Giving Job Hunters Valuable Insight Into Biotech Careers

At The Job Forum we often focus on fast growing industries. We raise awareness of career opportunities and pathways forward for all those that are interested to contribute to science, bio and biotech careers. These sessions are useful for job hunters to better understand more about how an industry or kind of role within it functions.

At a recent Biotech event job hunters met and talked with and asked questions of these experienced folks:

Derek Richardson discussed his background and experience at Alumis, where they are focusing on targeted therapies for immune diseases.

James Sheridan talked about the importance of the Bay Area in biotech and the innovative advances in treatments coming for the sector and from AbbVie.

Paul Upman explained his role at Roche and the development of smart devices for drug delivery and patient self-management.

Peter Calcott shared his experience as a former pharma executive and now consultant and the international reach of consulting in Biotech.

Holly Uber discussed her background and experience in launching “software as a medical device” at Genentech.

The topics covered at this event were fascinating and valuable to hear from such well-regarded experts these included the drug development process, the use of AI and more:

 James Sheridan told job hunters about the opportunities in R&D clinical research at AbbVie, and he explained the process of taking a drug from an idea to market and advised about the various opportunities for applying one’s skills in the drug therapy industry.

Paul Upman discussed the development of medical devices and the role of AI in analyzing data and designing new molecules to be used in treatments. He explained how Genentech and Roche develop medical devices for drug delivery, and his team specializes in adding sensors and wireless connectivity to these devices so that they can help support patients with self -management of their chronic conditions when they’re using the medicines. He shared a story about using AI to improve the accuracy of predictive algorithms for Crohn’s disease.

Derrick Richardson explained the mission of Alumis, which is developing therapies to treat immune diseases. These are really tough, debilitating conditions which attack the immune system which itself gets confused, and it ends up attacking healthy tissues and organs. The most commonly available treatment options for these sorts of conditions are steroid injections or biologics, which are complex and require an infusion, and often the standard of care has horrible side effects that can be worse than the symptoms that they’re trying to alleviate. So Alumis’ mission is to understand the biology and the genetics underpinning these conditions, and to develop safe and effective drugs by understanding patient populations, and identifying which patients are going to respond to the drugs that are being developed. The plan is to announce data from clinical trials in psoriasis and lupus next year,

Peter Calcott advised aspiring job hunters on the importance of adaptability and volunteering for tasks to keep growing and learning. He shared fascinating inspiring examples of work in biotech, including one company he is working on presently today, for which they just had a meeting with the FDA by zoom for licensure of a brand-new technology for cancer treatment utilizing nanotechnology for the treatment.

Holly Uber gave job hunters a birds-eye view of the complexity and range of people and roles in a Biotech as she shared how they launched software as a medical device, in the ophthalmology space. The team had different skill sets, which is valuable when you are working with a startup idea. You have pharma experts, those who know manufacturing, and then the different people building and planning on marketing the software, the legal department and you must work with the FDA, and the investors.

There was a general shared sense of optimism and opportunity.

For example, in personalized medicine, we have great opportunities for improving human health and overall in biotech one has the chance to improve people’s health and lives.