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Aagar posted:Thought I'd update, because it's been all roses this week. For clarification our group is divided into three sub-groups - chemists, radiochemists and biologists. Chemists make the new candidate precursors and standards, radiochemists label the precursors with radionuclides and purify them, and if they meet quality standards pass them to biologists for in vitro and/or in vivo testing. Before we got a lead candidate our team (the radiochemists) was important but uninteresting - label candidate, candidate fails, label next candidate, repeat ad infinitum. Our contribution to group meetings was usually "Yup, we labelled that. It was pure and didn't decompose after X days." Now with a lead candidate we were under the gun to get the yield up to something that could go to our Development team for scale up and GMP processing.
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Aug 22, 2013 05:08
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Any suggestions for a bioinformatics programming language to learn? My girlfriend was recommended Java, but I'm seeing online Perl and Python to be popular suggestions. I told her to check with her lab, but I figured I would reach out here for insight. (she has never programmed before)
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Aug 22, 2013 20:18
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Does anyone have any experience with getting refurbished or used equipment from suppliers like LabX, Harlow Scientific, Cambridge Scientific, etc? My lab's Mastercycler went down and I'm looking at getting a replacement rather than shell out $3000+ for repairs. I don't know whether ordering used/refurbished/demo models is a crapshoot or a good way to save.
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Aug 22, 2013 20:45
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abagofcheetos posted:Any suggestions for a bioinformatics programming language to learn? My girlfriend was recommended Java, but I'm seeing online Perl and Python to be popular suggestions. I told her to check with her lab, but I figured I would reach out here for insight. python, followed by perl, followed a very long way by java.
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Aug 22, 2013 21:43
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abagofcheetos posted:Any suggestions for a bioinformatics programming language to learn? My girlfriend was recommended Java, but I'm seeing online Perl and Python to be popular suggestions. I told her to check with her lab, but I figured I would reach out here for insight. Definitely Python. Perl is also a fine option, but it's harder to learn, so unless she has a good reason to prefer Perl over Python (like, if her whole lab scripts in Perl), I'd pick Python. Tell your girlfriend to ignore any future advice from whoever suggested Java.
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Aug 22, 2013 23:58
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disheveled posted:Definitely Python. Perl is also a fine option, but it's harder to learn, so unless she has a good reason to prefer Perl over Python (like, if her whole lab scripts in Perl), I'd pick Python. A Director of Personalized Medicine at a large cancer center  It was a talk about Ion Torrent, perhaps they use Java? idk, but I will let her know about Python, thanks! (edit: should have specified genetics, if that matters) abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 00:08
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ATP5G1 posted:Does anyone have any experience with getting refurbished or used equipment from suppliers like LabX, Harlow Scientific, Cambridge Scientific, etc? My lab's Mastercycler went down and I'm looking at getting a replacement rather than shell out $3000+ for repairs. I don't know whether ordering used/refurbished/demo models is a crapshoot or a good way to save. Used equipment is usually ok. Stay away from biodirect though. I've had bad luck with them.
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Aug 23, 2013 15:10
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abagofcheetos posted:Any suggestions for a bioinformatics programming language to learn? My girlfriend was recommended Java, but I'm seeing online Perl and Python to be popular suggestions. I told her to check with her lab, but I figured I would reach out here for insight. Also consider suggesting to her she learn a little, little bit of linux.
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Aug 23, 2013 17:19
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john ashpool fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Mar 13, 2016 |
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Aug 24, 2013 02:58
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Jumping on the Python  . It's used in a lot of non-bioinformatics sciency stuff also.
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Aug 24, 2013 16:16
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Are there decent job opportunities for someone with a BS in genetics? I'm debating taking a year before trying to get into a doctoral program to get some better letters of rec, so if there's a good chance that I can get a lab tech/research assistant type job with just a bachelor's I'm pretty much definitely going to do that. Sorry if it's the wrong place to ask and thanks for any input!
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Aug 24, 2013 16:51
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Skinny King Pimp posted:Are there decent job opportunities for someone with a BS in genetics? I'm debating taking a year before trying to get into a doctoral program to get some better letters of rec, so if there's a good chance that I can get a lab tech/research assistant type job with just a bachelor's I'm pretty much definitely going to do that. There are grad school and biology topics in SAL that would be a better fit... this is probably the wrong thread, because you want to stick to academic lab tech positions if you're pretty sure you want to get into a PhD program. Tons of professors hire junior technicians for two-year stints with the idea that they'll be 50/50 tech/research.
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Aug 24, 2013 18:47
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Yeah, I've asked a few things in there and I know where to look for jobs in an academic lab. I just wanted to get a little info on the more industry side of it by posting in this thread.
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Aug 24, 2013 19:30
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As someone who went to a PhD program (Chemistry) right after college and really struggled, if you can find a year/two-year stint of lab or tech work before going to grad school, things will go so much more smoothly and you will get so much more out of it. I guess you're leaning towards doing that anyway, but in my program there were a couple people who were employees of my university/department who then jumped into the grad program so it's definitely possible.
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Aug 24, 2013 20:37
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Whelp I recently graduated with a BS in Chemistry and I finally got a job working QC at a pharmaceutical company. I've been here 2 weeks and I'm already one of those people who needs coffee to get through the day.  Anyone have any words of advice or anything I should know? Right now I'm just reading operating procedures because everyone is too busy to train me. It's nice getting paid not to work but I'm burned out by 10am everyday. It's like reading the dictionary. I was surprised at first at how relatively young everyone is in the QC lab. There's really high turnover. It's like working a food service job: it pays the bills but it's not something you want to do forever. I plan on doing something else or going to grad school in a year or so.
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Sep 7, 2013 04:45
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Two more job rejections in the same day Anyone going to the national ACS meeting in Indy this week? I really wanted to go but $185 is a lot of money to register my unemployed rear end, plus there's an online career fair today and tomorrow that I'm finding pretty useful.
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Sep 9, 2013 20:08
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Crew Expendable posted:Whelp I recently graduated with a BS in Chemistry and I finally got a job working QC at a pharmaceutical company. I've been here 2 weeks and I'm already one of those people who needs coffee to get through the day. QC, well quality in general, does have high turnover at the entry to early-career level. If you manage to survive (heh) in quality for a few years you can typically land a cushier job like quality engineer, department manager, etc. How is it compared to what you were expecting from the interview(s)?
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Sep 9, 2013 22:24
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Crew Expendable posted:Whelp I recently graduated with a BS in Chemistry and I finally got a job working QC at a pharmaceutical company. I've been here 2 weeks and I'm already one of those people who needs coffee to get through the day. Edit: And if you can do it with a GC, you're a god amongst mortels. 
Dik Hz fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 22:27
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seacat posted:What kind of twisted QC department makes you read SOPs for 2 straight weeks? Are they SOPs on doing actual chemistry of any sort or are you going to be a paper-churner? This is very, very true. Not only that, but you can change industries fairly easily if you want to shop around.
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Sep 9, 2013 23:03
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Solkanar512 posted:This is very, very true. Not only that, but you can change industries fairly easily if you want to shop around. So I fell into asphalt/road construction QA/QC randomly and have been "supervising" a lab for about two years now. I was originally hired on because I have a chemistry BS. What other industries could I fairly easily transition to? Do you have any idea what I would expect to be making in the other industries? Does anyone in here have any experience doing this? Tigren fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 23:19
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seacat posted:What kind of twisted QC department makes you read SOPs for 2 straight weeks? Are they SOPs on doing actual chemistry of any sort or are you going to be a paper-churner? A lot of places have taken the GMP requirement of "documented proof that employees are trained in the tasks they are assigned" and turned it into a SOP-driven monstrosity. This is how sites like ComplianceWire make their money - by providing a GMP-compliant training environment which really just loads up an SOP and records that you took the test at the end after reading it. Companies take the easy way out and use this site as ALL the training. Everything is an SOP / SOP-supporting-document, and by God, you will train on ALL OF IT. As of 9:00AM this morning (I had to provide a training update to my manager), since starting at my current employer in mid-July, I have read/signed/tested on 362 SOPs and an additional 116 'supporting documents' related to them. I have a little 'real' work I do here and there, but I'd say that I'm a good two months into nothing but SOP training and the end is nowhere in sight.
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Sep 9, 2013 23:57
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Tigren posted:So I fell into asphalt/road construction QA/QC randomly and have been "supervising" a lab for about two years now. I was originally hired on because I have a chemistry BS. What other industries could I fairly easily transition to? Do you have any idea what I would expect to be making in the other industries? Does anyone in here have any experience doing this? My experience is starting out as a math/bio major, doing instrument calibration and documentation crap in a food safety lab for three years and now I work in aerospace. I think the thing that impressed the folks who eventually hired me was that I worked in a high stakes environment and appreciated the fact that if you gently caress up, get lazy or otherwise cut corners, real people die. It's all about taking the skills and knowledge you have, and translating it to the needs of the folks you're applying with. So it seems to me that you'd be able to transfer to areas that produce/test building and related materials to begin with. Branch out from there, what sorts of certification systems are you used to? Google search for companies that advertise the same or similar certifications. Anyone else have any thoughts?  Gratuitous work porn.
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Sep 10, 2013 01:01
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That sure is a drat pretty aircraft. Now this thread seems to have picked up again I was wondering if anyone could provide any insight on the job market in the UK for Biology and/or pharma jobs. I am moving there in November and I have a Bachelors in Microbiology/Astronomy, about 9 months in a parasitology lab as a research assistant and 3 years as a Patent Examiner (Pharmaceuticals and misc biology mostly.) How screwed am I going to be jobwise? I could always go down the Patent attorney path but the nature of corporate law firm structures grate on me pretty badly even though the pay is nice and I could probably put up with it. Saros fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 02:55
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Sundae posted:
I think a lot of it is this. They have SOPs on everything and you have to get signed off on ~120 SOPs (ranging from cell phone policy to safety to overtime to org charts to lists of hazardous chemicals to SOPs that basically just state another SOP exists) before you can even start "real" training. Of course then you have to start off with things like pipetting (but not volumetric pipetting, that's another SOP or two) and pouring beakers. I'm just racking up the SOPchievments! It's silly because it's like reading and trying to memorize the dicitionary. It's reference material! You look it up when you need it! The other part is that it seems they are trying to train too many people at once. I think I was hired as a part of a second wave of trainees. The few veterans here have their hands full trying to train the first wave and also perform all the QC work that needs to be done. seacat posted:How is it compared to what you were expecting from the interview(s)? This might change once I get around to being trained on using the instruments but there is not nearly as much chemistry knowledge/theory involved as I thought there was going to be. A lot of it seems to be just following the procedure step-by-step exactly without knowing theory behind how it works. I feel like I am bit overqualified but I'm not sure because I don't know how I stack up against my co-workers. Maybe it's just considered to be uncool to nerd-out about it?  Edit: Figured it out. We have a lot of "rush" jobs and management is being managment about it. People aren't feeling very chatty. Crew Expendable fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 04:30
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I'm been getting more involved in internal audits and investigations (safety and quality), and I can now see where the SOP everything mentality that management has comes from. Audits start with watching us work, then asking for every SOP that we have to see if we're following them. Auditor asks for an SOP for something, and you don't have one? Possible observation, and you get to write an new SOP! May as well have an SOP for everything, just in case. Luckily, our management sometimes pushes back for some of the stupider things, but it still leads to a lot extraneous SOPs content (we tend to have a couple giant SOPs rather than a lot of little ones, so we just keep adding addendums to them). Investigations play a factor, because there's a school of thought that nothing can have a root cause of human error. I see this split in our safety investigations vs our quality investigation. For safety, they don't believe in human error, so when most sane people would just say someone screwed up, they end up defaulting to either training or no procedure as a cause. So dumb policies and procedures end up being put in place as a result. On the other hand, our quality investigation are usually ok with human error as a cause, so we can say a guy hosed up, and it's a personal performance issue - basically his management reamed him out already, so he won't do it again. They like us to retrain if there's something to train on, but this saves us the headache of writing a huge number of SOPs if a procedure isn't in place for something obvious.
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Sep 10, 2013 12:32
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Saros posted:That sure is a drat pretty aircraft. Where are you moving from? Pharma really suffering in the UK, with site closures and layoffs all over the place. The Cambridge - Oxford - London triangle contains a lot of medium sized companies and start ups, but the big companies are laying off the best of the best so it is a difficult environment. Having been in the patent biz for a few years what is making you want to move back to research? Not having a PhD might be a barrier to research jobs, depending on where you apply. You could always to a PhD if you want, in the UK they tend to be a lot shorter than europe and the US, I know of someone who got a PhD in 2 years 11 months. That depends on your current position re family, desired income etc though. There are a lot of smaller patent law firms in the UK, so you can do your first 3 years to get your UK certification and then hop over to a boutique place.
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Sep 11, 2013 14:49
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I'm moving from NZ and I am lucky enough to be a UK citizen through my dad so I have a passport. Its just me moving, no kids etc. I have had a look around Monster.co.uk and a few other jobsites and it seems like anything in bio I am qualified for is basically barely above entry level gruntwork and pays awful while having an glut of qualified people. Seems about like you described. My impression is to continue in bio/pharma would require a masters/PHd (possibly both) and while pharmaceutical R&D was always a dream job for me if i'm honest I really am a lot better at the patent stuff than I was at academia. Our patent legislation is basically cribbed from the UK act and we use a lot of the same case law so a lot of what I have experience in here should be fairly transferable. I don't really know a lot about the Patent attorney registration process over there, you said something about three years? Is speaking German/French a necessity? Do you require law qualifications? Saros fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Sep 12, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 03:23
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john ashpool fucked around with this message at 15:01 on Mar 13, 2016 |
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Sep 12, 2013 05:40
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Saros posted:I'm moving from NZ and I am lucky enough to be a UK citizen through my dad so I have a passport. Its just me moving, no kids etc. This site will give you some fluff: http://www.insidecareers.co.uk/professions/patent-attorneys/ CIPA is the organisation in the UK, has a list of all the firms in the UK for you to send letters to. https://www.cipa.org.uk You would need to study for the exams, but certain university courses allow you to skip the first round of exams. Most people UK qualify in 3 years, Europe in 5. I'm currently looking for patent jobs as well, it is tough but hopefully I will find something. If you are interested in research a PhD is always a possibility, these are posted on this site: https://www.prospects.ac.uk You could also work as an examiner for the UKPO or EPO. Languages are useful, but not essential.
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Sep 12, 2013 20:48
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john ashpool posted:What kind of biotech is in NZ? Anyone producing large proteins? Most NZ commercial biotech is focused on agricultural work including a large amount of dairy. We have a number of research institutes both private and public that carry out non agricultural fundamental research, notably a lot of work into 2nd/3rd gen biofuel production, but there is really only so much available as we are a very small country with a low population. I cant really help you with large protein production as its not really my field and I have never really looked into it. Thanks for the insidecareers/prospects links I hadn't turned them up myself.
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Sep 12, 2013 23:27
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I hope nobody minds if I bust on in here and ask a dumb question. Do any of you lab dudes and dudettes know if an AAS in Histology is worth pursuing? My 19-year-old niece is now living with me, and she's thinking of going to community college to become a histotechnician. She doesn't have much interest in continuing on to a 4-year school, even though this degree will take 3 years including her prerequisites. I know nothing about this field so I couldn't really give her any advice. She feels pretty stubborn about doing either this or her second choice, so I hope she won't be disappointed. (Her other choice was an associates in general studies/history concentration, by the way. My husband is an underemployed historian and he was like "noooooooo!") From Googling around it seems that some people claim the jobs are in high demand, others claim there's no jobs and histotechnologists will get hired to do the same work instead, since they can do more. Advice for her, please?
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Sep 14, 2013 02:23
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Telemaze posted:I hope nobody minds if I bust on in here and ask a dumb question. Do any of you lab dudes and dudettes know if an AAS in Histology is worth pursuing? My 19-year-old niece is now living with me, and she's thinking of going to community college to become a histotechnician. She doesn't have much interest in continuing on to a 4-year school, even though this degree will take 3 years including her prerequisites. I know nothing about this field so I couldn't really give her any advice. I do not think it is a dumb question. I don't know if I really have a solid answer. I came from a clinical lab, where I did my MS, and I did my thesis entirely on immunohistochemistry. They taught me how to cut sections, stain slides, fix tissue, etc. I was not allowed to touch the embedding machine. Since then, I've been in 2 other research labs in different situations, and this is what I've seen. Histotechs get a position, and then do not leave. The one at my 1st lab had been there for longer than I've been alive. Depending on the research facilities, some labs require the researchers to fix, embed, and cut their own sections. It's cheaper that way and there is no need for a histotech. The place I am now has a histology facility of 1 head and 3-4 techs, and they cover the entire 6 floors of labs. There has been no turnover there since I've been here. I guess what I want to say is that if you go entirely histotech, you are stuck only working in a histology facility and there will be no potential to move up or out. You've pigeonholed yourself into something that is required by almost all research and treatment, but can be largely automated with machines. I've considered getting the histology certifications myself, but I really don't want to get stuck with doing sections all my life, even for the stability and comfort of a job where I know what I'm doing day in, day out. So what I guess I'm saying is that I imagine it to be difficult to get a job unless someone retires or moves, because there's no where else to go. And it's boring. But yknow, that stands true for everyone. Lab techs get entrenched too, and it's hard to break out once you get stuck. Speaking of which, sigh. edited to say that I did get an offer from a company (a while ago) based purely on my IHC background, and they definitely had several histotechs, so you could go industry if it's an area the company is trying to fine tune. squigadoo fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Sep 16, 2013 |
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Sep 16, 2013 18:45
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john ashpool posted:What kind of biotech is in NZ? Anyone producing large proteins? What do you mean by 'large proteins'? Do you mean large amounts of proteins, or actual large proteins?
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Sep 17, 2013 12:31
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^^ Oh good its not just me, I was feeling rather daft not really being able to figure out what was being asked.
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Sep 17, 2013 13:22
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I just sat through a change control meeting in which someone presented a retrospective FMEA for an equipment alteration they'd already gone and implemented. He seemed completely oblivious to how horribly wrong the entire concept was. (For those not in GMP environments: You identify a change --> Perform an assessment of the impact / quality risk management approach --> use the outcome of that to determine your controls on the change / what research work you need before implementing --> THEN implement the change once you've worked it out.) You don't get to retrospectively say "well, everything worked out just fine so clearly there was no risk."
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Sep 17, 2013 15:26
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So, anybody here interested in lab automation? What I sell automates nucleic acid extraction but I've got colleagues who do liquid handling and NGS stuff. I also have a buddy who does microarrays. Shoot me a PM and I'll see to it that your lab gets a goon discount.
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Sep 19, 2013 07:09
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Sundae posted:I just sat through a change control meeting in which someone presented a retrospective FMEA for an equipment alteration they'd already gone and implemented. So your company's corrective action process was used to make sure this never happens again, right? Or did they just go around the room and have everyone sign backdated forms? Make sure those who are newly married sign with their maiden names, I've never seen that go wrong before...
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Sep 19, 2013 13:09
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So I just got an e-mail via LinkedIn from a head hunter looking to fill a Scientist position with a big company in my area. This experience is new for me - I've never been sought out for a job before. I just found out on the phone with said head hunter what the job entails and the company it's with, and am doing some online research into the specifics. At first blush it's not what I'm interested in, but I'm looking at it as experience with dealing with this kind of situation in general. What I'm curious about - I don't know much about the relationship between me, the company and the third party that sought me out. I assume candid honesty is the best policy so that I don't waste anyone's time if I'm lukewarm at best. It is closer to home - 15 vs. 45 min commute, for the same pay, but the job details sound very ... dull. It looks like a straight up QC on radioactive samples, whereas now I'm more on the radiosynthesis of new radiopharmaceuticals (variety of projects, don't get stuck doing the same thing for very long). Sitting and doing nothing but analysis all day isn't my cup of tea. Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. A nicely worded "thank you but no thank you" is my game plan right now.
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Sep 19, 2013 17:33
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Solkanar512 posted:So your company's corrective action process was used to make sure this never happens again, right? Sure. Yep! Everything went off without a hitch and nothing could possibly have prevented any progress from being made coming out of this meeting. (Apart from our CAPA system and Change Control system being taken down for remediation updates and us running production with neither one functional for the next two weeks...  )My company isn't very good at very many things.
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Sep 19, 2013 17:42
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Aagar posted:Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated. A nicely worded "thank you but no thank you" is my game plan right now. I've had this happen to me a few times and your current game plan is what I usually do. If I actually am looking for a job, I'll tell them what kind of job I'm looking for and make sure to mention "no contract or temp-to-hire" if you are looking for full time positions.
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Sep 19, 2013 17:46
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