Global Biotech Revolution: GapSummit Leaders Of Tomorrow | Cambridge

As someone who spends good chunk of a day in the lab running gels and looking at tiny things in fancy microscopes, I am one of those biomedical/life science graduate students who justifies spending weekends in the lab by saying that my research will one day help advance human health (Joke! I am struggling to get that damn marker to write on my tubes!). Anyway, one good lesson I learned during that time is what you know matters less than who you know in the professional circle (to some extent).

Most of the graduate students spend a good five to six years doing amazing research and learning cutting-edge techniques. Unfortunately, in this world, it’s not the best ideas but the ideas that have the best reach which wins. Presenting their work, knowing the potential of their respective fields go a long way in helping one advance their career. This is where all those conferences, interdisciplinary meets, and other scientific events come into the picture. I was lucky enough to be selected for one such conference called GapSummit which turned out to be one of the best experiences I have ever had.

GapSummit is the Global Biotech Revolution’s flagship program. One of the biggest biotech conferences in the world conducted annually. It is an intergenerational leadership development conference that brought together biotech leaders from all over the world to engage with students like me. It is aptly named as they discuss the major gaps in the biotech and pharma field. The summit was joined by phenomenal speakers like Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific officer of Johnsons and Johnsons, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon limited, Dr.Yusuf Hamied of Cipla, representatives from WHO and United Nations. Apart from the talks, there were interactive panels conducted on the gaps in the industry ranging from drug affordability, innovation to sustainable energy. I learned a lot about the plateau phase of R&D pipelines, the struggle to get a generic drug in developing countries, the public policy aspect of bringing out a healthcare reform through dinner conversations and casual chats.

GapSummit did indeed provide me a better picture of the biotech and pharma space which I have learned is complicated with multiple players and unpredictable market. However, I learned from the digital healthcare panel experts that AI and other high-end computational tools will be a major game changer in the future.

The part I enjoyed and learned the most was the Voices of tomorrow competition where we all worked for three months in groups on an idea that addressed one of the gaps. Coming from a purely scientific background, getting the first-hand experience in executing an idea in the real world was an exhilarating experience. Although we didn’t make it to the finals, we had fun writing the business proposal which I have never done in my life!!

Since I had such an amazing time at the Summit I thought I could share some of my pre-conference hacks which might be helpful for you for the GapSummit 2019. I will be providing more details about the summit at the end.

Here are my two cents worth!

APPLICATION:

Spend a good amount of time writing the motivational essay. Remember, this is a fully sponsored conference, they take the application stuff seriously. It really pays off to do some homework about the summit, the speakers and the main agenda.

INTERVIEW:
The second round is a video interview with the core team of the GapSummit where they ask you in-depth questions about the application. Again! It really helps to prepare and succinctly talk about your achievements and future plans.


NETWORKING:
Like it or not, the world is not a fair place. That’s good and bad news. You might bump into the CEO of a startup who is looking for someone with your profile and might get hired on the spot. That is why it is extremely important to prepare for it. What do I mean by that? You need not read in detail about every single panelist or guest speakers but one you are interested in talking to, know their work in the back of your head. Read about their company, their published papers, know what they are looking for. I can’t emphasize this enough, nobody can just wing it.

GapSummit 2019:
Yay! This time it is in the United States. It is happening at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, between June 16th -20th. You can learn more about it here. If you have more questions about the summit, the logistics or if you want your institute to know about the event, you can contact me for an official invite.

Good luck with the application and hoping to see you guys at Gap Summit 2019!

Read another Article written by Anjana on TRAVEL+ACADEMICS: INTERNSHIP IN JAPAN

About The Author:

Anjana Sundarrajan is a true Tamilian who will not shut up about Chennai and curd rice. She is currently pursuing her final year of Masters in Biotechnology at UPenn in the US. She completed her B Pharm from Manipal University. She is passionate about research and innovation.

You can contact her on her Facebook or Linked In

Thank you for sharing your experience and tips with us. We hope you continue to support this blog and write for us in the future. We wish you all the best.

My Internship at Biocon (Bangalore)

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn"

-Benjamin Franklin.

When it comes to dreams, a lot of us are hands down generic dreamers. After all, generic is classic. My story was no different. Internship at a big firm in a metro city, living on coffee and making it on my own. That was my big, generic, student dream. Yes, I would have loved to travel instead for a month like those AISEC people and change lives but I didn't have that kind of cash. I could have also done the regular thing students do in summer breaks- go home and visit my parents. But, I was hoping for a miracle and like my classic risk-taker self, I put all my bets on Biocon, Bangalore- India's biggest Biotech firm.

The only contact I had in Biocon was my a friend's dad who knew someone, who knew someone (Yes, so that was my risky bet). After sending in my resume around March, I waited and sent relentless follow-up emails until I got a call from the HR Department. The main reason I wanted to do an internship was to figure out what my calling was. I was debating between Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Management. My goal was to get a Marketing internship. I think Digital Marketing would be perfect for me. I practically live on planet internet.

Finally, two days after my university exams got over, that was May end, I got a confirmation from Biocon. I was going to be an intern in the HR Department. It was close to what I had aimed for and so I happily accepted. One month internship beginning June 17, 2016 at the Biocon headquarters in Bangalore.I arrived in Electronic City, Bangalore two days early and settled in a Paying Guest that I had found online with the help of a friend. The struggles of my stay at the PG is a blog post on its own (The Life And Lies Of A Paying Guest ).

On my first day in Biocon, I discovered that the company had three campuses and my PG was not as close to the office where I was going to be working. I had to take the shuttle between the Biocon campuses every morning and evening. On the first day at the HR Department, I was introduced to the team and given a work desk. I was on Cloud 9! Everyone was very warm and welcoming. I slowly learned the work flow. My office was concerned with recruiting positions for the Biocon field force all over India. As a Biotech and a Pharmaceutical firm we naturally needed a lot of field sales representatives. Screening hundreds of incoming emails from candidates and matching them with the job description, salary and experience level was no simple task. I saw the team do it effortlessly like true professionals and did I mention I was an intern in the HR Department. The swag they had was that of Jessica Pearson and Donna from Suits, COMBINED!

My internship allowed me to transform myself from someone who feared phone calls with strangers to someone who did about five basic phone interviews with candidates who matched the job profiles. As I got better and more helpful, I was assigned more tasks and I loved every bit of it. Coffee breaks were the best. They were like short episodes on Adulting 101 where everyone talked about their life, struggles and how to solve everyday problems. They were all in their late twenties or thirties and had made it to one of the best firms so I could rest assured that they knew what they were doing.In my third week of internship, we had an office party to celebrate some promotions. I can say that was the most fun I had at a party with a lot of strangers and my ride back was an interesting one too, where I overcame my fear of small talk (The Not So Small: Small Talk). I had grown as a person during my one month in Bangalore.

Bangalore or any other city for that matter, grinds you, the traffic is merciless. The area, Electronic city was filled with industries and didn't have the neighborhood friendly cafes that I had dreamed of. But that's where the difference between movies and reality lies.Hakuna Matata is an optimistic blog but we cannot compromise the reality for the price of positivity. They both go hand in hand.

Overall it was a much-needed trailer of the reality that is life, that every student deserves to experience before they complete their undergraduate degree. This was my story and while you may think my struggles were big, now, as I look back at them I find them very irrelevant and small in the bigger and greater aspects of life. My best friend Anjana, for example, had applied to  ten internships and after all her hard work she got accepted into an all expense covered internship in Japan in the National Institute of Genetics. 

To conclude this blog post, I will say keep dreaming, take risks, hustle hard and you will surely achieve your goals. The real success lies outside your comfort zone so keep throwing yourself in uncomfortable situations like I did because that uncomfortable zone is the place which allows you to metamorph into adulthood,

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank my friend Sai Pooja's dad without who I would not have gotten that first contact. Sometimes a sinking Rose just needs that little support to survive ;) (And yes, she survived without Jack. No, you don't die from heartbreak).

If anyone from Biocon stumbles upon this blog, I would like to thank the entire HR team at Biocon House that mentored me during my stay. We need more companies in this country with a work ethic like that of Biocon.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post. If you found it relatable or inspirational please let me know and share it with your friends. You can subscribe to my blog to get notified via email every time I post on my blog. Thanks for reading and keep smiling.

Signing off,
-Nishma Khetia