Dr. Erik Hadley began his academic career at Simon Fraser University (SFU), where he majored in organic chemistry and spent several summers doing academic research in the area of chemical biology. Erik then pursued a PhD degree in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin – Madison where he developed peptide based model systems for the study of protein folding while in the lab of Dr. Samuel Gellman. Erik began his postdoctoral fellowship at CDRD in July 2008 in the division of Target Validation. His work at CDRD focused on the development of liposomal carriers for the delivery of cationic antimicrobial peptides.
"During my graduate studies, I became interested in pursuing a career as a research scientist in the biotechnology industry. I have enjoyed scientific research throughout my training, but I also enjoy learning about the business aspects of science and biotechnology companies. It is also important to me to pursue these interests while taking part in the building of industry in my home province of British Columbia. Once I began to explore employment options as a research scientist, it quickly became clear to me that two major contributors to success in this field are industrially relevant job experience and knowledge of the local industry. I needed improvement in both of these areas, so when I learned about CDRD, I recognized immediately that a postdoctoral fellowship at this organization would be a great way to jumpstart my career while doing meaningful work; I saw the opportunity to gain valuable contacts in the industry while strengthening my CV to show future employers that my research skills were transferable to a more industrial setting.
Over the 21 months that I worked at CDRD, I participated in a variety of fast-paced drug development projects. I found the work that I did extremely fascinating and unlike anything I had done before. Although I was using the core scientific skills I had developed in my previous training, I was applying them while working with a truly multi-disciplinary team of people from different backgrounds. I made vast improvements to my abilities in the area of project management and communication that I would not have been able to make in an academic setting. My experience in these and other areas was supplemented by the formal training courses offered by CDRD. These courses provided a solid framework from which I could maximize the benefit of my practical experience learned through direct involvement in research projects. The training courses that I took while at CDRD will definitely provide a great foundation for continued improvement throughout my career.
One of the greatest benefits of my experience at CDRD was insight into the “bigger picture” regarding the significance of the research projects that I was involved in. I was challenged to think not only of how to move a project forward, but of the utility and long-term commercial viability of the products we were developing. This experience benefited me greatly when the Vancouver-based company, STEMCELL Technologies, invited me to discuss career opportunities. I delivered a presentation that effectively communicated how my research skill set could add value to their company by providing expertise that was complementary to their current capabilities. As a result of my presentation, I obtained a position at STEMCELL Technologies and achieved my goal of becoming a research scientist at a Vancouver-based company. I believe that I was successful in this endeavor because I was able to step back from the science and generate an accurate perspective of the current needs of their company; I do not believe that I would have had the confidence to succeed at this prior to my experience at CDRD. As I move forward in my new career, I am confident that the training and experience I obtained at CDRD will continue to be exceptionally valuable."
Dr Jonathan May received his MSci in Chemistry at the University of Durham in the UK, followed by a PhD from Southampton University (UK) working for Prof. Tom Brown in the area of Nucleic Acid Chemistry. Jonathan moved to Vancouver for a post-doc with Prof. David Perrin in the department of Chemistry at UBC, studying the synthesis of bicyclic peptides as well as developing many molecular biology skills. Following this, Jonathan took a post-doc position in the Medicinal Chemistry division at the CDRD in 2008.
"As one of the first lab based scientists at the CDRD I was immediately thrown into an exciting new environment, where I not only had to do Chemistry, but I simultaneously had to build a functional Chemistry lab. It was these initial experiences, in a half built lab, which helped further develop my ability to improvise and troubleshoot problems - sometimes in an unconventional manner. Work at the CDRD in the Medicinal chemistry lab involved making many diverse molecules for different projects, allowing me to practise many different synthetic manipulations and chemistries, often to strict time and purity constraints.
One of my best experiences at the CDRD was the opportunity to experience aspects of projects in other divisions. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to work in the formulation lab and develop new skills in the area of liposomal formulation. I consider this experience very valuable in my development as a scientist – not only did I learn how to formulate and characterise liposomal nanoparticles, but I was also able to apply some of my chemistry skills to modify these with functional proteins for targeted therapies.
I have been very grateful of my experience at CDRD for a real insight into the biotech industry; providing a plenitude of opportunity to learn about what were previously foreign areas of the drug development pipeline. This has been partly by working in a great environment surrounded by the knowledgeable scientists in the other divisions, but also helped considerably with the conception of the CDRD training scheme; a seminar and workshop based program providing a broad overview of each specialism of the pipeline from experts in the field. I believe this scheme has been largely responsible for improving everyone’s understanding, promoting discussion of related subjects between individuals, and allowing trainees to develop their transferable and translational skills.
I joined the CDRD to gain experience in an industrial small-biotech environment, with a view to pursuing a career in this sector. I not only gained a lot from this experience, but I also developed many new scientific and transferable skills which I am sure will be invaluable to me throughout the rest of my career."