Introduction
My name is Mengshen Chen, and I am from China. It is quite amusing to take a stroll down memory lane and realize that my career choice traced all the way back to my elementary days, where I put down “scientist” as my dream career on my elementary graduation message for yearbook. Six years later, as I began my college education at the University of Vermont, I gradually started to set myself onto this career path: I majored in biochemistry and started doing research as an undergraduate research assistant in a biochemistry lab in my junior year. After graduation, I went on to pursue a Ph.D. degree in biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, where I embarked on a research project that revolves around concepts related to drug development; it was a fruitful journey that inspired me to delve into the biotech/pharmaceutical industry in the future. After defending my thesis, I started my postdoctoral fellow journey at Harvard Medical School, where I worked on a project in collaboration with a biotech company. Soon, I transitioned into the biotech industry working as a scientist/senior scientist, and it has truly been an amazing experience over the past three plus years under the biotech industrial settings.
As a senior scientist at Valo Health, my responsibilities revolve around utilizing in-depth knowledge, technical expertise and hands-on experimental experiences with respect to a wide spectrum of biological sciences techniques and methodologies to tackle various obstacles in drug development projects at different stages.
Biological Sciences Fellow
career options
Biological Sciences Fellow
skills
What are the main hard skills you use on a daily basis in your current job?
Research design is usually, if not always, the first step in handling any drug development projects. It is a delicate and sophisticated process that aims to ensure collection of repeatable and reliable data. Personally, I gained my experience of this process through years of practice during my Ph.D. career, postdoctoral fellow life, and working experience - and it is still an ongoing process of development and refinement for me.
Biological sciences scientists often face large quantities of raw data generated from experiments or research. Consequently, the skill of data analysis becomes critical - how to draw meaningful conclusions to support or deny initial hypotheses, are there any potential issues that need troubleshooting, etc? Much like any hard skills for biological science scientists, this skill is refining-by-doing.
Laboratory techniques are a broad concept that encompasses details from basic bench skills, to operating scientific instruments, and proper handling of samples, etc. It is very much a hands-on skill which I acquired through years of experience: learn the basics and fundamentals in-depth, repeated practices, troubleshooting, and finding solutions for different scenarios.
What are the main soft skills you use on a daily basis in your current job?
Data generation and evaluation are indeed a critical process for biological sciences scientists. However, it would all be in vain if one failed to efficiently and effectively communicate this valuable information. Learning how to communicate scientific findings to different audiences is a critical hard skill for scientists – this can be daily verbal communication to peers, scientific presentations in front of crowds, etc. – this is a skill that demands years of practice and experience to refine.
Scientists, especially under the biotech/pharmaceutical format, are constantly challenged with handling difficult projects and multitasking, and this makes task management skill an essential on a daily basis. Learning how to prioritize tasks, to manage time effectively, and to properly allocate resources are paramount components of this skill.
Biological sciences scientists constantly face information overflow from literature search & reading or group/team meetings. Consequently, an important soft skill is to be able to critically think and filter information of greatest relevance and significance. I personally encounter similar scenarios on a daily basis – always take good notes and put in the time to evaluate what to take in.
In academia or industrial settings, biological sciences scientists will always run into situations where cross functional collaboration is demanded. You could be working with chemistry scientists or computational scientists and engineers, so taking the time to understand the fundamentals and workflows of different functions you collaborate with will greatly boost your efficiency and effectiveness in work.
Biological sciences, in practical situations, is all about identifying ways to succeed from failures. Consequently, it is important to have the soft skill to readily identify problems from things that did not work and solve the problems for success. It is important to note that this skill requires vast experience and in-depth knowledge of your projects, methodologies, and background information – and it takes practice!
Mengshen
’s personal path
Tell us about your personal journey in
Biological Sciences Fellow
:
Looking back on my job search journey, I feel that it was a journey of personal growth. After obtaining my Ph.D. degree in biological sciences, I was proud and ambitious. I told myself that I would absolutely not go for postdoctoral fellow positions – and there came my first realization of the industrial setting – I was simply too inexperienced to step into large pharmaceutical companies, and there was a long way to go. Subsequently, between an offer for a junior position in a biotech company and a postdoctoral fellow position at Harvard Medical School, I chose the latter to further enrich and prepare myself for the industrial setting. This experience turned out to be a wise call that secured me a great position at another biotech company a few years later, where I had a true taste of the industrial side of biological sciences, worked with a lot of great people, learned a magnitude of cutting-edge techniques and methodologies, and started building a rich network for myself. All of which helped me in taking the next leap into landing a senior scientist position a few years later.
It should be noted that job search for biological sciences scientists is by no means a trivial task. Taking my more recent job search experience as an example, I spent a significant amount of time identifying potentially matching open positions on LinkedIn and submitted applications each day. While it is not uncommon not to hear back from most of them, the usual next step would be a quick call with the HR for initial screening. Following which there would be a more in-depth conversation with the hiring manager of the open position to go over job duties and expectations, and if things went smoothly, the last and final step would be either going onsite or virtually for a seminar presentation highlighting your own achievements and one-on-one interview sessions with people you would potentially work with. The essence of job searches as biological sciences scientists is to be genuine, resilient and adaptable – it takes time and a lot of no’s to eventually land a fulfilling job.
What would you tell your younger you regarding building your current career?
If I had any advice to give my younger self regarding career building, the first would be to always take the opportunity to learn new things: while it is important to have specific expertise, never let it become a restraint that limits you from branching out and expanding your toolset. In addition, I would tell my younger self to spend more time and be more proactive in communication and networking – even if I was not in the process of job hunting: it is better to build the network in advance than rushing it last minute. And my last tip to my younger self would be to be more confident and more well prepared during the application and interview process: it took me a good 2 or 3 failed initial screenings and hiring manager conversations to finally become comfortable with the process – should I have been more well prepared and confident, I probably would have grasped those opportunities.
Final thoughts & tips
The path to become a biological sciences scientist is filled with challenges and obstacles – but don’t let that scare you by any means – it is a fulfilling and rewarding career path for those who welcome challenges and wish to contribute to society through their knowledge and expertise. Should you go down this journey, always be tough and resilient in the face of challenges and obstacles, and always stay curious and innovative.
Resources to dig in more
Uniprot
Perfect first stop to any protein science-related query or searches
PubChem
Fantastic tool to query protein or gene targets to search for existing chemical matters and bioassays
BioSpace
Great resource to catch on latest biotech, pharmaceutical and clinical research news and browsing for biological sciences and pharmaceutical jobs
