2. A European career: the academic part
Vocational training Work A-levels Work in UK
Start of Undergraduate Studies in Biochemistry
PhD in Proteomics
Imperial College, London (Natural Sciences)
>1,200 staff / 3,000 undergraduates /1,200
postgraduate students
natural sciences embedded with medical faculty
and hospitals / translation of research
European Molecular Biology Laboratory,
Heidelberg, Germany
>1,500 staff / >70 nationalities / 4 outstations
EMBL ranks no. 4 world-wide (after CSH, MIT,
Salk) institute in molecular biology & genetics*
>2000 collaborations world-wide
Located in Heidelberg, an
international city in the middle of
*1999-2009, Thomson Essential Science Indicators Europe 2
3. A European career: the industry part
› Addition of skill sets for drug
2002
Nature
2000
› Foundationwhile retaining 2000
discovery of Cellzome in 2004
Nat Cell Bio
› Started as proteomics platform
› International culture 2006
Nature
and is now a drug discovery
› High quality
company
2007
Nat Biotech
› Open, respectful, collaborrative
› World-leading chemoproteomics 2007
culture
platform
Nat Biotech
2009
› Financing through early venture Nature
capital and since 2004 through 2011
Nat Biotech
collaborations with big pharma 2011
2011 Nature
3
4. Industry or academia - family or career? –
Take the best of all worlds!
› Many moves from academia to industry and back:
› 9 Cellzomers are now professors/groupleaders in
academia
› Many moves from biotech to pharma:
› 10 people moved to big pharma
› Women careers: family or career?
› Higher availability of day care facilities for small kids
and (even in Germany) more all day schools
› First men take time off with their kids – perception
is changing
› Technology allows work from home more effectively
› Not the case for lab-based positions
› But: still few women in pharma or biotech
senior management
4
