UAMS Biomedical Career Day Highlights Career Paths

By David Robinson

UAMS Graduate School Dean Robert McGehee, Ph.D., poses with UAMS graduate Kristy Nicks, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic and speaker at the Biomedical Career Day.

Nov. 4, 2011 | Graduate and undergraduate students alike pondered the possibilities presented Oct. 13 at the 14th Annual Biomedical Career Day hosted by the UAMS Graduate School.

Joseph Underwood, J.D., Ph.D., a senior contracts attorney at UAMS, tells how his science background aided his role examining patent applications for new scientific discoveries.

Biomedical Career Day drew 129 attendees from 12 colleges across Arkansas, including undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The event featured speakers and presentations discussing career and education options for Ph.D. graduates as well as a workshop on career development.

Among a slate of speakers was a perennial favorite who has come to speak at five of the 11 years of Career Days and represent careers in small biotechnology companies, Scott Struthers, Ph.D., president and chief scientific officer of San Diego-based Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Struthers emphasized how important it is for small companies like his to have creative, cutting-edge scientists be a part of teams focused on drug development. Struthers company is developing a drug to treat ovarian cancer. One of the side effects of the drug is sterility, he said, which is not an issue since most of the woment who develop ovarian cancer are beyond reproductive age.

Interestingly, this side effect has Struthers and Crinetics poised as a finalist for the $25 million Michelson Prize, an X Prize-like competition to produce an inexpensive oral agent to sterilize dogs and cats to decrease the number of animals that end up in animal shelters and euthanized each year.

Also this year, three UAMS alumni spoke about career options. Joseph Underwood, J.D., Ph.D., (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 2000), a senior contracts attorney at UAMS, told how his science background aided his role examining patent applications for new scientific discoveries.

Hollye Garner, Ph.D., (Pharmacology and Toxicology, 1996), a senior medical science liaison with Daaichi Sankyo, described her role as a critical educational interface between pharmaceutical companies and physicians for new drugs. Kristy Nicks, Ph.D., a research fellow at the Mayo Clinic, detailed her process for choosing a postdoctoral position.

Underwood said that while earning his biochemistry degree, he was influenced by a mentor who was business oriented and said that new discoveries had both a scientific benefit and a financial benefit. “That was in the back of my mind through graduate school and so I wondered if I wanted to become a patent attorney,” he said.

Garner, also a speaker at the 2006 Career Day, talked about her ability to set her own schedule, and enjoyment of traveling and opportunities to interact with key thought leaders around the country as major determinants in choosing her career as a medical liaison. She entered the field in its infancy 15 years ago and has helped forge the way and set standards for this unique and exciting career.

Nicks said visiting research conferences, followed by a rigorous interview process, allowed her to choose between opportunities at the Mayo Clinic and another university. She said a postdoctoral position is an opportunity for continued growth in knowledge and skill, and students considering one should “look for the place that allows the maximum growth for you.”

Wanting to continue her research experience with a postdoctoral fellowship, Nicks began looking at possibilities while she was finishing her doctoral degree in physiology and biophysics at UAMS. She said attending conferences and other events helped her find her niche and she began looking for opportunities related to either bone biology or reproductive endocrinology.

She visited potential locations and went through the interview process. She also talked to her mentor, colleagues and those familiar with the programs.

Nicks advised those considering a postdoctoral fellowship to consider which postdoctoral opportunity offered more chances for career development, research authorships and other job expectations. Also, she said, think about the rewards and challenges of a particular program, such as access assisting with clinical trials, lab atmosphere and potential changes in job responsibilities over time.

“You might go in thinking you are going to do one thing but that may not be how it pans out,” Nicks said.

In the end she was offered two fellowships, so she talked to advisors, potential coworkers, family and friends and even made a list of pros and cons before making a decision.

Underwood said there are many legal applications and documents in the area of scientific research. There are patents and licensing agreements that protect intellectual property and the ability to profit from it. There are clinical trial agreements, informed consent and privacy documents for patients who participate in research trials. All are critical to the research process and detailed, he said.

“Most scientists who go into law are going to practice patent law,” Underwood said. “Scientific knowledge is very useful in drafting patent applications.”

Showing a slide with an example of a patent, Underwood pointed out the level of detail in the descriptions and language used. Intellectual property law protects the rights of scientists while also encourages public disclosure of inventions, he said, which promotes opportunities for improvement and useful advances in the sciences.

Underwood said he enjoys his work, but cautioned: “If you want to get out of science because you don’t like to read and write grant applications, don’t forget that the law involves a lot more reading and writing.”

Other Career Day speakers included Argelia Lorence, Ph.D., associate professor in metabolic engineering at Arkansas State University, who related her experiences at a predominantly undergraduate institution where she gets a lot of opportunity to follow two of her passions: research and teaching. Barry Komm, Ph.D., senior director of medical affairs at Pfizer, discussed the role of scientists in large pharmaceutical companies, and presented a comparison with academia, where he spent the first half of his career.

The day closed with tours of UAMS for the undergraduate attendees hosted by UAMS graduate students along with a career development workshop for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows led by Philip S. Clifford, Ph.D., professor of anesthesiology and physiology and associate dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Clifford’s workshop, “Begin with the end in mind: planning for a successful career in science,” was an interactive program on setting and achieving goals and development of individual training plans.

“This event may go down as one the best ever,” said Robert E. McGehee Jr., Ph.D., dean of the UAMS Graduate School. “Students need to know that earning a Ph.D. creates a world of amazingly diverse and exciting opportunities for them that they may never have known.

“I see it as our responsibility to make them aware of these opportunities. Every year we bring in outstanding speakers, but this year we literally had an all-star team of incredibly successful scientists across a variety of high-level careers.”