Principal Scientist Highly Recommends Industry Experience

Name: Pravallika Manjappa (she/her)

PhD: Neuroscience, The Royal Veterinary College, 2023

What is your current job?

I am a Principal Scientist at ViaNautis Bio Ltd, based in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom.

I am a preclinical scientist, responsible for building data packages to develop new medicines for various diseases. A big part of my job involves designing and executing preclinical studies to build confidence that the medicines we discover and develop will work in the clinic.

What is your favorite thing about your job?

What excites me is the fact that I can take charge of preclinical drug development and generate data that will convince the regulators that our medicine will be beneficial to patients. This also comes with multiple failures, which ensures my job is never boring.

What is the most important skill you developed or experience you had during your PhD that now helps you in your current position?

My PhD was fully industry based (at AstraZeneca), which helped me understand and contribute to various drug discovery and development projects. At the end of my PhD, I already had enough industry experience to join the team and contribute effectively.

How did you build the skills necessary for your current role?

I was proactive in getting involved and receiving on the job training during my PhD, which helped me gain a lot of relevant industry experience. I utilised the AstraZeneca learning platform to further enhance my learning.

How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?

I was recommended by my colleague who had just moved to the company.

Undergraduate in Medicine (6 years) ➡️ Research intern (1 year) ➡️ Masters by Research (1 year) ➡️ PhD graduate (3 years) ➡️ Senior Scientist (1.5 years) ➡️ Associate Principal Scientist (1.25 years) ➡️ Principal Scientist (current)

If someone is interested in a similar role, what would you recommend they start doing now to prepare?

Start by understanding if it's something you would like to do, as you wouldn't want to be stuck in a job you hate. Talking to people within the field and understanding what their daily job is helps. The best way to learn more would be to shadow them or take on some responsibilities and learn on the job.

Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?

This decision came quite easy for me as I really enjoyed the fast pace of industry and didn't necessarily enjoy my secondment in an academic lab.

What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?

I would highly recommend gaining some industry experience in a relevant field, even if it is for a few months.

Are there any components of your identity you would like to share, including how they have impacted your journey?

My clinical background, I believe, definitely helped me land my PhD and eventually all following roles. I have also been keen to progress my career and worked towards it all along.

And for those interested, what was your main area of research?

One of the biggest challenges in drug development is that the animal models used in research do not mimic the actual disease process seen clinically in patients. My PhD involved comparing different rodent models of joint pain to see how closely they mimic the disease patients present with. Along with comparing the pathology involved, I also tested different analgesics (pain killers) to see how they respond in the animal models v/s the clinic and assess if new generation analgesics (currently under development, i.e., undergoing clinical trials) are better and safer than the present standard of care.