The other side

I’m planning to start working for a company, or ‘move into industry’ as we scientists call it. I am not absolutely decided on this, but with each passing day I become more tempted. Traditionally, amongst academic scientists, moving from academia to industry has been seen by many as ‘selling out’. You do it either because you want to make more money, or because you can’t make it as an academic scientist. Neither is viewed favourably. Large pharmaceutical companies are painted as the evil side of research, turning beautiful science into a commodity for FINANCIAL GAIN. I think this attitude is becoming less prevalent, but it’s still there. And it’s a shame.

We need biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to take the discoveries we make and turn them into something useful. If this is not our ultimate goal, then what is? Biology is increasingly being utilised to tackle real world problems beyond just health and disease. Synthetic biology (discussed previously in this blog), uses biology to design new systems and organisms that can synthesise useful products such as biofuels, or breakdown waste or toxic products. Fundamental knowledge of gene regulation and cellular metabolism (gained from basic research) is required to engineer new biological ‘machines’. Much research in this area takes place in small start-up companies started by scientists and business people who are passionate about bringing discoveries to bed-side, or fuel pump.

My own decision to (maybe) leave academic research comes partly from wanting to work towards a more defined and useful goal, and partly out of a desire for change. I have gone from being super enthusiastic about my area of research, to being a little bit bored of it, to being ready to change fields entirely, in quite a short space of time. All the aspects of the job I used to think romantic and marvellous – freedom to follow any line of investigation, lack of immediate deadlines, no clients – are starting to feel indulgent. If you stay working in academia, the ultimate career goal is to start your own lab working on your own niche area of research. This should be in some way distinct from that of other scientists, so you can justify getting grant money from research councils to fund your work. In order to progress with your research you usually need to stay pretty focused on one particular area, and so you need to be both passionate and loyal to your piece of science. It turns out I am not very scientifically loyal.

I think being an academic scientist is a fantastic job, with many brilliant people making amazing discoveries every day. They will do just fine without me.

Disclaimer: I currently know very little about the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry and so these are just my ill-informed opinions.