Career Talks
Lilit Nersisyan (Founding Director of the Armenian Bioinformatics Institute)
Talk: "Nurturing roots of bioinformatics and genomics in Armenia"
Lilit Nersisyan holds a PhD degree from the Institute of Molecular Biology in Armenia and Leipzig University in Germany from 2017. Her thesis was focused on the development and application of computational approaches to investigate telomere length and sequence regulation in aging and cancers. Later, she has been a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Science for Life Laboratory and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. There she and colleagues developed a new approach to the identification of fast bacterial responses to antibiotics in complex microbiome communities based on the analysis of mRNA degradation patterns. In 2021, Lilit returned to Armenia and became the founding director of the Armenian Bioinformatics Institute (ABI), a Scientific Educational Foundation established to address the lack of bioinformatics experts in the country. Presently, Lilit also leads research teams at ABI and the Institute of Molecular Biology in Armenia.
Markus Lechner (Principal Scientist, Biotech Startup "Eisbach Bio")
Talk: "Big Pharma to Biotech"
"I got my MSc in Disease Biology at the University of Constance, Germany and joined the DKFZ in Heidelberg for an external Master thesis. I then obtained my PhD in Immunology from the Helmholtz Center Munich, studying the developmental processes of B cell maturation and differentiation. I decided to turn down interesting offers for academic postdoc positions and decided to join big pharma as a scientist in Pharma and Early Development at Roche Diagnostics, working on an interesting internal innovation project in a small x-functional team. After almost two years, I switched gears to join an uprising Biotech Startup Eisbach Bio as a Principal Scientist and Head of Laboratory. Here, I can contribute basically to the whole process of drug development from early idea, pre-clinical development all the way to clinical studies."
Tim Nierhaus (Structural Biologist, GSK)
Talk: "Being a structural biologist at GSK"
"I obtained my BSc and MSc in Medical Biology from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. For the second year of my master’s, I joined the lab of Dr. Jan Löwe at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, supported by the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung). Funded by a Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds PhD fellowship, I stayed in Dr. Löwe’s lab to obtain my PhD in Biological Science working on the in vitro reconstitution of bacterial cell division processes using X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM. During a subsequent 2-year postdoc, I worked on cryo-EM studies of archaeal cell division in collaboration with the group of Dr. Buzz Baum. End of 2022, I joined the Structural and Biophysical Sciences Department at GSK Stevenage, focusing on the structural characterisation of biopharmaceuticals."
Sara Osman (Senior Editor, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology)
Talk: "A career as a scientific editor"
Sara Osman joined the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology, which brought her to Göttingen where she gained her first lab experience during lab rotations in X-ray crystallography, protein biochemistry and NMR spectroscopy. She did her PhD work on the structural biochemistry and cryo-EM of the Mediator complex in Pol II transcription regulation, with Patrick Cramer at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. Her interest in gene regulation then led her to study epigenetic silencing of chromatin in yeast with Ann Ehrenhofer-Murray in Berlin. Sara joined Nature Structural & Molecular Biology in 2021.[1]
Katherine Wood (Development Scientist, Oxford Nanopore)
Talk: "A new direction: transitioning from academia to industry"
"I studied Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, UK as my undergraduate degree, before moving to the University of Manchester, UK to read a PhD in Genetic Medicine under the supervision of Professors William Newman and Ray O’Keefe. After successful completion of my doctoral studies, I returned to Oxford to work as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Molecular Medicine. Following the birth of my first child, I made the decision to leave academia and took up a position as a Development Scientist in the Sequencing Chemistry Development team at Oxford Nanopore Technologies, where I have been ever since. I am passionate about translating our understanding of basic biochemical processes to the real world, as well as advocating for scientific outreach and public engagement, and supporting women in STEM subjects."
Workshops
Sarah Blackford (PhD Career Consultant)
Workshop 1: "Effective career choices"
Workshop 2: "Effective self-presentation"
Sarah Blackford is a qualified academic careers adviser (MA, Warwick University), MBTI practitioner and an honorary teaching fellow (Lancaster University). A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), Sarah specialises in providing career development support to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers and has been delivering career workshops and one-to-one coaching for over 20 years in research institutions, universities, EU consortia and doctoral training programmes. Sarah’s career workshops are well-renowned for being both informative and enjoyable, with plenty of opportunity for discussion as well as individual reflection. Broadly based on her book, ‘Career planning for research bioscientists’, much of her advice and resources are also published on her blog, www.biosciencecareers.org. As a registered practitioner with the Career Development Institute and active member of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS), Sarah adheres to a recognised ethical code of practice.
Speed Dating
On Monday, there are two timeslots reserved for speed dating: In small groups of partipants, you'll have the chance to meet the Career Fair speakers and ask them what you always wanted to know about their job and which career advice they can give you.
