I am the founder of BioBuzz Networks, and its sister company Workforce Genetics, two companies that both serve the biotherapies market. My journey into the field began at Towson University in Maryland where I started as a Biology major. After hitting a challenging semester of Organic Chemistry, I switched to Business which I ultimately graduated with. My first job out of college was in 2004 as an IT recruiter. I never lost my love for life science though and eagerly encouraged the company to let me start recruiting for biotech companies. In just over a year, my persistence paid off and I launched the Life Science recruiting division in Maryland and never looked back.
After 10 years and expanding the life science division nationally, I left to pursue entrepreneurial aspirations at an online community SaaS startup called Breezio. There I learned about running a software company, product management and how to drive sales in the SaaS field. That was my last stop before making the decision to take the leap in 2018 when I launched Workforce Genetics and BioBuzz to pursue my passions for talent, community and life sciences. I feel very blessed that I get to do what I love, in an industry that I love every day, and I’m proud to have built an industry leading Recruitment firm that is trusted by so many companies and helped hundreds of candidates get placed in great careers, as well as an industry leading brand in BioBuzz that is revolutionizing how the life science workforce connects with one another and with new opportunities.
BioBuzz was founded 14 years ago, and, while it has gone through many evolutions, our mission is deeply rooted in building community and better connecting the biotech workforce. I see the organization's role as an industry platform to build community, advance careers and grow jobs so that individuals and companies in life sciences can thrive. We have a vision to become a career-long destination for the life sciences workforce.
What I’m most excited about in the years to come is the launch of our new on-demand hiring platform - which we’re calling the Talent Lab. It leverages our existing community platform and new technology that we’re building to help better match talent with a variety of work opportunities using a skills-based approach. Unlike most job boards, we put talent and community at the heart of our platform , and it supports a variety of job types; including internships, temporary and part-time projects, expert consulting opportunities, fractional leadership roles and also, eventually, full-time positions.
It’s a big undertaking, but one that we are eagerly diving into. We hear from so many employers that they need better access to talent and more flexibility in their workforce solutions, especially in today’s current market where budgets are lower and both investors and executives expect more conservative hiring and more outsourcing. We’re confident in this next evolution to solve today’s hiring challenges because we’re simply tech-enabling what we’ve already been doing for a long time. We should have the first beta version out in Q1 this year, so stay tuned!
The industry is changing and advancing rapidly and new technologies are speeding up this pace of change so skills will need to keep up as well. Emerging fields in gene therapy, radiopharmaceuticals, combination-products, AI and computational biology are all impacting the skills that will be needed in the future.
One particular field that is driving the demand for certain skills is gene therapy, and this could be a breakout year with a possibility of 17 programs that could get FDA approval in 2024. There are also 1,500 ongoing cell and gene therapy clinical trials, so the pipeline continues to grow. This field is still quite young so companies continue to pursue better, more scalable development and production solutions. Quality remains a critical factor in gene therapy, and an area for increased attention as well. The in-demand skills that I see being driven by this are bioprocess engineering skills, and analytical and quality skills. Strong molecular and cell biology skills are also in demand and will continue to grow; including skills in CRISPR CAS-9 and flow cytometry.
The continued adoption and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in drug development and clinical trials, along with the advancement of multi-omics technologies will continue to grow the demand for computational biology, bioinformatics, and data science skills in the industry. I think these information technology skills will only grow in demand over the coming years.
Adaptability and flexibility are critical skills in today’s employment environment. The field and way of work continue to evolve at a fast pace, so your ability to leverage your domain knowledge and expertise and adapt to new roles or demands is an important quality that employers look for, and need. Employers can encourage or attract these skills by encouraging and supporting employees to work on cross-functional projects or move into other departments to broaden their experiences and understanding of how to adapt to new roles.
These days, you can enter the biotherapies field at any level. We are seeing organizations launch bootcamps that help non-degreed workers enter the field, and also community college programs that help career transitioners pick up the skills they need to kick off their career in biotherapies.
I think that certificate programs are an important part of skill and career development to advance in the biotherapies field and I was really impressed when I first learned about the CT Certificate Program and CABP certification offered by AABB. With such an importance being placed on quality, these help to show employers that you have the right skills and foundation to advance within the field and help you stand out in a market that is unfortunately full of candidates due to layoffs and a soft year of hiring. I highly recommend that job seekers utilize certificates and certifications as a way to be more competitive for the jobs they want.
We have been talking to a lot of employers about skills and candidate qualities as part of the process for building the Talent Lab solution. In those discussions we’ve identified a few key characteristics that we hear over and over from our clients that are important to them when evaluating new hires. These hiring managers look for candidates with curiosity, a continuous learning mindset, attention to detail, integrity and willingness to speak up, as well as the ability to communicate effectively with others. These characteristics all align with working in a highly technical environment, with many cross functional collaborators and the importance of following SOPs and keeping Quality and patient safety at the forefront in a regulated field.
As I mentioned before, good analytical and quality skills are so important in this field. We see a lot of demand for flow cytometry, as well as single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) methods. I often hear that quality is a mindset and employees need to be trained and reminded of that mindset for it to stick. One of our partners, PQE Group, shared with us that they started offering custom training for their clients on policies, procedures, documentation, and behavior for their employees because you could have all of the right policies, procedures, and documentation but if you haven’t trained the right behavior and instilled the right mindset, then none of it matters.
The field is changing fast, and fortunately organizations like AABB are following those changes and provide a great source of up-to-date information and training to help stay ahead of the trends. Excuse the shameless, but honest, plug. I like to follow the social media posts after all the big conferences too. That’s my cheat sheet for staying on top of trends without paying for plane tickets and conference passes.
I have always said that collaboration is the root of innovation. There are great opportunities for collaboration as you think about closing the production processes, or decentralized manufacturing of cell therapies. I also think that you will see a lot of combination products start to emerge in the coming years as biotherapies companies look to further manage quality out to the point of care with the patient. This is a tremendous opportunity to create a better overall patient experience as well. I have learned a lot about this recently from Kymanox, a BioBuzz partner, who is an industry leader in the combination products field.
I remind people all the time that with all the skills in the world, it’s often a personal connection with someone that opens the door or closes the deal when it comes to a new job. Don’t forget the soft skills part of the equation. Remember the importance of nurturing your network and the art of winning friends and influencing people. And if you are on the market for a new job, be sure to create your BioBuzz Talent Lab profile to be part of the launch of our new hiring platform!
For further information on CellSource sponsorship please see AABB's Media Kit page or email businessdevelopment@aabb.org to discuss upcoming availability.
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