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Job Title: Medical Researcher/Scientist
Type of Company: I work for a biotech company that develops and manufactures drugs to treat neurological diseases, autoimmune disorders and cancer.
Education: BA, Biology, Marlboro College •• (Marlboro, VT) •• working towards Masters, Biology, Harvard Extension School
Previous Experience: I worked as an entry-level researcher in a behavioral pharmacology lab doing research on ways to treat drug addiction for about 2 years after college. Later I worked for a contract research lab running animal models of diseases, such as cancer. The work I did was contracted out to us by large pharmaceutical companies or small biotech companies and helped to develop drugs to treat the diseases. I also worked as a high school teacher for about 6 months, teaching environmental science but found that I was better at doing science than at teaching it.
Job Tasks: I am part of the Discovery Oncology department at a biotech firm, doing work that helps to identify possible drugs to treat cancer. My primary responsibility is to run experiments in mice that help determine if a drug will help to treat cancer in humans. Running these studies requires growing human tumor cells in flasks, injecting the cells into mice and measuring the tumors that form. I also treat the mice with the drugs we are developing, as well as with drugs that have already been used in humans (so we can compare the new drugs with ones that already work). Treating the mice with the drugs involves various different types of injections (into the gut, under the skin, into muscle, or oral) and sometimes the other technical skills such as surgery are needed to create the appropriate model of the cancer. I also have to weigh the mice and make observations on their health.
In addition to these technical aspects, I analyze and graph my results to determine if the drugs work and then present the data to a project team that's made up of other scientists. Over the years, managerial tasks have been added to my responsibilities. I have people who report to me. I assign them work and supervise their output. I help them establish goals every year and then assess their progress towards achieving these. I also meet with higher level scientists (mostly Ph.D.'s) to help determine what studies to do, and how to design them. I schedule the studies so that the studies are completed in the time frame the scientists and project managers have laid out. Because our group tests the drugs on mammals, this is the first time we can really see if they might work on humans and often the results of our studies determine if a drug will go on to be tested in humans or not.
Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best part of my job is feeling that the work I do will really help people who are sick. Although the process takes many years, I know that some day a drug that I worked on will help humans, maybe even people I know, survive cancer.
The worst part of my job is that sometimes the mice I work with get very sick and although I take care of them as humanely as possible, I feel bad.
Job Tips:
1. Even though intellectually a job doing contract research can be boring, consider getting one for a year or so early in your career. You will learn a variety of technical skills in a short amount of time and these will qualify to apply for a bunch of positions.
2. At least one course in biochemistry would be very helpful. It will allow you to understand the drugs that you test.
3. Don't focus on one type of disease only.
Additional Thoughts: I studied biology because I love animals. It may seem odd that I ended up doing animal research, but I truly believe that those of us who entered the field as animal lovers are the ones who do the best animal research and that we are the ones who should be doing it because we will always treat the animals with respect and compassion. However, be sure that you can handle this kind of work before you get too far into your career. Maybe try it out during an internship.
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