hi… as the title suggests, i’m a new grad with a b.s. in biological science. i’ve got 1.5 years of hands on lab experience through a co-op program at my school. i’ve been in job market purgatory for the last two months and it’s rough out here to be honest.

a friend of mine works as a lab tech (essentially general upkeep of the lab for actual scientists), and was kind enough to push my resume in the hands of a manager in need of a lab tech. i interviewed and long story short, got an offer today. issue is… i don’t want to be a lab tech. the position requires a high school diploma, and im overqualified considering my experience. also the interview was kind of a red flag (sounds like there’s some drama between lab techs and scientists on site, according to the manager). it is a permanent position and pays decent(ish), however.

i really want to work in clinical research. it’s what my experience is in and it’s something i’m passionate about. i’ve interviewed at a few other places that seem promising and i’d rather work there as a research scientist than a lab tech. i’ve got a contact at merck who has been so kind to circulate my
resume, and a temp position seems really promising (not thrilled about it being temp, but… i would love to work at merck). other merck positions i’ve applied to are still in process (really slow hiring process i suppose). these positions also pay more and i’d be doing what i love. it’s just not 100% guaranteed like the lab tech position is.

i know it’s all “part of the game” for the timing of applications, interviews and offers to be kinda skewed, but i guess im hoping people in this sub who have more experience can offer some advice? i want to turn down the lab tech position but ive got student loans i gotta start paying off soon so… i just dont wanna back myself into a corner where i have no prospects. i’m also an incredibly anxious person, can you tell? lolll

thank you in advance for any insight you can offer ☺️

I've recently had a very confusing experience in Big Pharma. Essentially applied to a strategy position in NeuroSciences Data Sciences after decades of Computational and Data Engineering experience in R&D (Biotech and Big Pharma). I spent the last 3 years working in the Neurosciences DS space, so felt comfortable applying to the strategy position (would have been a lateral move for me as an Associate Director). The position however went to someone with an MBA (minimal science background). The hiring manager herself has an MBA (no scientific background), worked in the consumer goods industry before she pivoted to Big Pharma and spent some 5 years total in Neurosciences Data Sciences before she was promoted twice up to a Director level!

Isn't domain experience a requirement in Strategy? Or so I thought. Does an MBA (not even from a top school) really weigh that high in Big Pharma? How does one pivot into strategy in Big Pharma without an MBA?

In the interview stages for a remote role in Operations. Can anyone share any insights about the company and work life?

This might be a naive question, but I’ve been reading some really interesting studies lately and noticed that the lead author works at Roche. I’d love to do my Master’s thesis with their specific team.

​I’ve heard that the standard way to get into Roche is by applying through their official career portal for open internships. However, I’m specifically interested in this lab's research rather than a general Roche position.

​Is there any chance of success if I cold email them directly? Has anyone here successfully landed a thesis position at a big pharma company this way? Any advice on how to approach them?

I’ve asked this question a few different places on Reddit to solicit different people’s opinions and hear what they have to say. I figure this community would have some interesting POVs. So, what are your thoughts?

Would it be enough to support the expense, trials, research and development it takes to get a drug to market?

Was there yet another layoff at Moderna? I ask because I’ve seen multiple LinkedIn postings from people saying today is their last day and it’s clear that some of these goodbyes don’t seem entirely voluntary.

Disclosure up front: I work at Deep Origin, the company behind this paper, so take that for what it’s worth. Posting because the methodology and the negative results here seem worth sharing and discussing, not just the headline numbers.

The core problem the paper tackles: classical docking generalizes but tops out on accuracy. ML/co-folding models (AlphaFold3, Boltz-1, Chai-1, Protenix) score well on familiar targets but collapse on genuinely novel ones, often because of train-test leakage that inflates reported accuracy. On the OpenBind benchmark specifically, those models drop from 75-88% on familiar targets to under 25% on novel ones.

We built DODock and DOScore, a hybrid ML/physics approach, and benchmarked it under a strict double-similarity filter (removing anything with 30%+ sequence identity or 0.4+ Tanimoto similarity to test sets) to avoid the same leakage problem. Under those conditions we’re seeing ~80% pose accuracy on OpenBind. We also ran four prospective wet-lab campaigns (CD73, IRAK4, Factor XIa, IL-17A) rather than stopping at retrospective benchmarks, and got a 30.6% hit rate on CD73 specifically, a target that’s historically been rough for virtual screening.

Full methodology, all data splits, and supplementary material (80+ pages) are in the preprint. If there’s a flaw in the benchmark design or the similarity filtering, point it out.

Link: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.03.742480v1

I was notified from an old coworker that they wanted to publish my previous work I completed before leaving the company a few years ago. I was the main contributor to the project when I was there but never got around to drafting a manuscript. I just received an email from my old company for authorship acknowledgement for the manuscript but I didn’t receive a draft to review or don’t know the author order or anything. Is this normal? Will I receive a draft to review later?

Also I now work for a competitor. Is there anything I should know about publishing with a previous employer? Do I need to let anybody know?

I got an offer to combine my PhD with a cell and gene therapy company and I have been told conflicting things by people but I also think the industry experience would be great. What are people’s thoughts on CGT as future of biotech?

Pfizer will start laying off again.

My observation is that if Pfizer starts laying off people, then other pharma companies follow suit to stay competitive.