PhD students explore the role of scientists in industry

The MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine hosted the first “Science at the Interface to Industry” 3 day workshop: April 2018

The MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine hosted the first “Science at the Interface to Industry” workshop last week, enabling 16 PhD students from across the biosciences and chemistry to explore the role of scientists in industry/biotech and develop skills to interface their research with industry.

The three day workshop featured keynote talks with top scientists describing their interactions with industry, as well as workshops with biotech companies, Edinburgh Innovation and investors and mini-workshops exploring the topics of startup companies, career options and biotech funding.

As part of the event, students were invited to develop a new company idea and pitch their idea to a Dragons’ Den panel of investors. The team presentations were all very well received, with the winning “polyMED” team developing a new approach for packaging multiple drugs into one tablet.

I really enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to anyone interested in what's out there, beyond the lab. For there's a whole world constantly moving, ready to apply science at a different level; the very one that builds the bridge with the rest of society.

Thanks to Nick Gilbert (MRC Human Genetics Unit, Insitute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh) and Andy McCallion (John Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA) for organising the workshop, to New England Biolabs for prizes and to all those involved for making the event a success.

The workshop will run annually so get in touch if you’d like to take part in future: student-admin@igmm.ed.ac.uk