Biomedical Sciences Blog

British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to sponsor at least $25 million in work at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Cambridge, one of the largest investments in stem cell research ever by a major pharmaceuticals company.

As part of the five-year agreement, GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to support research at Harvard University and four Harvard-affiliated hospitals to try to find cures for cancer, obesity, diabetes, and neurological, cardiac, and musculoskeletal diseases. The company also agreed to help fund Harvard's "seed grant" program, which supports early stage research.

Pfizer Inc., one of the world's biggest drug companies, launched a stem cell research unit in April with offices in the United Kingdom and Cambridge. Pfizer says it hopes to have 20 scientists in the Cambridge office soon.

From Boston Globe and Harvard University

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) is pleased to announce the opening of applications for the 2008 FASEB Postdoctoral Professional Development and Enrichment Award. A total of six (6) individual awards are available to provide resources to support the development and enrichment of leadership skills and training of postdoctorates or new (within one-year) assistant professors.

The FASEB Postdoctoral Professional Development and Enrichment Award (sponsored by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Institutes of Health) was established to recognize outstanding achievement by six early stage life scientists from underrepresented minority groups. Individuals eligible for nomination are U.S.A. Citizens or Permanent Residents of the U.S.A. from an ethnic minority group recognized as being underrepresented in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, are members of one or more of the societies of FASEB, and are at a relatively early career stage, defined as a minimum of two-to-five years of postdoctoral research training, or a new (within one-year) assistant professor. Individuals on temporary or student visas are not eligible for FASEB MARC Program funding.

Applications are requested from highly promising postdoctoral scientists or new assistant professors who have demonstrated research productivity including having published first-author papers in scientific publications, mentoring of URM undergraduate and graduate students, and service leading to improving and expanding opportunities for minorities in the scientific workforce and academia.

These awards are primarily intended for advanced URM postdoctorates or new assistant professors who can utilize this resource to gain knowledge, skills and training to assist them in becoming competitive for funding that will help them with publication in top tier journals and be competitive for faculty positions in prestigious research intensive settings.

Award Presentation: The six awardees will be publicized and announced on the FASEB and FASEB MARC Program websites, and will also be included on the awardees’ member society’s website. Each of the six awards will include a $3,000 unrestricted career development award and a certificate in recognition of the award.

Recipients of the award may use the career development and enrichment award to support short-term work or training in the laboratory of a sponsor (research-intensive university, industry, NIH/CDC) for the purpose of obtaining training in new technologies, disciplinary area or translational research component.

The purpose/benefits to be received includes: 1) helping the awardees gain knowledge and understanding of what is expected to develop a productive collaborative relationship; 2) allowing generation of new data or focus or 3) essential methodology that are critical in order for the investigator to be competitive in obtaining NIH funding. (Examples might be proteomics, bioinformatics or laser capture micro dissection training and data collection that provides the preliminary data essential for a competitive grant.) Intent would be a focused short-term experience with duration of one week or two to three shorter trips over a period of time (depending on what best supports the project’s and investigator’s goals.)

Other valid uses of the career development and enrichment awards may be to attend short-term professional development conferences such as ELAM (Executive Leadership And Mentoring) or AAMC with the goal of developing more leaders among URM scientists.

Application and Submission Procedures:

Applicants must be members of a FASEB Society. Membership status will be subject to verification by the member society identified in the application.

Please use this form as a checklist and post PDFs of all required information on the FASEB Diversity Award website. Access to the site is located at: http://www.faseb.org/PostdocProfDevAward/. Documents must be uploaded individually in PDF format. Submissions must include all of the following documents:

1. Completed cover application form with all requested information.

2. One application letter, setting forth in detail the description and term of training to be obtained and its importance with regard to research focus of investigator and preliminary data needed for grant application (this must explicitly indicate how the training is consistent with new interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary or translational approach consistent with NIH Roadmap.)

3. Curriculum vitae (CV) of applicant

4. Letter of support and CV of mentor in sponsoring institution

5. Letter from Chair of Department of Dean of applicant, supporting their application and granting applicant release time for the activity described in the application packet.

6. Proposed budget (not to exceed $3,000) for travel, living expenses, supplies and other appropriate costs.

For complete details, go to:

http://www.faseb.org/PostdocProfDevAward/.

~ NOMINATION DEADLINE: August 8, 2008 ~

For questions, please contact:

Carol Bieschke
Program Associate
FASEB Postdoctoral Professional Development & Enrichment Awards
FASEB Career Resources & MARC Program
9650 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, Maryland 20814-3998
Tel. (301) 634-7021
Email: postdocaward@faseb.org

Program description

FDA is launching a new two-year fellowship program in the fall of 2008 to provide an opportunity for health professionals and other scientists to receive training and experience at one of the world's most prestigious regulatory agencies.

Under the guidance of a FDA senior scientist preceptor committed to mentoring, fellows will explore a specific aspect of FDA regulatory science. This is a hands-on experience in which the fellow will identify and study a topic in FDA regulatory science. The experience can be in a biology, physics or engineering lab, in a clinical review team, in biostatistics, informatics, epidemiology, risk analysis or other aspects of FDA science.

The coursework is designed to provide an in-depth review of the sciences behind regulatory review, encompassing the activities of the FDA across foods, drugs, devices and cosmetics. Coursework during the two years includes public policy, FDA law, leadership skills, epidemiology, clinical trials, statistics as well as devices and radiological health.

Benefits

Stipends are extremely competitive plus health insurance, a generous housing allowance is provided ($10,000 housing stipend per year), and travel funds are available to attend scientific meetings.

Eligibility

Individuals must have a United States citizenship, be a non-citizen national of the U.S., or have been lawfully admitted to the U.S. for permanent residence. Doctoral level degrees (M.D., D.V.M., Pharm.D., Ph.D. or equivalent) are necessary for the health sciences and basic sciences. Engineers should have completed a B.S. degree.

How to apply

To apply for the FDA Commissioner’s Fellowship Program, submit your curriculum vitae (CV) and identify three references with contact information to:

fdacommissionersfellows@fda.hhs.gov

Deadline:
August 29, 2008

Hey, folks,

BioSpace just started a career development forum. Four professional recruiters from the Kelly Scientific review and answer questions daily posted by the members of the BioSpace. In other words, you must be a member to log in and post you question. But I found there are no problems to look through the Q&A without logging in.

Some posts are really useful, such as:

Salary negotiations

Transition from Academia to Industry

Why I never got reply from companies I sent resume to?

Click here to join the BioSpace community.

The Nation’s bioscience industry continues to grow as states and regions vie to attract high-wage jobs, according to a study released on June 18, 2008 by Battelle and the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).

The study, "Technology, Talent and Capital: State Bioscience Initiatives 2008," presents data on national, state and metropolitan bioscience employment and growth trends during 2001 to 2006. The study also examines a series of additional key performance metrics and describes state policies and programs designed to accelerate the growth of the biosciences. The report has been produced from the most current and comparable annual data available.

Total U.S. employment in the biosciences reached 1.3 million in 2006, up from 1.2 million in 2004, led by strong growth in the research, testing and medical lab subsector, which experienced a 17.8 percent increase in employment and a 32.7 percent increase in establishments between 2001 and 2006. Indirect and induced employment from the bioscience industry totals an additional 6.2 million jobs spread throughout the remainder of the economy. Together, these direct, indirect and induced jobs account for a total employment impact of 7.5 million jobs.

"The bioscience sector is truly coming of age with new discoveries finding their way into new applications and products leading to new medical treatments, new sources of energy, and new industrial products made out of bio-based materials," said Jim Greenwood, President and CEO of BIO. "This has led to the growth of clusters of bioscience firms focused on specialized niches throughout the 50 states and Puerto Rico."

Following are some of the key findings in the report:

• The bioscience sector is a source of high-wage jobs. The average bioscience job paid $71,000 in 2006, $29,000 more than the average private sector job.
• Each bioscience job generates an additional 5.8 jobs in the national economy.
• Thirty-five states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have an employment specialization (20 percent or more concentrated than the nation) in at least one of the four bioscience subsectors (drugs and pharmaceuticals, medical devices and equipment, research, testing and medical laboratories, and agricultural feedstock and chemicals).
• Twelve states – California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas – have both a large (more than 5 percent of total U.S. employment) and specialized bioscience base in at least one of the bioscience subsectors.
• Of the nation’s 361 Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 202 have an employment specialization in at least one of the four bioscience subsectors, up from 193 in 2004.
• Academic bioscience R&D expenditures total $29 billion in FY 2006.
• U.S. higher education institutions awarded more than 143,000 bioscience-related degrees in the 2006 academic year.
• Venture capital investments in bioscience companies reached $11.6 billion in 2007.
• More than 82,000 bioscience-related patents were issued to U.S. inventors between 2002 and 2007.

The report is available through the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) website.
Click here to access the presentation.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center has instituted a unique fellowship program to help postdoctoral scientists from the research universities transition into industry R&D careers. This program places fellows into NC biotechnology companies for two-year fellowships to gain industry-oriented research experience and thus improve their competitiveness for high-level industry scientific positions.

Sponsoring Company Eligibility

The sponsoring company must be a biotechnology R&D or contract research company with research operations in North Carolina. The company must have a senior scientist on staff that will provide industry-oriented scientific mentorship. Full-time academic scientists are not eligible as industrial scientific mentors.

Fellowship Candidate Eligibility

NCBC Industrial Fellowship candidates must have been awarded their Ph.D. degree prior to the start date of the program. Candidates should be junior scientists that have not previously worked in a company setting at the Ph.D. level. Candidates may currently be academic postdoctoral fellows. Funding through this program is not intended for supporting interns or technicians.

Fellowship Application Process

Step One: Review the NCBC Industrial Fellowship Program description and eligibility criteria.
Step Two: Applicant company submit an application to the Business and Technology Development staff to assess project.
Step Three: NCBC reviews application and selects five (5) for Industrial Fellowship candidate recruitment.
Step Four: Position and sponsor descriptions are circulated to university graduate school career counseling offices and postdoctoral associations.
Step Five: Prospective Industrial Fellowship candidates apply for specific fellowships by completing an application (available soon) for each eligible position. Each application must be accompanied by a resume or curriculum vitae (CV) and three (3) references via e-mail to NCBC at ncbcfellowship@ncbiotech.org.
Step Six: NCBC staff assembles qualified pool of applicants for each opportunity and works with each sponsoring company to screen candidates.
Step Seven: Sponsoring company interviews, selects and hires Fellow.

Application Deadlines

Five (5) Fellowship positions are available for each annual Program cycle. For 2008, the following deadlines apply:

Company sends scope of work to NCBC by: July 15, 2008
Fellow sends resume (CV) to NCBC by: August 15, 2008
Company selects Fellow by: September 15, 2008
Start date of 2-year fellowship: October 15, 2008

Pay Scale (2008)
Year Salary Benefits Total
First $40,000 $12,000 $52,000
Second $41,200 $12,360 $53,560

For questions concerning the NCBC Industrial Fellowship Program, please contact Shobha Parthasarathi at 919-541-9366, or e-mail at
ncbcfellowship@ncbiotech.org.

Position: Postdoc at Duke University

Description: A major focus of the laboratory is to understand the mechanisms by which beta-arrestin proteins regulate inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness in a mouse model of allergic airways disease. Other interests include the mechanisms by which ?2-adrenergic receptors become refractory in asthmatics. In vivo, ex vivo and in vitro techniques are being used to address these questions including cell culture, RT-PCR, immunoblotting, histology, whole animal anesthetized and organ tissue bath preparations. Research activities of the successful applicant within the funded project “T cell function in asthma depends on a novel signaling pathway” will focus on how regulation of T cell chemotaxis influences the development of allergic airways disease in mice.

Requirements: The successful applicant will possess an appropriate combination of relevant education (PhD in biological sciences, MD, or VMD), experience and enthusiasm for research as well as a good command of the English language.Additional Information: The successful applicant will join a small laboratory that is part of a larger Duke Asthma and Allergy Airway Center and is interactive with other laboratories within the Department of Medicine at Duke.

Deadline to Apply: 11/17/08
Contact Name: Julia K. L. Walker
Contact Phone: 919-668-1978
Email: walke082@mc.duke.edu

Position: Associate Director for Graduate Programs at University of Maryland

We seek a person to administer the combined biological sciences> graduate programs in the College of Chemical and Life Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. Excellent managerial and organizational skills required, as are skillful and collegial interactions with students, faculty, and staff. This individual will help us to develop, manage and promote graduate education in the biological sciences. Individual should have advanced degree, preferably doctorate, in biological sciences, and experience in academic research or administration. Position may be full or part time.Send a cover letter describing experience and interest in this position, curriculum vitae, names, phone numbers and emails of at least three possible references to: clfs-adgradsearch@umd.edu.

The preferred starting date for the position is August 1, 2008.