Horizons for doctoral researchers
Insights on gamma-delta T-cells / jobs for junior scientists in industry / feedback for doctoral projects
The 3rd Doc’s Day on November 04, 2022 was the first live event of the research unit miTarget after a long time with online meetings. It took place at the lecture hall of the Institute of Pharmacology at the University Hospital Schleswig- Holstein, UKSH, Campus Kiel. The junior scientists highly appreciated the possibility to discuss with senior scientists from the group as well as the guest professor in person and deepen the network within the group.
The first part in the morning was intended for scientific talks and discussions. It was open for all miTarget members and related doctoral programs.
First, Kathrin Schäfer, doctoral researcher from the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology in Lübeck gave us insights into her project about Discovering the functional potential of IBD-modifying bacteria: Bacterial characterization on a new level.
After a short break, which provided the first opportunity for miTarget members to meet and talk in person, we continued with the guest lecture of the day. Prof. Dr. Immo Prinz, head of the Institute of Systems Immunology at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, UKE, in Hamburg, gave a talk on the role of Innate and adaptive gamma-delta T cells and his own research in this very interesting field.
The second presentation by one of our junior researchers was given by Eike M. Wacker who showed us his progress in the implementation of bioinformatics programming pipelines for the analysis for metagenomic and genetic data. He also works on setting up a YODA-platform, which facilitates data sharing within the miTarget group. In his talk Multi-faceted molecular characterization of ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis he gave insight into his multi-omics research, covering transcriptomic, genomic and metagenomic analyses in UC and PSC patients. His work does not only advances the understanding of complex chronic inflammatory diseases, but also builds the infrastructure for data driven research.
The second part in the afternoon was about career development and for the doctoral researchers only.
Lisa Warnecke and Lisa Schilling, who are working as bio-technologists at the Richter-Helm BioLogics GmbH & Co. KG , presented an overview over the company and referring job opportunities. Richter-Helm is a biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with two GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice)-compliant manufacturing facilities in Germany. They are specialized in the production of bio reactive products derived from bacteria and yeasts and as a steadily growing company of interest as a potential employer.
The last presentation of the day was given by Dr. Elisa Rosati who is a bioinformatician and former post-doc at the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology, IKMB, in Kiel, now working for Evotec SE in Hamburg. She gave a very informative talk about differences in academia vs. industry. By also giving specific examples from her own career, she provided a lot of very useful tips, tricks and basic knowledge about how to start a career in a company and what to expect there. And she presented job opportunities at Evotec SE, which is a publicly listed drug discovery and development company, which supports international customers at any stage of the drug development.
