New season of “Speaking of Mol Bio” podcast takes a deep dive into guests’ day-in-the-life across the field
When imagining molecular biology careers, do you find yourself stuck in a single lane?
The cultural idea of a “scientist” is often limited to the traditional academic researcher or professor. But there’s a whole world of alternative careers in science out there for those who are passionate about molecular biology.
In the newly launched Season 2 of the “Speaking of Mol Bio” podcast, scientists of all backgrounds come together to share their non-traditional career journeys. With diverse roles in government, industry, and beyond, they are able to pursue their passions. From beer brewing to science writing to sustainable energy production, each episode’s guest is making their mark on the field.
Read on to learn about five unique careers in molecular biology that you may not have thought about before. And be sure to subscribe to follow along with this season’s guests as new, full episodes drop from now through June 2024.
»Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe to the “Speaking of Mol Bio” podcast to find out when new Season 2 episodes drop.
![Kelly Tretter and John Leech have unique molecular biology careers in fermentation science](https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/life-in-the-lab/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Untitled-design-11-1024x576.png)
Kelly Tretter (left) and John Leech (right)
1. Beer brewing and fermentation science
- Kelly Tretter, Senior Quality Integration Manager, New Belgium Brewing
- John Leech, Bioprocessing and Fermentation Technologist, Teagasc Agriculture and Food Development Authority, Republic of Ireland
Industrial bioproduction — which uses living cells to produce key molecular products at scale — is in itself a whole universe of careers. The same basic science can lead you to a key therapeutic that will change someone’s life or to a crisp, balanced glass of beer or wine. The career possibilities are endless.
SOMB guest Kelly Tretter is a trailblazing microbiologist with 30+ years of experience in the male-dominated beer brewing industry. Her day-to-day duties as a quality specialist include monitoring products and materials for safety, quality, and taste, drawing on scientific data to understand which contaminating bacteria might affect a beer’s flavor profile. She uses core molecular biology techniques like PCR, chromatography, and more in her work.
Yeast is the fermenting organism behind the taste of your favorite beer, but of course there’s a whole, vast world of other microorganisms out there.
Guest scientist John Leech bridged into fermentation science from evolutionary biology, where he had become interested in the strange longevity of bats (fun fact: they live much longer than their body size suggests they should!) and the role of the microbiome in human health and aging.
Many consumers try to boost their microbiome diversity through commercial probiotics containing 1-12 strains of bacterial species, says Leech, but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to how many species may coexist within natural, healthy microbiomes. Leech is interested in using naturally probiotic-rich, fermented foods to enhance health and is examining which ones can demonstrate reproducible benefits.
Beyond the food and beverage space, fermentation science also extends into career possibilities in biofuel production, pharmaceutical manufacturing, skincare and cosmetic design, and more.
![Jason Amsbaugh](https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/life-in-the-lab/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/amsbaugh-headshot.jpeg)
Jason Amsbaugh
2. Science writing and marketing
- Jason Amsbaugh, CEO, Samba Scientific
In today’s world, we are fortunate to have more – and more advanced – tools and data than ever before to fuel our collective scientific exploration, innovation, and creation. The downside? We have more tools and data than ever before. It’s a lot to keep track of.
Science writers, marketers, and communicators help connect knowledge to power, linking the right tools and data to the right audiences who could benefit from them.
Life science marketers like guest Jason Amsbaugh work with industry-leading companies to increase awareness of solutions like instruments, reagents, and services among customers who are facing a problem that these new approaches might address.
This work – which can span the gamut of skills from writing, strategizing, analyzing, designing, and more – often requires technical expertise, so that marketers can fully understand workflow pain points and possible solutions. To effectively communicate to their audience via whitepapers, brochures, blogs, explanatory videos, and more, marketers benefit from scientific training that helps them engage with customers in peer-to-peer conversations.
Beyond marketing agencies, science communicators and writers can also work in government, academia, PR, journalism, and industry.
![Beverly Wood](https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/life-in-the-lab/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/WOOD-Headshot.jpg)
Beverly Wood
3. Food safety and biosecurity
- Beverly Wood, Molecular Diagnostics Lab Supervisor, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Food safety and biosecurity is another large field that addresses the more insidious members of the global microbiome – disease-causing agents and toxins.
On the human health side, molecular biologists can serve as infectious disease experts monitoring disease risk and spread via molecular diagnostics. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, molecular biologists have been key in developing tests and treatments and in surveilling wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 virus levels.
Some molecular biologists become biosafety experts helping to deliver safe facilities, trainings, and best practices for handling dangerous pathogens, while others pursue national security policymaking with their deep scientific understanding.
On the side of food safety and security, scientists like guest and public servant Beverly Wood work to protect our food, economic, and health systems by monitoring livestock and food supplies for contamination, illness and potentially zoonotic diseases like avian and swine flus, chronic wasting disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, foodborne illnesses, and more.
Biologists in this space can also explore high-level food system resilience to pandemics, climate change, invasive pests, and more. These efforts often begin at the molecular level, such as using genetic engineering to develop more resistant plants, engineer remediating symbionts, or interrupt a pest population’s reproductive cycle.
![Elizabeth "Izzy" Bell and Ramesh Jha have made molecular biology careers at the National Labs working on clean energy applications](https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/life-in-the-lab/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Untitled-design-12-1024x576.png)
Elizabeth “Izzy” Bell (left) and Ramesh Jha (right)
4. Sustainable energy and materials production
- Elizabeth “Izzy” Bell, Postdoctoral Researcher, Bioengineering, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Ramesh Jha, Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory
A lot of clean energy innovation happens in the physics and chemistry realms, but biology has a lot to contribute as well.
Guest Ramesh Jha won a prestigious R&D 100 award for his team’s work on a project called Smart Microbial Cell Technology, an ultra-high-throughput screening platform for engineering custom biocatalysts. The system can screen a million genetic variants in just hours.
Biocatalysts are enzymes that enhance the rate of chemical reactions; it’s a 10 billion dollar industry spanning nearly every sector, but this field is especially critical to advancing clean energy and sustainability science. As we continue to produce huge amounts of waste like plastics and greenhouse gases with long staying power, we are in dire need of faster chemical processes to break them down and mitigate damage.
Guest Izzy Bell is working to optimize enzymes for biocatalytic recycling of nylons and polyurethanes.
Other applications of molecular biology within sustainability science: hacking photosynthesis for carbon dioxide conversion into fuels, engineering plants or other organisms to sequester carbon or bioremediate soil, and monitoring biomarkers for signs of climate change impact and early warning of “tipping points” in ecosystem health.
As a field that sits at the intersection of computational modeling, molecular biology, AI, clean energy, next-generation sequencing, and more, sustainable materials production is a very future-proof and exciting career path option.
![Samoor Hekmaty and Joey Azofeifa built molecular biology careers in the pharmaceutical and drug discovery industries](https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/life-in-the-lab/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/03/Untitled-design-13-1024x576.png)
Saboor Hekmaty (left) and Joey Azofeifa (right)
5. Pharmaceuticals and Contract Research Organizations (CROs)
- Joey Azofeifa, CEO & Founder, Arpeggio Biosciences
- Saboor Hekmaty, Director of Laboratory Operations, Avrok Biosciences
In this golden age of life science innovation, R&D specialists are pushing the limits of therapeutics as novel tools and techniques like next-generation sequencing (NGS) continue to emerge. Many are also taking a more holistic view to problem-solving with multiomics approaches that braid together ideas from genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and more.
Molecular biologists work at the heart of the pharmaceutical design space by developing everything from oligo therapeutics to mRNA vaccines to novel drug classes. And today’s researchers are tackling unique challenges like antibiotic resistance, a need for more personalized medicines, and more.
Guest Joey Azofeifa is CEO and Founder of Arpeggio Biosciences, a company developing new medicine to target homeostasis in cancer and chronic kidney disease using advances in AI and RNA-sequencing.
Drug developers – from small startups to Fortune 500 companies – often lean on the help of Contract Research Organizations (CROs) for the crucial testing portion of R&D. CROs provide specialized, outsourced support in designing, managing, monitoring, and analyzing results of clinical trials. Guest Saboor Hekmaty is Director of Laboratory Operations at Avrok Biosciences, a 10,000 square-foot CRO facility in California providing clinical and translational research support including sample intake, processing, testing, array development, and sample storage.
» Listen and subscribe to Season 2 of “Speaking of Mol Bio” for a slice of life into different careers in molecular biology
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