Saturday, 21 September, 12:15-14:15, Topaz Lounge
Scientists who have chosen career paths outside academic research will lead this interactive lunchtime session and talk about their jobs, allowing participants to gain an insight into some of the career options available. The session is organized as round-table discussion over lunch with speakers highlighting different career paths.
Confirmed speakers include:
Industry 1 - Joost Uidehaag – Senior Investigator, Netherlands Translational Research Center BV, Oss, NL
Joost Uitdehaag obtained his Ph.D. in protein crystallography at the University of Groningen. After a long-term EMBO fellowship at the University of Oxford, he became group leader at the pharmaceutical company Organon NV in 2002, which later merged with Schering-Plough and MSD. With his group he worked on various drug candidates, especially inhibitors of kinases, nuclear receptors and proteases in the areas of inflammation and oncology. Currently he works as senior investigator for the Netherlands Translational Research Center BV, a biotech firm that he helped found. There he spearheads the biotechnology lab and develops new ways of cell panel profiling and drug synergy screening.
Industry 2 - Jaap Kool - Project Leader, Merck Animal Health, Nijmegen, NL
Jaap Kool is project leader at the Discovery and Technology department of Merck/MSD Animal Health in Boxmeer, the Netherlands. He focuses on the development of novel technologies for isolation, characterization and culturing of pathogens that infect animals and humans. Before coming to Boxmeer, Jaap was stationed for one year in Germany (Schwabenheim), also working as project leader for MSD AH. As a postdoctoral researcher at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam, he performed genetic screens in mice to identify cancer genes and their collaborative networks. During his PhD research, Jaap studied signal transduction and gene expression in response to genotoxic stress in mammalian cells (Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden).
Project Management - Chiat Cheong - Project manager, Postdoc Career Development Initiative, Amsterdam NL
Chiat worked in academia across Europe as a researcher on cancer gene therapy (PhD in 2005) for 11 years. Her strong interests in communication and project management drew her away from her London laboratory to PCDI, back to the Netherlands. As a project manager she now focuses on improved professional development of early career researchers. She is convinced that choices should be driven by motivation and not by limitations. PCDI is an excellent platform for her to create awareness of their possibilities and to provide a supportive network to identify positions that suit one’s interests and potential.
Science Management - Oksana Seumenicht, International Relations Officer, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin DE
Oksana is responsible for International Affairs at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin. Oksana's role involves initiation, development and support of the institute-level international cooperations, as well as facilitation and support (e.g. through the suitable funding information) of collaborations between individual researchers. For example, she has recently contributed to the writing of a successful grant for a joint PhD programme with Israel (SignGene). She joined the MDC in 2006 as a coordinator of the International PhD Programme 'Molecular Cell Biology' and played the key role in establishing the MDC Graduate School. Before moving to Germany, she worked in the UK as a research development officer (Cardiff University), being responsible for the research funding support and also technology transfer, and as a post-doc (UCL, Cardiff University and Oxford University).
Technology Transfer - Koen Verhoef, Technology Transfer Officer, Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), Amsterdam, NL
Koen earned his a PhD in Medicine from the University of Amsterdam (1999).
In 2001, following postdocs at the University of Heidelberg and at Oxford University, Koen started as a technology transfer manager with MRC Technology, the commercialization company of the Medical Research Council in London, UK.
In 2003 he moved back to the Netherlands where he founded the Technology Transfer Office at VUmc and subsequently at VU University. On 1 May 2009 he moved to NKI-AVL to head up the institute’s technology transfer office. His responsibilities include contract negotiations, patenting, licensing and spin-out formation. Koen is also active as a board member of ASTP, the European professional association for technology transfer.
In 2003 he moved back to the Netherlands where he founded the Technology Transfer Office at VUmc and subsequently at VU University. On 1 May 2009 he moved to NKI-AVL to head up the institute’s technology transfer office. His responsibilities include contract negotiations, patenting, licensing and spin-out formation. Koen is also active as a board member of ASTP, the European professional association for technology transfer.
Compliance - Katarzyna Kołodziej - Compliance Officer QA, Teva Netherlands, Haarlem, NL
Katarzyna Kołodziej is a compliance officer for Quality Assurance at the Dutch affiliate of the global pharmaceutical company, Teva. She is responsible for assessing the compliance of drug production procedures with various guidelines and registration files to ensure that products that are introduced to the market come from qualified manufacturers and are made of qualified ingredients. Compliance is part of the wider Quality Assurance career area, a growing careers area, which as well as an understanding of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) procedures and regulations, involves liaison and negotiation with regulatory affairs, logistics, contract manufacturers, and health authorities, making it a stimulating career away from the bench for solution- oriented person with an interest in the pharmaceutical industry.
Before joining Teva, Katy worked in a small company specializing in medical devices and has a background is cell biology and biochemistry. During her academic career she focused on transcription factors interactions and their function in chromatin regulation.
Before joining Teva, Katy worked in a small company specializing in medical devices and has a background is cell biology and biochemistry. During her academic career she focused on transcription factors interactions and their function in chromatin regulation.
European Science Policy – Magdalena Radwanska, Senior Scientific Officer for the Life, Environmental and Geo Sciences Scientific Committee, Science Europe, Brussels, BE
Dr Magdalena Radwanska obtained her PhD from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Her area of specialisation is immunology and molecular biology of infectious diseases. She continued her research at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium where she identified diagnostic gene markers for sleeping sickness. Subsequently, Dr Radwanska pursued an international research career in South Africa at the University of Cape Town and at the Tufts University, MA, USA. Dr Radwanska then worked for the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Geneva, managing projects in a R&D related to diagnostics and biomarker discovery for tropical neglected diseases. Afterwards she joined the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) in Brussels where she managed a large portfolio of COST Actions and strategic policy activities in Life Sciences. Currently, Dr Radwanska is the Senior Scientific Officer responsible for science policy in the Life, Environmental and Geo Sciences at Science Europe.
Scientific Publishing – Bernd Pulverer, Chief Editor of The EMBO Journal and Head of Scientific Publications, EMBO
Following undergraduate studies in Cambridge, Bernd Pulverer received his PhD in 1992 from the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London, for uncovering the posttranslational regulation of the transcription factors c-Jun and c-Myc by the JNK and MAP kinases. He carried out postdoctoral research at the Ontario Cancer Institute, Toronto, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle and at the University of Innsbruck. Bernd was senior editor at Nature from 1999 until 2002 and chief editor of Nature Cell Biology until he joined EMBO in 2009 as chief editor of The EMBO Journal and Head of Scientific Publications.
and Céline Carret, Editor, EMBO Molecular Medicine
Céline Carret completed her PhD at the University of Montpellier, France, characterising host immunodominant antigens to fight babesiosis, a parasitic disease caused by a unicellular Apicomplexan parasite closely related to the malaria agent Plasmodium. She further developed her post-doctoral career on malaria working at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK and Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon, Portugal. Céline joined EMBO Molecular Medicine as a Scientific Editor in March 2011.
Scientific Product Support / Sales – Zhong Yu Product Specialist, Promega BNL, NL
Participants can speak with representatives of up to 3 different career choices.
Register now to attend this networking lunch to avoid disappointment!