By Jim Shamp, News and Publications Editor
When molecular geneticist and microbiologist Shobha Parthasarathi, Ph.D., traded in her lab coat for a business suit, she walked through doors that were more than an exit from academia and an entrance to industry.
It was a portal to a whole new way of experiencing science – and life.
Now Parthasarathi says she’s delighted that she had the chance to find her personality, interests and talents well suited for the deadline-driven, teamwork-oriented demands of being an industrial scientist.
And as technology development director and fellowship program director with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s Business and Technology Development Program, she says she’s delighted to be managing a new Biotechnology Center fellowship program that will open similar kinds of doors for academic scientists around the Tar Heel state.
The NCBC Industrial Fellowship Program is designed to help postdoctoral scientists from the state's research universities do what Parthasarathi did – transition into industry R&D careers. In the process, it will retain home-grown research talent by providing work experience in North Carolina's life-science companies. It is designed to fill a gap for scientists in need of industry experience as well as for companies in need of scientific expertise.
Parthasarathi came to the Biotechnology Center four months ago after working as a fellow at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the Boston-area biotechnology company, she said in a recent interview, “I found that I really enjoyed the new challenges and opportunities of the business environment, while also doing drug discovery research with a product in mind – even with patients in mind.”
“Here I was, in Massachusetts, surrounded by scientists from all these prestigious universities, and I chose to go to a company with 200 people,” she said. “Some people might think that strange, but when I got there as a postdoctoral fellow I was still surrounded by people from Harvard, MIT, Yale, you name it. But the experience was much broader. I gave presentations to representatives of six major pharmaceutical companies, and to scientific conferences. That’s not something most academic postdocs get to do. And I also was introduced to the stock market on a personal level.” She also experienced amazing corporate growth as Millennium expanded to more than 3,000 employees during her seven years there.
North Carolina's universities conferred 280 Ph.D. degrees in the life sciences in 2006. Graduates aiming for academic research careers must then complete one or more postdoctoral fellowships to compete for junior faculty positions. The state's universities presently employ roughly 3,000 postdoctoral fellows. Yet only 25 to 50 percent of them will ultimately be hired for tenure-track, academic faculty positions -- rarely at the university that provided the postdoctoral training.
"Not surprisingly, many freshly minted Ph.D. scientists and postdoctoral fellows are considering futures in industry," said Rob Lindberg, Ph.D., R.A.C., director of the Biotechnology Center's Business Acceleration and Technology Out-licensing Network (BATON) program, who led the development of the fellowship program. "But unlike degree programs in fields such as engineering, law or business, graduate and post-graduate scientific training programs do not typically provide exposure to the world outside of academia as a formal component of the training."
There's a bottleneck, according to Parthasarathi. Mid-level scientific positions typically require both postdoctoral training and commercial experience, she said, yet few companies provide transitional opportunities. Moreover, there is little consensus as to what constitutes an entry-level corporate position for a Ph.D. scientist with no industry experience. Many small- and mid-size companies can only afford to hire researchers as either technicians or as senior scientists. Ph.D. scientists coming out of academia are often dismissed as being overqualified for technical jobs but not qualified enough for senior positions.
To facilitate the connection between scientist and company, the Biotechnology Center will provide two years of salary and benefits for five NCBC Industrial Fellowship recipients per year. Eligible sponsors are North Carolina biotechnology companies that are engaged in discovery or contract research. The company must provide a senior scientist to mentor the fellow.
Fellows are Ph.D. scientists who are hired by the sponsor company as full-time employees. Additionally, NCBC fellows will have access to programs in business, intellectual property, regulatory affairs and other areas to complement their training.
Five sponsoring companies will be chosen by the Biotechnology Center for the first year of the program. The Biotechnology Center will collect scientists' applications and forward them to the chosen companies for final selection.
The Biotechnology Center is accepting applications from sponsoring companies until July 15. Details and applications for companies and fellowship candidates are available at www.ncbiotech.org/fellowship.
“We hope these fellows, trained in the sciences of biotechnology, will eventually drive the business of biotechnology throughout North Carolina,” said Parthasarathi. “We want alumni from this fellowship program, some day, to go on to become CEOs, venture capitalists, (chief scientific officers), all here in North Carolina. Many careers will open to them once they get more understanding of what’s available.”
“You can become infused with that entrepreneurial spirit by being in industry,” she said. “If you’re in that subset of scientists interested in this kind of thing – and you know if you are one – it gets into you. And it can be both intellectually stimulating and financially lucrative.”