News

SECRET “Tailor Made Job Applications” online workshop – organised by coordinator USTUTT with support from its graduate organisation GRADUS

8th-9th December 2022 & 6th-7th February 2023

In order to be able to work in small groups and have an interactive and comprehensive experience, the 15 ESRs were split in two groups and participated separately on two different occassions in the 2-day online workshop led by Mr. Matthias Merkelback from ImpulsPlus (Stuttgart). The early stage researchers learned how to best approach the job application process, revised their CVs and cover letters and got valuable training for the interview process.

SECRET “Exploitation” online workshop – organised by beneficiaries Protavio (PAO) and Anaxomics (AX)

The workshop was taking place online, with sessions spreading over two weeks in November 2022. The first session comprised of a lecture on exploitation and commercialisation by Prof. Leonidas Alexopoulos, and an introduction to the tasks at hand and the resources for independent work, by Dr. Judith Farrés. The ESRs got a hand-on approach to learning about exploitability of research discoveries, and the road to commercialisation, by preparing a 3-minute pitch presentations on their creative biotech ideas, and competing for the best pitch awards, on the last session of the workshop! We are thankful to our organisers, Leo Alexopoulos (PAO) and Judith Farrés (AX), as well as to our guest committee member, Julia Schüler (CRDS), and to all the ESRs participating with great enthusiasm into our exercise!

Merih Özverin is seconding in Innsbruck from November to December 2022

Merih, ESR 3, hosted at the University of Stuttgart in the Olayioye group, has begun her secondment at the Medical University of Innsbruck, starting in November 2022, in the Farhan lab (MUI).

In the picture, Merih (right) together with MUI ESRs Renata (left) and Amirabbas (center).

The last session of the “Careers in the Life Sciences” seminar series – an insight into venture capital within the life science industry by Dr. Frank Mühlenbeck, Managing Director at EMBL Ventures (October 20th, 2022)

To close the digital seminar series “Careers in the Life Sciences” we were delighted to welcome Dr. Frank Mühlenbeck, co-founder and managing director of EMBL Ventures, as a speaker.

Frank studied technical biology and obtained a doctoral degree at the Institute of Cell Biology and Immunology, at the University of Stuttgart, in Germany.

He then started his life outside the lab with Steinbeis, a German technology transfer institution where he consulted life science start-ups and investors including public institutions KfW and tbg.

Frank went on as a founding partner of a large family office, where he managed private and public equity investments in life science companies in Europe and the US. Currently, Frank is partner at EMBL Ventures focusing on investment- and consulting opportunities in the life sciences.

The talk gave the audience a glimpse into a career direction that few scientists consider or are even aware of, and was therefore the perfect way to wrap up our career-focused seminar series.

First fall session of the “Careers in the Life Sciences” seminar series – focus on career guidance with Dr. Barbara Janssens – DKFZ (October 11th, 2022)

Within the digital seminar series “Careers in the Life Sciences” we had the pleasure of hosting the talk of Dr. Barbara Janssens, Head of DKFZ Career Service & Alumni Relations at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). Barbara is a Careers Advisor and Manager at DKFZ since 2011. She is Belgian (PhD in molecular and cell biology from Ghent University), and after a postdoc in Paris she worked for five years as an Editor at Wiley- Blackwell. She was Managing Editor and co-Editor-in-Chief of Biotechnology Journal and managed related journals in Lipid Sciences and Engineering in Life Sciences. From 2007 to 2017 she regularly taught freelance workshops on Scientific Writing.

In 2011, she set up the Career Service for the DKFZ Graduate school. They now offer career guidance in the form of one-on-one career advice, organising workshops and career days and facilitating career tracking and networking with Alumni. DKFZ-Connect.de was launched in 2016 and CareerCheck.dkfz.de in 2020 (now also offered to other Helmholtz Career Development Centers for Researchers). Together with Sarah Blackford (SEB London) they set up a Group for Careers Advisers supporting Researchers in Europe (CARE) at ESOF 2014 in Copenhagen.

Alexia Maria Gali seconding in Stuttgart from October 2022

Alexia Gali, ESR 14, has begun a two month secondment starting in October 2022, in the Hausser lab at the University of Stuttgart (USTUTT).

Madalena Monteiro has started her secondment in Vienna in mid-September 2022

ESR 9, Madalena, is being hosted for her three month secondment at MUW in Vienna in the group of Prof Helmut Dolznig, to use advanced in vitro 3D cell culture models to validate the most promising identified targets.