January 2024 Round Up

Since the last recap, the NWBI has hosted a multitude of events starting with the “Drug Discovery Webinar” held in October in collaboration with Sygnature Discovery. This was a highly successful event with over 115+ attendees. A big thank you to Dr Elizabeth Blaikley (Associate Principal Bioscientist), Dr Charlotte Criscuolo (Senior Scientist) and Dr Shalini Sankar (Senior Bioscientist) for offering valuable insights into the drug discovery process and sharing a glimpse into the daily lives of bioscientists.

We also had our “Medical Science Liaison Webinar” in November featuring global leaders Martijn Bijker (Medical Affairs Director) and Tom Caravela (Founder and Managing Partner of The Carolan Group). Both speakers provided insight into the role of an MSL and tips about breaking into the industry and what you can do to make yourself more employable.

To wrap the year up, we had our fully sold-out “Scientific Christmas Quiz” which was held at the Turing Tap (where we managed to fit 50+ people!) It was amazing to see such a great turn out and thank you to everyone who attended. For anybody who couldn’t manage to get a ticket or heard about the event too late, please don’t worry - there are so many other ways you can get involved at the NWBI. Just make sure to keep a regular eye on our social media pages to see what we are getting up to!

Even though we welcomed 2024 just a month ago, things at the NWBI have been very busy! We have already had our highly successful “Medical Communications Webinar” where Dr Alex Watson (Associate Director at VMLY&R Health) provided a great introduction to the world of Medical Writing. At this event, we also kicked off our flagship “Medical Writing Competition” which is currently underway! This is a great opportunity for people to enter the field and also win up to £600 in prize money, accompanied by a Medical Writing Masterclass at the VMLY&R office in Manchester! Submissions to manchester@nwbiotech.co.uk close on Sunday 25th February 2024 (https://www.nwbiotech.co.uk/copy-of-medical-writing-competition-2024).

Finally, we have our new “Breaking Into STEM” event coming up in February! In this in-person event, we aim to provide a platform for students to interact with role models, from both academia and industry, to motivate them to work towards a more equal, diverse and inclusive community in STEM. We would like to focus on the personal experiences of the speakers and also on faring the job market in STEM if you are from an underrepresented community.

More details for this upcoming event will be released very soon so make sure to keep your notifications on for our social media pages!