Careers in Discovery

"In the first few years [of your career], what's really important is to establish yourself. You learn a certain skillset in academia...the next thing is to really apply that in the context of a drug discovery project....if you develop a proven track record as a good scientist, good things will happen."

Roland Burli is the Vice President of Drug Discovery at Cerevance, where he and his team are using a unique platform to develop new treatments for brain diseases.

Roland joined us to discuss his varied career to date, from landing in LA with just a backpack to working for some of the industry's biggest names.

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"[If you receive negative feedback] analyse it in a constructive way, then take away the good points that will help you to move forward. Outside of that, just move on."

Sree Vadlamudi is the Vice President of Business Development for the EU and Rest of World at Iktos, a company using AI to expedite drug discovery.

We talked to Sree about his career move from research into BD and how he approaches prospecting, outreach and relationship building in Biotech.

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"Scientists work on things they can't see and that probably will never work - but they keep going. Resilience is so important in this career."

Valentino Parravicini is the Chief Scientific Officer of Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, a company harnessing the power of the endocannabinoid system to treat severe, chronic pain.

Valentino joined us to talk about his career in academia, Pharma and Biotech, the 5,000 year history of cannabinoids as medicines, and why EVERY piece of information is important in science.

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"Academic freedom is a little like french fries - they're not really French, and it's not really freedom."

Yaniv Erlich is the CEO of Eleven Therapeutics, a global Biotech startup turning RNA drug development into a programmable process.

Yaniv talked to us about his journey from academia to the military and into Biotech, meeting Bill Gates and the importance of maintaining your optimism.

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"I think of raising money as making a sale...instead of selling a house, I'm selling you my dream. First, you have to target the people you will sell to, then you create awareness and establish rapport, without selling....it's an ongoing process that can take years."

Marcelo Bravo is the CEO of OxVax, a Biotech company building a next generation dendritic cell cancer vaccine platform to take a new approach to some of the biggest challenges in oncology.

Marcelo joined us to discuss his journey from Chemical Engineer to Biotech CEO, how the pandemic changed fundraising and the power of asking questions with an untrained eye.

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"Not everything is driven by innovation. It's actually timing that proves to be more important than anything else."

Farid Khan is the CEO and founder of PharmaKure, a Biotech company taking a novel approach to treating complex neurological diseases.

Farid talked us through his fascinating entrepreneurial career, along with the opportunity presented by repurposing drugs and the learning curve involved in starting and building a Biotech business.

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"I've always learned the most when things were the most difficult, and I try to remind myself of that when I'm in the middle of something that feels really challenging. They're the most satisfying situations when you solve them."

Clare Jones is the Chief Scientific Officer of Talisman Therapeutics, a Biotech company committed to revolutionising the discovery of disease-modifying treatments for neurodegenerative diseases using stem cell technologies.

Clare talked with us about her career in Biotech, taking jobs where you both bring something and learn something, and the importance of clear, ongoing communication.

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"If you can't prioritise, rationalise and simplify, then the low-hanging fruit is probably all you're going to get to...the only way to understand your way [to the difficult things] is by removing as much noise from the system as possible."

Jonny Finlay is the CEO and founder of LockBody Therapeutics, a Centessa company, where he and his team are developing a new kind of antibody to fight cancer.

Jonny talked to us about his career, the principle of radical simplicity and the relative advantages of big Pharma and startup Biotech.

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"It's so refreshing to have the science come first. Universities and their funding models have changed over the past ten years - there's a lot more admin and red tape...science almost takes a bit of a back seat. Ideas that are high risk don't always get backed, [but in Biotech] things get done."

Ali Tavassoli is the Chief Scientific Officer at Curve Therapeutics, a company developing a revolutionary intracellular screening platform to power drug discovery for challenging targets.

Ali joined us to talk about his career, balancing academic work with building a Biotech company, resisting the pressure to publish when tackling major scientific challenges, and why following the science is crucial in building your life's work.

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Darren Pitt is the Chief Scientific Officer of VisusNano, a company developing a novel drug-device combinationto treat issues surrounding cataract surgery, one of the most widely performed procedures in the world.

We talked to Darren about what these problems are and what he's learned in a varied career so far.

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