Higher Study - MS/PhD in Molecular Biology

Akshay Bhinge did his doctorate at UT-Austin from the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology and is currently a post-doc. He has an MBBS degree from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, and M.Tech in Bio-medical Engg. from IIT-Bombay. After a brief stint at IISc, Bangalore, as a research assistant, he came to the USA for his doctorate. He talks about research and career options in molecular biology and points to trends that could be common across the bio-sciences.

Molecular biology literally means the study of biology at the molecular level. The term “molecular” in molecular biology does not refer to the “atoms-make-molecules” concept in the chemistry sense of the word but to biological molecules such as DNA, RNA and proteins. Cell biology aims to understand how a cell functions. The distinction between these terms is blurry. To understand how a cell works, you have to understand how its sub-component biomolecules work and interact.
Most universities in the US offer graduate-level courses (PhD or MS) in molecular biology.

Learn to multi-task

Ensure the school provides funding for international students, if you are applying to specialized departments within these universities such as computational biology or systems biology. Most universities have a PhD program but not all have an MS track. There's more hassle to getting out with a Masters', if there is no dedicated M.S. track.
Don't apply to a department just because there is one professor whose research you find very exciting. You will probably be competing against several other students for that one lab.

Prioritize your goals. It can be challenging to juggle course work with lab rotations and teaching assignments. During the second year, students appear for their prelim - an examination to write a grant proposal on their own and defend it in front of a review panel. The aim is to enable students to write grants, read papers and formulate hypotheses. This is usually the time people start dropping off with a Masters' degree.

Err on the simpler side

Don't try to prove yourself at this stage. Your publications and presentations will speak for themselves. The aim should be to clear the test. Some students prepare ambitious projects and have a hard time defending their aims. Some take the opposite approach and make it too simple and the committee has little room to ask questions. It’s difficult to strike the right balance but err on the simpler side. Talk to your seniors; try to give them your proposal a couple of weeks in advance so that you have time to revise your document. Give lots of mock presentations before people who have gone through this.

Plan your graduate research, after you are done with prelims and coursework. Work on at least two different projects. One can be your own fantastic, high risk/high gain idea and the other should be the bread and butter of the lab that will generate data and a paper. Even if your brain-wave doesn’t work out, it can still make a negative results chapter in your thesis.

Success is rare

Do not enter a PhD program with romantic notions about finding a cure. That happens on a regular basis only on “reel” life. In the real world, there will be more failed experiments than you can count and an occasional success in proving something. That one success is enough to spike your adrenaline and power you through the next set of experiments.

Done with your PhD and ready to move on?

The common exit strategy for biology PhDs is to go for post-doctoral research. It gives you time to think about your future goals, an opportunity to change fields, if you want to, and looks great on your resume. You don’t get paid a whole lot as a post-doc. Most post-docs get paid the NIH standard and this is not normalized for cost of living. If you accept a position in Boston, you may get paid the same as a post-doc in Austin, though you are paying 2 to 3 times as much rent as compared to your peer in Austin. It is sufficient to pay your bills and have a decent standard-of-living, if not a lavish one.
If you plan to apply for a faculty job, several years of post-doc is a must. The numbers of years of post-doc experience required to land a good job varies. It depends on what and how you publish, but the current average seems to be 4-6 years.
Many biotech industries require post-doc experience too. I know some graduates who transitioned into an industrial research position without a post-doc too. It depends on demand for your skills in the particular industry you are applying to, how well-connected your advisor is and a bit of luck.

Post-doc in industry

You can also pursue a post-doc in an industry. Some research-oriented biotech companies - for example, Genentech, Roche, Pfizer, Merck - have research groups similar to academia and advertise post-doc openings. Industrial post-docs get paid better. I am not sure about how visible you will be at the end of it. Most companies are shy about publishing cutting-edge research and, if you are unable to publish your research, an academic position is no longer an option.
Many fresh graduates also opt for a sales/marketing position. Having a PhD gives you credibility and you have the know-how of a typical research lab. At the end of your graduate work, if you find yourself wanting a break from research, this might not be a bad idea. I have heard it pays well. It's an easy guess that it pays better than what you might get during your post-doc.

Editing scientific journals

Another option is working as an editor for a scientific journal. Post-doc experience will be a plus. If you are excited by science and want to contribute but want to stay away from the pipette, this would be the job for you. You won’t start at the highest level but many top-notch journals need people who understand the field and can identify research worthy of further evaluation.

The role you play will vary depending on the journal. Typically, you will scan through research articles submitted to the journal and write a concise report for your senior editor who decides whether the article needs to be sent for review. Once the article is accepted, you might be involved in editing and formatting it to meet journal specifications. The perks of the job include invitations to lots of conferences all over the country and internationally. The conference will pay for your travel, lodging and food and you get to interact with a lot of scientists from different fields. This can be stimulating and fun.

PhD-MBAs

I have been told that PhD-MBAs are in great demand. MBA courses typically last a couple of years, so you are out quick. The downside is that these courses are expensive - and I mean really expensive. funding is real hard to get, especially for international students.
Another great option is the MD-PhD program. If you already have a degree in clinical Medicine/Surgery (MBBS candidates), you have an advantage. Even if you don’t, you are still eligible to apply. The main problem is getting support if you are an international student. UT-Austin offers a MD-PhD program through its BioMedical Engg dept. The clinical part is offered by UTMB. Check out this website for details.

Emerging fields

In the post-genomics era, we see other emerging fields such as systems biology, computational biology and synthetic biology. Systems biology aims to study how information is processed by the cell as a system, computational biology lies at the confluence of computer science and biology while synthetic biology aims to understand biological networks by generating artificial ones. Irrespective of the term being used, the goal is to understand the grand molecular plan underlying biology and the focus is usually on understanding mechanism and function.

UT Austin has a PhD program in it's Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology. UT Austin is very international-student friendly and among the most diverse institutes in the country. It has one of the largest campuses in the US. All students accepted into the program get funded through a TA or RA-ship. The first two semesters involve taking courses (9 credits each semester) and rotating in 3 different labs, at the end of which students choose their permanent lab. A similar format exists across other universities in the US.

Some good universities to apply to, besides Stanford, MIT or Harvard, are: University of Colorado in Boulder, University of California in San Diego, University of California in Santa Cruz, University of California in San Francisco, Boston University,  University of Washington at St Louis, University of Texas at Austin, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Rockefeller University, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, Oregon State University, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago at Urbana Champaign, University of Michigan

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