Titus Talks

On the inaugural episode of Season 2 of Titus Talks, I’m excited to introduce my co-host for Season 2: Kathryn Hamilton. Kathryn is the Managing Editor of Bioeconomy.XYZ and the Co-Founder of the In Vivo Group. She thrives on working at the intersection of science, business, and art. As a science journalist and zealous storyteller, Kathryn integrates her passion for the scientific method and ethical business practices with crafting narratives that focus on the heart of our collective human experiences.

Today we get to talk about Kathryn’s path to working with Bioeconomy.XYZ, how to articulate a unique career path, and what she is looking forward to in this coming season of Titus Talks. 

Her advice in this episode? Find your ‘I dare you to do it’ person and choose how you define yourself carefully as give yourself the space to learn, make mistakes and grow.

Find Kathryn on LinkedIn.

Today I get to chat with Allison Bakovic, a PhD student at George Mason University and a virologist in the middle of a pandemic. Not only is Allison working hard to fight COVID-19, but she's starting to hunt for a job after grad school and we get to talk about the search, cool strategies, and some fun advice. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable!   

I hope you enjoy the conversation!  

Cheers,  

-Titus  

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— About Allison —  

— Let’s Chat —  

— The Social Life —  

Natalie wants to take biology to Mars. In order to get there, she's helping to build a biotech company that engineers phages, or little viruses that infect bacteria. Her long term goal? To be able to engineer the microbiome to keep people happy and healthy on the long trek across space. But Natalie's not going to wait for a Mars trip for adventure. She recently spent a year traveling around the world where she visited 28 countries and ate so much good food. 

For those of you that aren't familiar, phages are viruses that infect bacteria. Phage therapy is a method of using these little viruses to fight off infections that are antibiotic-resistant, or just darn stubborn and won't go away. The advances in synthetic biology lately have been making this more and more possible to use for good purposes. 

Like many of my guests, Natalie is a "jump in feet first" kind of person. We get to have a great conversation about how she applied to grad school in a field that she was not quite qualified for, she traveled the world for a year on a budget of $25K, she dove headfirst into management consulting to figure out the business world, and now she's trying to build a company. 

Her advice to us all? Find what you love and just do it. You don't have to know everything about what you're doing to start. :-)

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Cheers,

-Titus

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— About Natalie —

— Let’s Chat —

— The Social Life —

Patrick wants to retire on Mars. Talk about a great line for what you're goals are in life! In order to get to Mars thought, we need more than just rockets and metal - we need the ability to engineer and sustain life both on the ship and when on the Martian surface. So until we actually start heading to Mars, Patrick spends his time as a leader in the wildly successful synthetic biology company, Ginkgo Bioworks. 

Today, we get to sit down and discuss how Patrick grew up in rural Alaska and ended up in Boston as a biological engineer. He's had a phenomenal career ranging from MIT and Harvard, to startups and working closely with the government on issues related to pandemics and biosecurity. He even says his life from the Yukon River Delta has prepared him for retirement on Mars. 

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Cheers,

-Titus

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— About Patrick —

— Let’s Chat —

— The Social Life —

We're all tired of Zoom meetings, but can you imagine being in 1st grade and trying to learn everything?! Today I get to chat with one of my favorite people, my sister Angie Titus, who is a 1st-grade teacher and is now in the tough place of teaching our future scientists and engineers in the middle of the pandemic.   

Angie's always poured her heart and soul into her teaching, but now she's working to teach equity and awareness, group dynamics, how to share, and how to read and do math, all while asking 6-year olds to sit still at a computer screen.   

We had a great conversation about a ton of good resources. Angie recommends you check out these books for the best advice on how to be a bubble gum brain, how to have conversations about race, and how to teach your children the art of inquiry through the hearts and minds of little girls exploring the world.   

Remember to thank a teacher today. In a world turned upside down, their efforts are going to keep our next generation of scientists, engineers, artists, politicians, and master craftswomen and men on track to make the world a better place.   

I hope you enjoy the conversation! 

Cheers,  

-Titus  

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— Let’s Chat —  

— The Social Life —  

Today I get to have a great conversation with Ian Simon, a virologist turned science policy guru who has worked around the world to improve the way policymakers think about science and technology.   Right after finishing grad school, Ian found himself plunging feet first into the world of Korean science, but he approached it with full force. 

A whirlwind of time on the Hill and working to support the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) later, we sit down to talk about always taking the opportunity to say yes, and how he ended up an elected official representing 2,000 citizens of Washington, DC.   

Ian is a great example of the joys of unexpected opportunities, and he lives a life of saying yes to new experiences. When it comes to science policy, I'm glad we have people like Ian in the mix.   

And, fun fact, he used to work with Sara Carioscia!

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Cheers,

-Titus

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— About Ian —

— Let’s Chat —

— The Social Life —

Michelle Rozo has had an amazing career. Her passion for science was built from the ground up as a 7-year old studying bugs at summer camp, and now she's a biotechnology leader working in Washington, DC. If you would have asked her a few decades ago where she would end up, however, she never could have predicted it.   

Today we get to have an awesome conversation about stretching yourself in your career, taking opportunities when they come up, and always finding a way to fun with what you're doing.   

After finishing her PhD at Johns Hopkins, Michelle took a job as a post-doc for the Navy and eventually founder herself managing a clinical trial in Liberia after the Ebola outbreak in 2014-15. She brought the lessons she learned managing diverse teams to Capitol Hill where she worked as a Staffer in the Senate, focused on Pennsylvania healthcare policy. From there, she found herself at the State Department and eventually the Department of Defense as the Principal Director for Biotechnology.   

Every step along the way, shes build relationships, had a blast, and took every opportunity to stretch herself outside of her comfort zone.   

I hope you enjoy the conversation!    

Cheers,   

-Titus    

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— About Michelle —    

Michelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-rozo/ 

Michelle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Michelle_Rozo  

— Let’s Chat —   

THE BLOG: https://alexandertitus.com/   

YOUTUBE: https://alexandertitus.com/youtube

PODCAST: https://anchor.fm/1alexandertitus   

NEWSLETTER: https://alexandertitus.com/newsletter     

— The Social Life —    

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandertitus   

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/1alexandertitus   

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/1alexandertitus   

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/1AlexanderTitus

Everyone fears rejection. It stings, it can even hurt, and it's embarrassing. But is it the end of the world? Today I get to have an awesome conversation with a great friend of mine, Reza Hosseini Ghomi. 

If you took a snapshot of Reza's career, you would rightfully think he is wildly successful. He's been the co-founder of multiple startups, he's a practicing doctor, he has a wonderful family and his life is full of friends. What you wouldn't see is how he was rejected from med school twice after he recovered from cancer early in life.  

We all want to be perfect on our first try, but what Reza and I get to talk about is how that's just not realistic. But it is absolutely not the end of the world if you have to try twice, three times, or more. Not giving up is the key, because when you don't amazing things can happen.   

The best part is how we met. There I was, staring at a strange man in his underwear in my girlfriend's apartment when...  

You'll have to listen to the podcast to get the rest!  

I hope you enjoy the conversation!  

Cheers,  

-Titus  

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— About Reza —  

Reza on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rezahg/  

BrainCheck: https://braincheck.com/  

Avicenna: https://www.avicenna.care/  

His website: http://www.brainmindedmd.com/   

— Let’s Chat —  

THE BLOG: https://alexandertitus.com/  

YOUTUBE: youtube.com/alexandertitus  

PODCAST: https://anchor.fm/1alexandertitus  

NEWSLETTER: https://alexandertitus.com/newsletter   

— The Social Life —  

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandertitus  

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/1alexandertitus  

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/1alexandertitus  

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/1AlexanderTitus

The biotechnology industry is booming, and synthetic biology is the hottest topic of the decade. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Andrew Hessel and chatting about SynBio and the world of designer viruses. In today's world, COVID-19 dominates the discussion about viruses, but in reality, there are countless opportunities to use viruses as everything from new cancer therapies to understanding the human genome. 

On top of founding a synthetic virus company, Andrew is also the Founder and Chairman of the Genome Project Write, and complementary synthesis project to the human genome. The goal, write the human genome from scratch. Now we're a long way off before biology can do this, but it's within our grasp. 

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Cheers,

-Titus

--- About Andrew ---

Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhessel/

Andrew on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewhessel

GP-Write: https://engineeringbiologycenter.org/

Humane Genomics: https://www.humanegenomics.com/

His website: https://andrewhessel.com/

--- Let's Chat ---

THE BLOG: https://alexandertitus.com/

YOUTUBE: https://alexandertitus.com/youtube

PODCAST: https://alexandertitus.com/podcast

NEWSLETTER: https://alexandertitus.com/newsletter

--- The Social Life ---

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandertitus

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/1alexandertitus

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/1alexandertitus

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/1AlexanderTitus

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#biotech #biotechnology #biology #lifescience #lifesciences #science #research #DIYBio #CommunityBiology #STEM #Startups

People ask me all the time if a biotechnology PhD is required to be successful in the industry. Given I'm only half the conversation, I called a good friend, Joe Buccina, and we had a great conversation about careers in the biotechnology industry, and when and how a PhD benefits you. We also talked about when other routes are useful as well. The key take away, as in many of my discussions, is your network is the most powerful thing you have in your toolbox. Build your community, and they will help build you. 

Overall, it depends! I know, I know. That's a hard one, but hopefully, our conversation helps out a bit in the decision process! Either way, Joe's an amazing guy, and I recommend everyone knows him. ;-)

I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Cheers,

-Titus

--- About Joe ---

Joe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-buccina-622a925/

--- Let's Chat ---

THE BLOG: https://alexandertitus.com/

ARTICLE: https://alexandertitus.com/2020/06/16/phd-not-required/

YOUTUBE: https://alexandertitus.com/youtube

PODCAST: https://alexandertitus.com/podcast

NEWSLETTER: https://alexandertitus.com/newsletter

--- The Social Life ---

LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandertitus/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/1alexandertitus/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/1alexandertitus

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/1AlexanderTitus

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#biotech #biotechnology #biology #lifescience #lifesciences #science #research #DIYBio #CommunityBiology #STEM #Startups