January 2019

Podcasting: How We Started and What We Learned Along the Way

News Article by Keith Morris-Schaffer and Katrina Jew, PhD Candidates for Toxicology

Graduate school is not just an opportunity for academic pursuits but also an opportunity to empower your voice through podcasting! Podcasting allows you to share your passion and fill in a deficient niche. We are two fifth-year toxicology graduate students who have appreciated the opportunities provided by URBEST to promote all avenues of employment a PhD could pursue. This seed of inspiration encouraged us to expand this style of opportunity by making a live podcast, titled “Interview with an Expert” for interested graduate students.

Internships at the GMP Facility: Our short experiences as Mentees

News Article by Brianna Shares, PhD Candidate in Cell Biology of Diseases, and Robert Maynard, PhD Candidate in Cell Biology of Disease

One of the ways to determine what skills would be beneficial to future employers is to simply look at job postings and see which skills you have or don’t have. I noticed a recurring theme in the job descriptions: GMP experience was commonly a preferred or required qualification. If you’re thinking ‘what on earth is GMP?’ you’re not alone. A quick internet search gave me my answer: Good Manufacturing Practice (hence GMP) is essentially the standard for manufacturing and testing a product, such as a pharmaceutical drug, so that it is safe for human use. GMP was something that I had no experience with, so I decided to do something about it.

Internships at the GMP facility: My short experience as a Mentor

News Article by Luisa Caetano-Davies, Principal Scientist and Facility Director of The Upstate Stem Cell cGMP Facility

In 2016, I was a post-doc and I was far from imagining that my own URBEST internship at the Upstate Stem Cell cGMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) Facility (USCGF) would be my passport into USCGF management, business development and mentoring of students at my fingertips. The USCGF is located in the basement of the MRBX building, a truly hidden Oasis! We work as a team for the manufacturing of cell-based therapies for clinical trials. Our culture is industrial in its nature. As part of the production of materials to be tested for the first time in human clinical trials, we assure product safety, purity and potency by the documentation of process and procedures, qualification of equipment and analytical methods. The fact that the GMP facility is in the University is a plus because students can tour it and have a glimpse of what is happening in a Biotech company manufacturing setting.

Follow The Science - A Critical Path Toward Translational Research

Career Story by Elizabeth Evans, Vice President of Preclinical Research at Vaccinex, Inc.

As an undergraduate, I loved biology and, like many young students, was motivated “to make a difference”.  Throughout my education, I realized my curiosity and passion for critical thinking was best fulfilled by laboratory research, while my personal experiences fueled pursuit of translational research, especially cancer research.  I feel very fortunate to be able to pursue my professional goals, and to say I love my job 20 years later.  I remain hopeful that my contributions to a dedicated team will translate to effective therapies in the coming years.