The Secrets of Securing a Senior Scientist Role in an Industry

Company: Scientist, Inc.
Location: San Diego
Posted on: May 3, 2025

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The Secrets of Securing a Senior Scientist Role in an IndustryNathalie Fuentes shared her experience of landing a unicorn position in a pharmaceutical company after a postdoctoral fellowship.Shelby is an Assistant Editor for The Scientist. She earned her PhD from West Virginia University in immunology and microbiology and completed an AAAS Mass Media fellowship.For Nathalie Fuentes, being an industry senior scientist involves work at the bench and on the screen to get new pharmaceuticals ready for the clinic and commercial market.Register for free to listen to this article Listen with Speechify 0:00 5:00A s she neared the end of her postdoctoral fellowship, Nathalie Fuentes knew that she loved mentoring trainees and developing her own research. However, as she saw the stress her advisors went through pursuing funding, she decided that wasn't something she wanted to endure. So, when the time came to choose the next step of her career journey, she turned her attention to positions in industry. As she soon learned, though, pursuing careers beyond academia comes with its own quirks.Navigating a Path into IndustryAfter deciding that she would leave academia, Fuentes searched for industry positions but she soon realized that the path was not as simple as filling out new job applications. "I didn't have a lot of contacts inside of industry, so I think that was my mistake," Fuentes said, explaining that these connections can make securing interviews and jobs in industry easier. "My [curriculum vitae] and my network was ready [for me] to go into an academic position, but not into an industry position."Nathalie Fuentes oversees the stability testing and regulatory approval of drugs as a senior scientist at AstraZeneca.The Journey is the Life PhotographAs opposed to comprehensive academic curriculum vitaes (CVs), Fuentes found that most industry positions require succinct resumes. "You need to learn what out of your experiences best align with the job description," she said. Additionally, highlighting transferable skills like writing, speaking, teamwork, and the capacity to learn are valuable, especially when applying to positions where the applicant has limited hands-on experience.After scaling down her CV to a focused resume for each position that highlighted her relevant skills for each role, the doors of the industry opened for her. After successfully navigating interviews and presentations, Fuentes received four job offers. One of the positions was at AstraZeneca."They called me while I was driving," Fuentes recalled. "I parked in a Starbucks, and that's where my negotiation happened." Ultimately, she accepted the position as a senior scientist developing models of asthma and lung inflammation to study the effect of the microbiome on these processes. Fuentes thought that it perfectly matched her previous experience in asthma and cell and molecular biology research. "I ended up selecting AstraZeneca which, at that time, I thought was the unicorn position," said Fuentes."When I got into that team, everything was okay. I was working towards developing my models. No problem, no issues. We had funding. We have a lot of toys to play with, a lot of equipment when compared to government or academia," Fuentes said. However, because she started during the COVID-19 pandemic, about a year and a half into the position, the company converted her team to focus on the role of the microbiome on vaccine and immune therapies. "For me, it was very eye opening," Fuentes recalled the experience of how quickly industry projects can change.She decided that although she did not want to learn how to be a microbiologist, she was ready to try something new. Because she had been networking within the company, she learned about an opening in a different department. She applied and switched over into a senior scientist position in the biopharmaceutical development group. Now, she works in the latest stages of drug development. "Everything that I touch, everything that I work on, goes to patients," Fuentes said, who finds this to be a highlight of this position.Preparing Drugs for Clinical Trials and Commercial MarketsIn her role, Fuentes studies drug stability and its regulatory approval. "I make sure that our drugs are safe and stable for the patient," Fuentes said. When her team receives new lots of a pharmaceutical, they subject the vials and their contents to vigorous shaking, direct light, and cycles of freeze-thawing and then determines if any of these conditions damaged the formulation. "Because it's not the same sending the drug to Puerto Rico, to Africa, or hot countries [as it is] to Alaska or Norway," Fuentes explained. "We need to make sure our drugs are stable under those environmental conditions."Fuentes includes these results in the forms for regulatory approval. This information is also useful in the clinical trial stage, where she can answer questions about whether a product should be used if for any reason a drug wasn't kept at the recommended storage conditions.Since AstraZeneca ships products internationally, Fuentes stays up to date with the policies in those locations so that her team has all of the necessary documentation for those applications. She also writes the instruction manual and the investigator's brochure for each drug. If the information at any time over the course of the drug being on the market needs updated, she is responsible for making those changes.In addition to her benchwork and regulatory tasks, Fuentes still has opportunities to train others, including students through the company's internship program and junior scientists. "Another thing that I really, really enjoy is my outreach work," Fuentes said. One outreach project that she works on is RealHOPE , which collects information about how biological products are used by patients and healthcare personnel. The goal of the initiative is to help the company design better stability testing and product use information in the future.How Does an Industry Role Compare to One in Academia?According to Fuentes, one distinction between research in academia and in industry is the control one has on research topics. At a university, investigators choose what they want to study, whereas all projects in industry serve the company's strategic plan. "However, industry offers a different kind of autonomy where you can focus on target discovery, or in my case, applied research with a clear path toward impacting patient outcomes or product development," she said. Additionally, Fuentes found that the timelines in industry are more defined than those in a lot of academic research, and there is a better vision of how the work that you do translates into real-world applications.For those considering a move into industry, Fuentes highly recommends networking, which can be as simple as talking to people who work in roles of interest. An informational interview can not only help one learn about that job, but these conversations can also lead to referrals that help the applicant stand out.Another great opportunity, Fuentes noted, to prepare for a career in industry is to pursue an internship with a company. "That's going to put your foot in the door," she said. "You're going to start meeting people, and if you leave a great impression, trust me, they will remember."However, Fuentes explained that tailoring one's resume to match the job description and emphasizing transferable skills from graduate school will also help applicants highlight their fit for the role. Additionally, although she said that a long-term postdoctoral fellowship isn't necessary, a short position is helpful. "What I recommend if you really, really think you're going into industry and you want to skip the postdoc is to consider a postdoc in industry," Fuentes said. Although they are competitive, these positions are often structured so that people can transition directly into the company at the end of the postdoctoral contract.This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Shelby Bradford, PhDShelby is an Assistant Editor for The Scientist. She earned her PhD from West Virginia University in immunology and microbiology and completed an AAAS Mass Media fellowship.Learn how scientists examine mRNA quality using an easy-to-operate LC-MS system.ShareThe popularity of mRNA-based therapeutics has surged over the past few years. To ensure the safety of these treatments, scientists need to analyze the characteristics of the manufactured molecules, such as examining the Cap-1 structure added onto the 5' end. Researchers can leverage liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to assess mRNA quality with accuracy and ease.Download this application note from Shimadzu to learn about

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• Setting up the analysis parameters in the software including the anticipated impuritiesSponsored byTop Image Credit:iStockThe information you provide will be shared with the sponsors of this content. The Scientist or its sponsors may contact you to offer you content or products based on your interest in this topic. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. For information on how to unsubscribe, our privacy practices, and commitment to protecting your privacy, check out our Privacy Policy .2025 Breakthrough Prize Recognizes Trailblazers in Multiple Sclerosis ResearchAlberto Ascherio and Stephen Hauser were recognized for their work uncovering the role of B cells and Epstein Barr virus in the disease.Laura is an Assistant Editor for The Scientist. She has a background in microbiology. Her science communication work spans journalism and public engagement.MS is a chronic neurodegenerative disease where the immune system attacks the myelin sheath, the protective layer around nerve fibers.T oday (April 5), the Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced the recipients of the 2025 Breakthrough Prizes. Dubbed the "Oscars of Science," these prestigious awards celebrate groundbreaking discoveries in science that advance our understanding and treatment of human disease.This year, one of the Life Sciences prizes was jointly awarded to Alberto Ascherio , an epidemiologist at Harvard University, and Stephen Hauser , a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, for their contributions in transforming the understanding and treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). Ascherio identified Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) as the leading risk factor for MS, while Hauser established the role of B cells in the disease and developed B-cell-based treatments."This work has taken me on the journey of my life. It's been a long journey with many lessons, and gratitude was the number one emotion," said Hauser.MS is a chronic, debilitating neurodegenerative disease where the immune system attacks the myelin sheath, the protective layer around nerve fibers. This damage disrupts communication between the brain and the body. MS has several forms and its progression is unpredictable. While some people experience mild symptoms like fatigue and limb numbness for years, others may quickly develop severe disabilities.Clinicians recognized MS as an autoimmune disease but struggled to identify its exact cause. Fifty years ago, no effective therapies existed, making an MS diagnosis especially grim-most patients faced reliance on walkers, wheelchairs, or even bed confinement within 15 years of a diagnosis.This harsh reality left a deep impression on Hauser, then a neurology resident in the 1970s. One day, he stepped into an emergency room and pulled back the screen to a heartbreaking scene-Andrea, a 27-year-old woman with MS, laying in a hospital bed, unable to speak, swallow, or move the right side of her body."I remember thinking this was the most unfair thing I had ever seen in medicine," said Hauser. This moment cemented his resolve to devote his career to MS research.Early Struggles in Understanding Multiple SclerosisScientists first observed characteristic neurological damage associated with MS in the late 19 th century, but its cause remained unclear. Separately, scientists in the 1930s explored why viral infections and rabies vaccination occasionally resulted in a rare complication of brain inflammation-encephalitis. Since this vaccine was prepared from rabbit spinal cords, researchers immunized animals with normal brain proteins, triggering immune cell infiltration and demyelinated lesions that characterized human encephalitis. 1This animal model for MS, known as acute experimental allergic (now "autoimmune") encephalomyelitis (EAE ), became the replica for human MS. 2 Expanding on this work, serum (pure antibodies produced by B cells) from EAE animals did not transfer the disease, leading the field to conclude that T cells were responsible for causing EAE, and by extension, MS. 3Neurologist Stephen Hauser receives the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work in establishing the role of B cells in multiple sclerosis and developing B-cell based treatments.University of California, San FranciscoIn contrast, for many years antibodies were used as markers for MS. However, it was widely accepted that B cells had no role in the disease's development. Hauser explained, "That was the thinking of the field: B cells were protective, they weren't the culprits." However, when Hauser compared brain tissue changes in EAE mice to the tissue of his MS patients, he noticed that they looked nothing alike. EAE models did not exhibit the same pathology seen in human MS, which led him to suspect another underlying factor.In the 1980s, Hauser collaborated with classmate Norman Letvin , who developed immunologic tools for marmosets -animals more genetically similar to humans than mice-to create an MS model that was more reflective of the human disease. 4 They injected animals with brain proteins and an adjuvant of heat-killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis, to boost the immune system to induce brain lesions.However, after a decade of research, the animals seemed completely resistant to brain inflammation. Their first breakthrough came when Hauser's postdoctoral researcher, Luca Massacesi , suggested using a different regimen of two Bordetella pertussis injections in addition to their adjuvant for immunizing the animals-and it worked. 5Although they had induced the MS-like lesion, they couldn't replicate it using T cells, despite trying various approaches, including cloned T cells and brain-reactive T cells. Then, another postdoctoral researcher, Claude Genain , proposed investigating B cells, which had previously been overlooked. To their surprise, transferring B cell antibodies successfully replicated the MS lesions. 6 Their findings demonstrated that while T cells initially disrupted the blood-brain barrier, it was the B cells and the autoantibodies they produced that ultimately attacked the myelin sheaths in MS. This discovery upended long-held beliefs about the role of B cells in MS and marked the beginning of a new understanding of the disease.While Hauser and his colleagues investigated how B cells drive nerve damage in MS, Ascherio, another young physician, embarked on a path that would eventually lead him to study the links between viruses and neurodegenerative diseases like MS.The Viral Infection Link to Multiple Sclerosis: A Paradoxical MysteryAscherio's career as a physician began in the field of tropical medicine and epidemiology, where he treated diseases in countries such as Nicaragua and Mozambique. During his time in Nicaragua, he investigated an outbreak of paralysis in children and discovered that a neurotoxic plant was to blame. "This was my first epidemiological investigation in the neurological field that contributed to my increasing interest in neurological diseases."Later, while pursuing a PhD in epidemiology, Ascherio shifted his focus to MS. "Multiple sclerosis is a very intriguing disease. It's very rare in the tropics, so in the places where I was working, there was basically no MS in Africa and Central America. The disease gets more frequent when you move away from the equator." As he delved into the literature, epidemiological studies revealed a striking pattern: When people migrated from low-incidence regions to high-incidence ones, their MS risk increased dramatically. While researchers had yet to pinpoint the cause, many suspected infectious agents, including bacteria and viruses, played a role.Of the potential culprits, one virus stood out to Ascherio-EBV, the cause of mononucleosis, or kissing disease. EBV is a common childhood infection, with an estimated 90 percent of the global population having been infected. Once contracted, the virus establishes a latent, lifelong infection, hidden within B cells . 7 Ascherio suspected a link between EBV and MS, and upon comparing EBV antibody levels in people with MS, he found that they were higher than those in the control group. 8Epidemiologist Alberto Ascherio receives the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his work in identifying EBV as a leading cause of MS.While Ascherio's EBV observation appeared to fit the observed pattern of MS, another prominent idea, the hygiene hypothesis, offered a different explanation. It proposed that a high level of hygiene during childhood would prevent early EBV infection, but would also prime their immune system toward a higher risk of autoimmune diseases like MS. Despite this, Ascherio remained unconvinced as his studies suggested the opposite effect. "I think that paradox was the strongest clue that there was something wrong with this hypothesis and that something else was at play," said Ascherio.Determined to explore this further, Ascherio launched a longitudinal study to track MS development in individuals with and without EBV infection. The biggest challenge was finding a large enough EBV-negative population, given the virus's high prevalence. In 2000, he partnered with the US military and used samples from the Department of Defense's serum repository (DoDSR). At the time, the DoDSR held over 60 million blood samples from more than 10 million service members, most under 20 at the start of the study.His goal was clear: Do people who never contract EBV also remain free of MS? His team determined the soldiers' EBV status from their first sample and monitored MS onset during active duty. "The simplicity [of the study] is its strength," Ascherio noted.After a decade of research, his team reported in 2010 that MS risk was extremely low in EBV-negative individuals but rose sharply after infection. 9 While the results did not initially attract widespread attention, subsequent studies by Ascherio and other researchers strengthened the connection between EBV and MS. These studies demonstrated an increased MS risk after infectious mononucleosis, elevated serum EBV antibody titers in patients with MS, and reports of the presence of EBV in MS demyelinated lesions. 10-12In 2022, further analysis of military serum samples confirmed that MS risk increased 32-fold after EBV infection but remained unchanged after infection with other viruses. Levels of neurofilament light chain, a biomarker of MS-related nerve damage, rose only after EBV infection-often before symptoms appeared. These findings were the strongest evidence that exposure to EBV was necessary to provoke MS. 13Against the Odds: Revolutionizing Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Renewing HopeAs Hauser and Ascherio challenged longstanding theories, Hauser recalled the deep prevailing sense of pessimism, even nihilism, surrounding MS, remarking that another leader in the field wrote, "The best way to ruin one's career is to propose a treatment for MS."Undeterred, Hauser aimed to evaluate rituximab , a monoclonal antibody therapy for B cell lymphoma, to see if selectively targeting B cells could benefit MS patients. However, the study section at the National Institutes of Health dismissed the idea as "biologically implausible".Despite skepticism, Hauser found a willing partner in Genentech, though the odds remained stacked against them: The study was predicted to have less than a 15 percent chance of success. Then, team was instructed by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce their cohort size and administer only a single 1,000 mg dose of intravenous rituximab."We thought that the primary culprit were likely B cell-produced antibodies, and it would take a long time for those destructive antibodies to winnow down after we killed B cells," Hauser said. "We decided to go forward, nonetheless, hoping to see just a shadow of a benefit."Instead, the results were extraordinary. 14 Even with one dose, brain inflammation nearly disappeared, demonstrating that B cells, not their antibodies, were the only explanation for this effect. Encouraged by this breakthrough, Hauser and his colleagues developed second-generation antibodies better suited for long-term use, leading to the creation of ocrelizumab and later ofatumumab -safer, more effective options for chronic treatment of MS. 15,16"The MS story is one of the great success stories of modern clinical neuroscience," said Hauser. "[MS] has been thought to be too complicated to be able to understand in a molecular way that has a chance for success with application, and that has all changed."Ascherio acknowledged that, despite the odds, having strong conviction and determination to press forward has proven rewarding, providing valuable insights not only for researchers but also for MS patients. While the exact mechanisms of how EBV triggers B cells to attack myelin sheaths remain unclear, the growing understanding is still highly beneficial.The combination of three drug therapies has sparked new hope for MS patients, while Ascherio's recent research suggests the possibility of treating MS with antiviral drugs-or even preventing it with an EBV vaccine. Compared to Andrea's grim prognosis decades ago, today's patients have far better chances for an improved quality of life.Laura Tran, PhDLaura is an Assistant Editor for The Scientist. She has a background in microbiology. Her science communication work spans journalism and public engagement.
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