipline, improved teamwork and developed my professionalism. In this role I also realised that there is a wide variety of jobs available to me that I would not have originally thought of had I tried to keep a direct line to Zoology

 

How have you used the skills and/or knowledge developed during your degree in your career?

Although my current role does not directly pull the knowledge from my Zoology degree, I utilise the transferable skills developed through my degree on a daily basis:

• Autonomy: I am responsible for ensuring all deadlines are met and work is of high quality
• Critical Reasoning: A large part of my role is problem solving and therefore being able to evaluate an issue to determine the facts is vital

 

What do you think was the most valuable aspect of your time at Edinburgh in preparation for your career?

• Developing the skills to deep dive in problem solving issues, thinking logically and performing critical reasoning/root cause analysis
• Being responsible for my own learning and development. Much like the world of work, lecturers are incredibly helpful but you have to take the initiative and ask for the assistance. As well as having to take it on your own back to develop beyond the course material

 

What advice would you give to students who are interested in your area of work?

• Be open-minded about new positions and look at a wide scope of roles when you graduate. The roles that you know you are qualified for are a very small proportion of the jobs you can do
• Say yes to most opportunities but think carefully before you drop one to pick up another. Don’t burn your bridges when you do. Keeping a solid network is a valuable thing to do

 

Date received: 18/10/2021

 

What path has your career taken since graduation?

In my final year I was carrying out my dissertation at a lab out with the University called SASA (Scientific Advice for Scottish Agriculture). Upon completion of my dissertation work, I was invited back to work there for a further four months using grant money from a Mains Of Loriston Grant (a charitable trust supporting Agriculture Education in Scotland). Whilst working here, I was also promoted to supervisor at my part-time job I had held at the Co-op throughout my four years at University. The four month grant took me up until Mid-September to Late October (during which time I attended my graduation ceremony). Whilst working at SASA, I was applying for entry level Biological Science roles all over Scotland, via the usual job hunting sites you see on TV but was getting very little joy. 

I interviewed for a job at Omega Diagnostics and when the manager there emailed me back to tell me I was unsuccessful, I asked for where I had slipped up etc. and if she had names of any other companies that might be hiring and she was actually kind enough to reply! She told me to contact several Scientific recruitment companies such as SRG or STEM and suddenly my luck with getting interviews turned. Within a month of making my self available to recruiters and on October 31^st I got a phone call to say I had been successful in my interview at an Assessment Centre for LumiraDx; the company I currently work for. 

What path has your career taken since graduation?

After completing my course at the University of Edinburgh, I wanted to work in a field that combined both biomedical sciences and business studies. I decided the best place for that was the pharmaceutical industry. I decided to complete an MSc in drug discovery skills at King’s College London which included a six month industrial placement in AstraZeneca. I really enjoyed learning about drug discovery and applying it in a real-world setting. Working at AstraZeneca exposed me to the business side of science which I also found very interesting.

The skills that I learned from my degree at the University of Edinburgh were crucial for me to succeed in my placement at AstraZeneca and really helped me deliver an impactful project. I was offered a role at AstraZeneca but I decided I wanted to further strengthen my scientific skills and knowledge and so pursued a PhD first.

I did a neuroscience PhD at King’s College London which was focused on determining mechanisms of chronic pain and how to treat the condition. A course I did in my final year at the University of Edinburgh, neurotransmitters in action, which was delivered by great and very knowledgeable scientists, gave me a solid core understanding of sensory transduction and prepared me for the research that I did in my PhD. I managed to publish two pieces of impactful work during my PhD, one as first and co-corresponding author, which demonstrated new targets for the treatment of analgesia and also demonstrated a novel method that morphine elicits its analgesic effect.

After completing my PhD, I decided I wanted to return to the pharmaceutical industry to work on life-saving treatments. Through the use of my network at AstraZeneca, I secured a job in a fast-growing biotechnology company called Artios Pharma which is developing treatments for cancer. I learnt a lot from this job and was very fortunate to be involved in a project that has now developed a drug that just entered into phase I/II clinical trials in patients suffering from cancer.

I then returned to AstraZeneca and continued to work on several oncology projects and to build on my pharmaceutical business acumen. For the latter, I led a project to demonstrate the usefulness of new equipment and the impact on the quality of science that it would have. I presented my case to directors and the executive director of the department and the company put in an order for £500,000 worth of this equipment.

After spending nearly two years commuting four hours to Cambridge I decided I wanted to find a job nearer to my home in London. So I joined a biotechnology start-up called LabGenius which is building an artificial intelligence and machine learning platform to develop nanobody therapies for several indications including irritable bowel disease and cancer.

At LabGenius, I have utilised the skills that I have learnt from my education and work experience to help uncover the mechanism of action of the company’s lead molecules and to design and develop the right assays to identify the best molecules to take into drug development.

 

What is your current role and what does your work involve?

My current role is Scientist II at a biotechnology start-up company in London called LabGenius. The company is currently developing nanobody (biologics) therapies to treat several diseases including irritable bowel disease and cancer.

My role is to bring my pharmaceutical industry expertise to design and develop the right assays that would provide data to the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning platform of the company. This data will help the AI to better predict what molecules will work best and therefore will decrease the time it takes to develop therapies.

My role also entails mentoring junior scientists and teaching them about the pharmaceutical industry and drug discovery principles in general. I also co-lead the mechanistic biology specialism where we hold regular meetings and discuss topics that range between biophysical, biochemical and cellular assays.

The most rewarding part of my work is that I am working on treatments that may eventually be used to treat patients.

 

What experiences do you feel helped you get to your current position?

This is mentioned in the section ‘What path has your career taken since graduation?’ but to summarise: my degree at the University of Edinburgh built a strong scientific and business acumen foundation for me.

I then pursued an MSc which included a six month internship at AstraZeneca. This internship was excellent in helping me develop a network that I used after my PhD to find jobs. I did a PhD which honed my skills as a scientist.

I then worked in several pharmaceutical companies and on several different projects which helped me learn about different fields such as cancer, gut disorders and neuroscience.

Being versatile really helps when applying for jobs as it means one is more likely to adapt and bring something extra to the company.

 

What do you think was the most valuable aspect of your time at Edinburgh in preparation for your career?

Taking the right courses in my final year which had a heavy focus on principles of pharmacology and neuroscience. This really helped develop the right knowledge and skills for my PhD and for my career in pharma.

 

What advice would you give to students who are interested in your area of work?

One of the best ways to get into the pharmaceutical industry and to experience it, is to do an internship, placement or graduate scheme. You will learn both about science and business and it will help you identify what area you prefer. It will also help you identify whether you would prefer a career in industry or academia (i.e. post-docs, lecturer). It is important to build your network as well; this can be done either by working in pharma or by attending conferences where you are likely to meet many scientists from industry.

 

Date received: 29/10/2021

What path has your career taken since graduation?

I graduated from the Biomedical Science Masters by Research in 2020. This really impacted the career choice I am pursuing now, in a pretty unexpected way. I was starting the second research project of my masters when COVID restrictions began, in a lab that was extremely involved in responding to the pandemic. Conversations with colleagues pointed to the bigger need for open access literature, to enhance the dissemination and use of scientific findings, which could ultimately speed up the COVID response. I also saw the scientific community become really engaged with the public, the government and public and private sectors, for the same purpose. In my own project, I assessed the potential negative impact that COVID-19 efforts were having on other disease surveillance and treatment activities in Africa and was faced with all the ethical implications regarding this subject. By the time I graduated I knew I wanted to remain in the public health field, but these questions around research access, engagement and ethics remained in the back of my mind.

My Masters course was really helpful in kickstarting my career, as I was told about an open public health research position at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine by one of my supervisors, and was encouraged to apply. It was a really valuable time, where I gained confidence as I developed the research and analytical skills I had used during my masters thesis. I was also able to lead on some of the workstreams of the project, gaining project management experience. However, it admittedly was also a difficult period, as the position was fixed-term and consecutive lockdowns meant the work was completely remote. This made frequent interactions with colleagues rare. Once my contract finished and I started job searching, I started prioritising roles that were permanent and promoted a collaborative environment.

The Editorial Assistant position at F1000 appealed to me for those reasons. It was also a company advancing the open science field by hosting open access and open peer review publishing models, which sparked my curiosity for open science once again. Here, I managed the peer review of many articles and contributed to projects not only aiming to optimise this process, but to make peer review more engaged, ethical and diverse. However, I’d say the most valuable thing I learnt during this time was how I liked to work and what skills I liked using. I enjoyed more varied, project-based work, and I found analytical tasks more motivating than other tasks within my role.

When I saw the Research Environment Project Officer role being advertised at the Wellcome Trust I thought it was a great fit. The Research Environment Team works to ensure that research Wellcome funds is open, engaged, ethical, equitable and efficient, so since working here I have expanded my knowledge in those areas. It is a project-based position where I am constantly collaborating with internal and external teams, and building on project management and analytical skills that I enjoy working with. While I have made several industry jumps (academia, publishing and now third sector), I am glad for these diverse experiences. They not only prepared me for the role I have now, but also through this iterative process, I have a better understanding of the kind of work I enjoy doing and the type of work environment I thrive in. 

What is your current role and what does your work involve?

I am a Project Officer for the Research Environment Team at the Wellcome Trust. The team strive for Wellcome funded research to be ethically sound, accessible, and engaged with the needs of the communities it is addressing. To tackle every one of these requirements the team is split into areas such as bioethics, research engagement, open research and research culture. My role involves leading and/or contributing to projects across all areas. This might be contributing to the launch of grant opportunities to study research culture at universities, to providing the project management and secretariat for Europe PMC. This is an online database offering free access to published biomedical research. Here, I direct activities like performing timely reporting for funders, organising annual and committee meetings and coordinating the grant Wellcome awards to the Europe Bioinformatics Institute, which hosts Europe PMC.

I am very satisfied in my role so far: I get to be involved in very varied projects that require me to learn a variety of skills, and I appreciate that my day to day always looks different. While these are definitely great perks, I think the most rewarding aspect of my job is that I believe in my team’s core values and aspirations and I see how my work is directly contributing to these. It is also very uplifting to work alongside like-minded people, who are just as passionate about improving the way we fund research and how that research is done and communicated.

What experiences do you feel helped you get to your current position?

There were several skills and certain knowledge that was crucial for me to have when applying for the role, which I gained through several experiences:

• Analytical and research skills: while I gained these skills during my undergraduate degree, the Biomedical Science Master by Research really helped me solidify these.

• Communication skills: it is important in my role, to be able to convey information to different audiences, which might have varying degrees of knowledge about a particular subject. I found that my masters degree prepared me very well for this too, as there were particular modules designed to teach us how to convey complex scientific concepts to lay audiences.

• Project management knowledge: while I gained some experience through the research positions at LSHTM, my first experience of designing, planning and managing projects from scratch happened while volunteering at The Global Health Next Generation Network, a charity helping young global health professionals kickstart their career.

• Working at a small charity led by young people, meant that I was given project management responsibility which I wouldn´t have been given access to by a bigger employer at this stage of my career.

• Familiarity of current trends in the research environment areas: working in an open access publisher was a great way for me to keep track of topics such as open access and research ethics.

How have you used the skills and/or knowledge developed during your degree in your career?

I have used and built upon the analytical and communication skills I solidified during my masters degree in every role I have worked on. This subsequently led to having a level of expertise in both skills that enables me to lead work on clinical compliance monitoring, in my current role. Here, I analysed whether Wellcome funded trials were following all the requirements stated in the Wellcome Clinical Trial policy. I subsequently wrote an external report, exposing the findings, and disseminated the work internally as well, aware that my communication priorities when targeting these two audiences, and tailoring the way I conveyed information.

What do you think was the most valuable aspect of your time at Edinburgh in preparation for your career?

The most valuable aspect of my time in Edinburgh was the support system I had during my masters degree, which enabled me to get the most out of it. This was so helpful in preparation for my future career for two reasons:

• Tutors, lecturers of the masters were always happy to answer questions and provide further support. I fondly remember one of the statistics lecturers jumping on a zoom call with me, to offer advice on the suitable statistical methods to use for my thesis project. I firmly believe support like this is what gave me the confidence to work in an analytical role post-graduation.

• Through two research-based projects I was given first hand experience in two different research environments. Both teams were open about their grant-managing and publication processes for example, and conversations around openness and culture were prevalent. This is an invaluable insight that I still refer to when thinking about these topics in my current role.

What advice would you give to students who are interested in your area of work?

The main advice I would give is to build, analytical, communication and project management skills. However, the ways in which you do this can and will be completely different to the ways I’ve built these skills and this is absolutely fine as we all learn differently! All of these skills are transferable. In fact, in my team, several of my co-workers have developed these skills through a different core science subject or even humanities subjects. When it comes to building up project management skills, I would highly recommend volunteering or interning at small start-up charities, as I found I had project management responsibilities in this role that I wouldn´t have had access to at a bigger employer, so early on in my career.

Lastly, if you’re interested in any of the research environment areas, make sure you keep up with the field. A great way to do this is to follow academics, advocates or other experts on Twitter or LinkedIn that routinely talk about these subjects. If you are currently part of a research environment, keep an eye out for those conversations around why your supervisor has designed their projects the way they have, ethical considerations, venues of publication…etc. Your own experience within the research environment is in itself valuable knowledge!

Date received: 03/02/2023