Smile, it's 2014.:)

Over the last few years I’ve come to identify (most of) my strengths and weaknesses and whiles I’m capitalising on my strengths, I’m working to improve  the shortfalls. The aim is not to be a perfectionist in myself but to make the most of my ability and come to the place where I can turn the music off and turn out the light.  Is there such a place of utopia? I believe so and when you find it you can look back and be content.

Many at times, I come across individuals who lament about how they would rather be in a different place or pursue a different life / career path. Many in a place of uncertainty and others full of woe. Being in limbo or at a point of uncertainty is a gloomy place to be and it takes a lot of will and positive outlook to keep smiling. I know because I’ve been there and I’m sure some of you have been too. But if you are the type who believes the universe is unfolding as it should, then change whatever the magnitude makes no difference.  If you are the happy go lucky type who always count your blessings and give thanks for the silver lining then again the smile hardly fades away.  You may not be at your destination but you are still here. So think back to the last time you experienced a radiant smile and how infectious the effect.  That smile is not to say I’m floating on the clouds but rather I’m making lemonade out of my lemons.

The New Year may just be another day but for me it serves as a reference point, a point of reflection, new beginnings and closed chapters. It serves as a reminder to assess the previous year’s events, mistakes made and lesson’s learnt. Many make resolutions, others set goals, some just prod on and a few don’t get the chance.  But whatever your take on the New Year, ask yourself, what would I be remembered for tomorrow? Would I be the guy with the gloomy face, or the lady with the radiant smile?

As you carry on with life, remember that it’s all about choices (and priorities) and which ever way you go there will be consequences be it positive or negative. If you second guess yourself, then think twice. The number of times you know what the right thing to do is but you still find every excuse to do anything but the obvious just because it’s not what you want it to be.

Don’t be the author of your own demise; I’ve been guilty of this too.  We tend to hold ourselves back from our worth. You notice the mountain and suddenly conclude there’s no way I’m getting to the top. Truth is, if only you climbed up the first mound you’d realise you have a natural flair for climbing. Confidence (not arrogance) and self belief can work wonders.

Most important of all, be yourself.

So we are entering the New Year and I’m still smiling. I’m content with 2013 and excited about 2014. I’m working through my weakness and utilising my talents. I’m still the same old me facing a new day.

Happy New Year to you all!!! 

What advise would you give your 14 year old self?

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of taking part in a professional women’s day event organised by a local school. The idea was to showcase non stereotypical careers to year 9’s in hope of broadening their mindset on career choices. I was personally impressed with the selection of professions represented appreciating the fact that it’ll be almost impossible to have representation from every single profession under one roof.

Aside myself, as the Scientist / researcher, a few of the other professionals I spoke to were policewomen, bankers, human resource personnel and engineers.

I must say however that in my experience, as much as we had a diverse selection of professions on display, there always seem to be a lack of medics, dentists and vets at these events. 

Through the day I pondered over the end result of events like these and how effective they actually are in setting examples for our young girls (and boys).  I personally never had any decent career advice or a particular role model who influenced my career choices (a post for another day). I do have professional parents so it was what I knew and the default way to go.

How does one judge how effective these public engagement events are in influencing the ambitions of the next generation and raising aspirations? I concluded that the purpose was a case of leadership by example in hope that 20 years down the line one successful pupil will comment and say “I met a young professional lady at 14 and thought to myself, if she achieved it, then I can do it too. That is certainly what I thrive on today.

I’ve come to identify successful women role models whose achievements I applaud and aspire to follow suit or at least try to.

Reality is, the journey up one’s career ladder is never setting stone. You look out for opportunities, spot an opening and strive to make the most of it. This is the message we should be homing in to our young girls. Fact is it’s a man’s worlds and we have to go the extra mile. As one of my role models once said to me, it’s all good and well saying we need more women in certain professions but truth is most women want the family life and that is where sacrifices are made. “It is for the employers to change their practices not the women”. Work should be about quality not the quantity. I can deliver just as well working part time, working from home, or taking a career break.  You probably end up getting more done within your time frame knowing you haven’t got the luxury to spare.

The girls asked me during the professional women’s day – What advise would you give your 14 year old self? My response, – Focus on making the grades, be flexible, look out for opportunities and be ready to go the extra mile. 

Gripping (bio)science headlines of 2013

HoHoHo!, it's that time of the year again for assessments and reviews. In line with the good old "top 10" tradition, here are my picks on memorable Science headlines of 2013.

1. Cultured beef  -This had to be the top of the pick. Live broadcast of the first ever cultured beef being cooked and tasted. I'd hate to have been on the tasting panel.  
2. HIV returns - Hopes of a cure for HIV through bone marrow transplant were dashed after two trial subjects saw the virus return months after scientists thought they had been cured. Devastating news but the quest for a cure for HIV continues.
3. A product of nature - In a land mark ruling by a USA supreme court in June this year, genes cannot be patented meaning no biotech / pharma can claim IP on genes discovered based on the fact that it is a product of nature. Fair ruling if you ask me. 
4. DNA at 60 - The famous double helical structure which defines our genetic makeup and has since led to tremendous milestones in molecular biology celebrated it's diamond jubilee in April. Kudos to Watson and Crick.
5. MRC @100yrs - The medical research council had a year long of centenary celebrations marking its significant contributions to medical research 100 years on. Best initiative was opening up their doors to the community. Catch up with the storify.    
6. G8 dementia summit - The UK government hosted the first ever dementia summit in December where all countries represented left with a promise to work together towards a cure by 2025. The dementia challenge has been set and researchers are ready to fight back. 
7. All Trials Campaign -  A cause worth mentioning. All trials registered, all results reported is an ongoing campaign initiated by a few individuals/ organisations in January this year to get all clinical trials registered and results reported. Although faced with resistance from some Pharma, many have signed on to the campaign and the future looks bright.  
8. Noble prize - Scientist are always speculating about who gets the next noble prize. This year's award for physiology and medicine went jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells. 

Special mention goes to Rover mars, artificial liver, sight returned in blind mice and the first UK hand transplant. What headlines do you have resonating on your mind. Do share!.Cheerio 2013, Hello 2014.

Is money deciding the future careers of our pupils? – A biology week experience.

The second annual Biology week established by the society of biology took place last week from the 13^th – 19^th of October 2013. There were lots of exciting events happening across the nation. My favourite of these was the 24hr lecturethon on ants and bees given by Professor Adam Hart from the University of Gloucestershire. I personally tuned in to the live webcast about 2am on the Monday morning and there he was passionately talking about giant ant hills, the intricate homes of wasps and honey facts. He even had an international audience skyping in from Singapore and South Korea despite a few glitches with the connection.

As a member of the society I thought I may as well do my bit in support of biology week. I arranged a visit with my local Basildon academy to give a talk to the year 10’s about biology careers with the help of my fellow keen biology volunteers.  

Pupils in awe of the diverse careers in Biology

We were allocated a double period to excite our pupils and we came away with a mutual feeling of content. The pupils were very engaging and gave positive feedback about the talk.  

The Wellcome trust has some great resources on Biology careers which we adapted for the day. Although the video itself doesn't do justice to the subject matter, it showcased some unconventional choices which was good.  In the video, the curious student chats to a handful of professionals and the issue of pay arises. None of the interviewees gave a clear succinct answer though which made me wonder why? I concluded that they probably didn't want knowledge of their income in the public domain. Still a rough estimate or range would be useful. 

During the course of the talks, the one question that kept arising was the pay grade of the various roles that were exhibited. Although some of these questions may have been an attention seeking ploy, truth is, it helps to know. Nonetheless these questions stirred up a worrying concern in me.  

I worried because the keen desire to know the pay scales made me wonder whether money was becoming the motivation for our youngsters in contemplating future careers.  I may be the odd case but money was certainly not on the table when I stepped into science. I chose science because it was and still is the only subject that makes sense to me.  A role based on facts not theory (although arguably maths is the only factual subject) and I could relate to the subject in real life scenarios.

With the direction the world economy is heading and the rising cost of education I suppose one has to be wise in making decisions that will impact directly on ones future status.  After all, every investment deserves a positive return. So next time we go enticing the next generation of scientist, let’s be sure to mention the price tags.   

It doesn’t hurt to know and I have made note to provide this information in my future talks.  I do however think that it is important to point out to our young ones that roles evolve and the primary motivation to pursuing a selected path should be interest rather than wealth.  Adapting the famous quote, if you care for animals like Picasso painted you have a pretty good chance of being a wealthy zookeeper.  

I'm keen to hear your thoughts on the matter and to find out if my fellow STEM ambassadors have had similar experience.

Press Release

OBR to launch the 2014 OneStart £100K business competition for Life Sciences

Applications are invited from young enthusiastic Life Science Entrepreneurs for an opportunity to turn cutting edge research into a business plan. The winner receives a £100K no-string-attached start- up funding and free lab space to turn their innovative idea into a business.

Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable (OBR) has once again partnered with SR One to launch OneStart, a £100K biotech business competition. OneStart is the biggest competition of its kind and aims to launch the next generation of bio-entrepreneurs.

This year, there are two parallel competitions running in Europe and the Americas. The competition will be run in stages and covers four tracks: drug discovery, medical devices, diagnostics and health IT.  

Applications for the first round of submissions are now open and close on the 15^th of December 2013 at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time.  

Entrants must be under 35 years old as at 1^st January 2014 and can be individuals or a team.  The idea should be innovative and have an impact on health care. 35 Semi-finalist will be selected to attend an intensive business start-up workshop with the help of industry professionals. 10 finalists will be invited to pitch their business plan to a panel of experience biotech investors and the winner will be awarded the £100K prize investment.

Launch events for OneStart Europe are scheduled to take place in London, Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool.

Further information including launch dates, entry requirements, building a team and the application process is available at http://www.oxbridgebiotech.com/onestart/

Contact

onestart@oxbridgebiotech.com

Notes for editors

Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable is a campus led initiative established to bridge the gap between academia and industry. It seeks to strengthen communication channels between the two sectors through a mutualistic relationship of networking, education and consultancy.

SR One is the venture capital arm of GSK investing globally in promising emerging Life Science companies working on innovative science which will significantly impact health care.

Why I support the #AllTrials Campaign and you should too.

Did you know that about half of clinical trial data have not been published? 

In January this year, Ben Goldacre together with sense about Science launched the #AllTrials campaign to persuade pharmaceutical companies to register and publish the data collected from clinical trials. This initiative is to equip clinicians and other health professionals to be better informed when prescribing/ recommending medications. Researchers, patients and doctors need to know what was done and what they found, to make decisions about which treatment is best. Without registering trial data, vital information on the findings could be lost forever. If health professionals had access to this information patient centric treatment can be better enhanced.

Listen to Ben Goldacres’ TED talk on "what doctors don’t know about the drugs they prescribe".

There are lots you can do to support the campaign. Get Involved

1. If you have not signed the petition, please do here http://www.alltrials.net/

2. You can also donate to the campaign here http://www.justgiving.com/alltrials

This is a global movement and we need more international organisations to sign up. So spread the word to your friends, employers and colleagues and help get all trials registered and results published.

Ada Lovelace - Female English Mathematician

Ada Lovelace is the perfect role model to showcase to our young ladies today who may be wondering why on earth anyone should bother with maths. Born in an era where women around the world were fighting for equal rights in many aspects of daily living including education, Ada had the privilege of being privately tutored and she developed an interest for mathematics from an early age.

Married at 19 and mother of three, she sadly passed on at the age of 36 after battling uterine cancer.

Arguably the world's first computer programmer for her work on 'notes', Ada Lovelace day is celebrated today to recognise the achievements of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Find out about Ada here and join in the selection of events around the world.

You're all different: Creating your own career

Its 2013 and the economy is not that great. These were the familiar words from Eva Amsen of F1000 research at the recent NatureJobs Careers Expo as she showcased the successful career stories of fellow scientist. Her point being that you may have a plan in mind but the reality is not as straight forward. With her talk themed, 'You're all different: Creating your own career', Eva gave a gripping and engaging presentation on the diversity in science careers.

From academia to science writing to self-employment, Eva shared the journeys of selected scientist and the diverse routes their paths had taken as they embarked on their careers.  Speaking about herself, she told of how her specialty in science and culture looked dim after her PhD when cuts were being made and freelancing opportunities dried up. She had to readjust and ended up in publishing.   

However you interpret this, it summarises how bad things have gotten from as far back as 2006 and the challenges some graduates are still facing today. (Image by byJasonVarney for TheScientist, 2006)

A story that stands out is that of Douglas Prasher who seemed to be on a fairly stable academic path until he could no longer secure funding for his research. He left academia for industry and was doing quite well until he lost his job and ended up as a shuttle bus driver. He made a significant contribution to research during his time in academia but unfortunately missed out on receiving the noble prize in medicine for a discovery he pioneered. He has since been invited back to research. The full story may be accessed here. 

As extreme as Dr Prasher’s story may sound a lot of graduates can relate to this from their own experiences.    

On the flip side Ethan Perlstein of perlstein lab decided to take matters into his own hands when efforts to secure funds for his research after his time at Princeton and Harvard was becoming difficult. He took the bold initiative of crowd funding to run his own research project on 'the location of methamphetamine on the brain'. He now has an independent lab where he’s researching on various diseases.

For all the attentive attendees the message was clear. We are all different and your career path lies in your hands. People have secured jobs today that were non existent yesterday and some more will do tomorrow just from doing what they love. Eva did an excellent job of highlighting opportunities to create your own career from the success stories of ordinary people. Her talk set the atmosphere for the day as she ended by saying... 

“At a conference the most important things happen in the coffee break. (…) The most important things happen in interstitial spaces, they happen in between, and they happen when we least expect it.” -Hans Ulrich Obrist (art curator)

so off we went networking 

Full lecture slides below 

You're All Different - Creating your own career from Eva Amsen

Why the current science degree needs a revamp

A study by Vitae on the destination of doctoral students showed that about half of doctoral graduates are employed outside higher education (HE) ^{1, 2}.

The report stated that only 19% of doctoral graduates were employed as research staff in HE and that only 22% were teaching or lecturing in HE. On the other hand,13% were in research roles (not in HE), 6% were in wider teaching occupations outside HE, 27% were in other common non-teaching doctoral occupations outside HE, for example, working as health professionals, and 14% were categorised in other occupations e.g. sales roles ².

With less than 50% of doctoral graduates working in higher education, be it as research or teaching staff, it comes as no surprise that at almost every science careers focussed conference I attend, there are talks on the lack of professors and how many PhD graduates stray from the field of academia. The number of professors continues to diminish while the latter (PhD graduates) is growing exponentially.

Although the number of PhD places has increased worldwide over the years³, desire among undergraduates and professionals for doctoral qualifications has also increased substantially, making places in reality even more competitive. With such highly competitive PhD places and so many applicants, are schools offering the right career advice and are supervisors picking the right candidates?

The idea of the intense PhD process is to groom one into the world of research and academia. Over the three – five-year period, students find a niche area of interest whiles developing valuable skills necessary for a life of teaching and research. With the increasing number of doctoral graduates however, universities lack the capacity to employ them all. Where positions are available there is no job security due to precarious funding opportunities.

The industry and other sectors however, also value and appreciate the transferable skills possessed by PhD graduates. As such, a significant percentage of industrial job adverts now consider having a PhD as essential. With the job crisis lurking over employment these days, I believe PhD graduates have no choice but to be flexible and hence cast their nets wide and across board. The tedious process of grant applications, the lack of job security and funding play a key role in deterring the once enthusiastic PhD academics from pressing on in this field⁴. There are only a few handfuls who remain persistent in securing an academic position. 

But how does one identify our future professors? I believe the answer lies in the structure of the Science degree.  I have come across a few individuals who have shared their experience of starting a PhD and deciding it was not their cup of tea after all. Although there is no official published data on PhD drop outs, studies have suggested attrition rates of up to 50%^5,6.

Transiting from a degree to a PhD is almost like going from cycling to driving a truck. The change in experience is sharp and there is the danger that inadequate preparation can lead to a traumatic experience.

It is for this reason that I believe the science degree needs a revamp from three to four years to incorporate a research rotational year. This will ensure that the right candidates, who have the desire for hours of teaching, countless submissions of papers, presentations, proposals and grant applications, will be offered a chance to gain the appropriate experience. This way, students get to have a feel of independent research as opposed to the shadowed research experience generally gained at the undergraduate level now.

Although there are the four-year rotational studentships that serve this purpose, they are offered as post graduate options,  places remain highly competitive and are limited to a handful of institutions.   Some students go through the Masters / MPhil route and although these play a role in bridging the gap, positions are rarely funded and only accessible by the select few who can afford the cost.

What is therefore required is for the general undergraduate science program to be updated to four-years across board to include the rotational research year. This way, students are better placed to make informed choices with regards to pursuing an academic /industrial career.  Aspiring PhD students will subsequently have clearer intuition on their research area of interest, thereby reducing the dropout rate and the overflow of graduates seeking academic positions.

I hereby conclude that to tackle the problem of declining academics, it is imperative that experts look back at the root cause and consider a revamp of the current science degree system.  

#Culturedbeef

#culturedbeef has been trending on my timeline and I could not help but blog about it. So what is all the excitement about? Well, If you missed it a Dutch scientist (tissue engineer to be specific) by name of Mark Post has produced meat in the lab and here’s how.

Image from nature

This is not the first time scientist have grown something out of nothing (to use the term loosely) but only this time #culturedbeef had its own special air time where the public could witness a burger being made from #culturedbeef. A pretty dear media spectacle but let’s not get moral about how Sergy Brin wishes to spend his billions because I for one enjoyed watching the Monday episode of Saturday kitchen. I did however wonder if the pair were neighbours or perhaps belonged to the same golf club. (Random thoughts).

Here’s a recap of the verdict.

Am I excited by it, ofcourse! This is yet again another scientific advancement which could be applied to several other processes. But is there any point to this? Considering the cost of production is much higher than rearing cattle that is enough reason to mark it down as low priority and perhaps try growing limbs instead. And if you want to argue the risk of disease wiping out a whole herd of cattle then you have no idea what a contaminated culture batch cost. 

As Mark Post rightly said his intention was to prove it could be done and not to create a cultured meat aisle in our supermarkets.

So the next time you 'google' Mark Post he’ll be known for trending with his #culturedbeef. 

Would I buy it if a pound sold for a penny, NO CHANCE!

1.  View conversation
2. 1. James Logan ‏@Dr_JamesLogan5 Aug

      Burgers made in a lab: would you eat it? What do you think about the concept??

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   2. hephziangela ‏@hanat_akordor5 Aug

      @Dr_JamesLogan no chance. Artificial meat!!!!!!! That's just wrong.

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   3. James Logan ‏@Dr_JamesLogan5 Aug

      Why? Genuinely interested to know RT “@hanat_akordor: @Dr_JamesLogan no chance. Artificial meat!!!!!!! That's just wrong.”

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   4. hephziangela ‏@hanat_akordor5 Aug

      @Dr_JamesLogan wldnt eat my diner in d lab, never mind meat. Surely itl be cultured aseptically? Lets say I'm a butcher so I dnt eat meat.

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      1:40 PM - 5 Aug 13 · Details
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3. hephziangela ‏@hanat_akordor5 Aug

   Fat free burger - isn't that suppose to be a good thing? Not if its grown in the lab. #culturedbeef

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4. hephziangela ‏@hanat_akordor5 Aug

   Close to meat but not that juicy. #culturedbeef

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