Job shadowing program of the GDCh Division of Medicinal Chemistry

This year's Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry 2022 conference poster prize awardees Joscha Meiers (Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland), Suzanne Willems (TU Dortmund University), Anja Vogelmann (University of Freiburg), Kirujan Jeyakumar (TU Dortmund University) and EFMC mentee Phani Kumar Nekkanti attended a job shadowing event offered by the NextGenMedChem group of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry. The event was the first one of its kind and this year Sanofi (Frankfurt am Main, María Méndez Pérez) and Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Tatjana Ross) sponsored the event. The awardees had the chance to meet medicinal chemists and visit the laboratories at both companies. During their stay they gained insights how a general workday of a medicinal chemist looks like and how different the career paths of these colleagues might be. As medicinal chemistry is a very interdisciplinary research area the awardees also met scientists from computational chemistry and pharmacology to gain insights in how collaborative research project teams work in industry. The students acknowledged this opportunity as a unique event that helps to gain a realistic impression on job profiles in industry which otherwise stays very vague before applying for a job outside of academia. Overall, it felt like a great success and the NextGenMedChem group plans to continue with this event in 2023.

“It did not so much change my view on medicinal chemistry, in the end it is very collaborative research area that was confirmed once again during these two days. But it showed how enthusiastic scientist are about developing something new.” Suzanne Willems

“Expertise in chemistry is not the only deciding factor to be a successful MedChem scientist. Effective project management skills, collaboration skills and cross-functional communication skills play a major role. The overall experience is very valuable. If you get a chance, don't miss it." Phani Kumar Nekkanti

“I would highly recommend attending events like this. Otherwise, you would never get to see the facilities, feel what life at an industry site is like, and most importantly, get in contact with experienced and renowned scientists in the field." Kirujan Jeyakumar