Career Snapshots
Career Snapshots, a collaboration between Naturejobs and Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, feature people associated with drug discovery and drug development, with the aim of providing expert insights and advice on a wide range of positions and career paths in this field.
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Career Snapshots Articles
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May 2008
Vaccine research
Vaccine R&D has been revitalized recently in part owing to major commercial successes and increased incentives for products that address neglected disease.
April 2008
Intellectual property
Two patent attorneys discuss their careers involving intellectual property related to the biopharma industry.
March 2008
Biotech education
Key skills and business knowledge that are important for success in biotechnology are often acquired on the job rather than taught, but programmes that provide formal training in the field are becoming increasingly popular worldwide.
February 2008
From industry to academia
Growing recognition of the importance of translational research is providing new opportunities to apply expertise gained in industry in academic institutions.
January 2008
Biotech research
Jeff Browning and Steve Elliott, who have been with major biotech companies for more than two decades, discuss their experiences in conducting research in this environment.
December 2007
Antiviral drug discovery and development
New drugs have transformed the treatment of viral infections - in particular, HIV - in the past two decades. Joseph Vacca and David Burger discuss their roles in this field.
November 2007
Drug safety
Julie Barnes and Craig Hartford explain their roles in efforts to improve the understanding of safety issues during drug development and post-approval.
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October 2007
Tools and technologies
André Choulika and John Harris highlight the challenges of building a biopharma-focused company based on a technology or service.
September 2007
Medical communications
Archontoula Stoffel and Cathryn Berry discuss the skills involved in the field of medical communications, which might provide attractive alternative career opportunities for scientists, pharmaceutical executives and health-care professionals.
August 2007
Assay development
Thomas Meek and Gérard Mathis, who have both been involved in assay development for high-throughput screening since its inception, discuss what attracts them to working in this field.
July 2007
The art of partnering
George Rahim and Sarah Carty discuss some of the skills that are needed to build successful partnerships in the biopharma industry and explain how they became involved in their roles in this area.
June 2007
Entrepreneurial experiences
Sunil Shaunak, Steve Brocchini and Emmanuel Maille describe their experiences and highlight some of the lessons they've learned when creating and building a company.
May 2007
Life at the interface
Susan Gasser and Jack Secrist, leaders of research institutes that have close associations with the pharma industry, discuss the attractions and challenges in working at the academia-industry interface and the factors that they consider important for success.
April 2007
Building bioclusters
Joe Panetta and Richard Schwab highlight what attracts them to cooperative initiatives to foster the translation of biomedical research to commercial applications, and discuss the challenges involved.
March 2007
Computational chemistry
Yvonne Martin and Brian Shoichet discuss what attracts them to working on computational strategies to help identify molecules that might fulfil the stringent criteria necessary to become a drug.
February 2007
Benchside to business
Eric Schmidt and Dina Chaya discuss finance-related careers that involve scientific companies, which might be an attractive option for researchers looking to move from the bench to the business world.
January 2007
Creating a company
Alice Huxley and Dominic Behan discuss their experiences and highlight factors that have been important for success in building a biopharma company.
December 2006
Regenerative medicine
Stephen Minger and Joydeep Goswami describe how they have come to focus on the science and business aspects of stem-cell research, respectively.
November 2006
Making the right move
Jean Deregnaucourt and Alan Lewis highlight some of the factors that were important for them when making major career moves.