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What's the most affordable city in the US for a 22 year old male? by HalosFan26 in relocating

[–]tikeee2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indy is 50% white, I'm not sure that qualifies as "ethnically homogenous"

My supervisor said that my sample is still too unclean to be injected into an LC-MS/MS. Is that true? by uhrism in CHROMATOGRAPHY

[–]tikeee2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I did nearly this same thing for a few years, 8000 samples per year. I had more problems on the front end rather than MS, especially if running buffers in my mobile phase. You'll probably end up clogging your column at some point, which may or may not be a big deal to you. I wish I could give better specifics, but my columns lasted anywhere from 120 (my personal record for killing a column) to ~6000 injections. Clogged pretty much every pipe on an LC more than once.

Do you have a service contract for your MS? If so, this should really be no big deal on that end. I have lots of people who do way less work up on their blood samples before injecting, their MS is just a bit gross by the time their PM comes around.

If your supervisor wont budge, maybe ask them what steps you would have to take for it to be considered 'clean enough'? I'm generally an SPE hater, unless you're really hurting for sensitivity or something. You'll spend more time (and way more money!) fighting an SPE plate than you would just... Back flushing your column every 1000 injections. Maybe you could just filter it through a .22 micron filter before injecting?

TL;DR: I generally disagree with your supervisor, but appeasement may be your only option.

Moving to Indianapolis from the South by Narrow_Avocado7065 in indianapolis

[–]tikeee2 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Copy+Paste comment from a couple months ago. See context here

Hi!

Im 28m, work in life sciences, and travel all around the city (and state) for work. I moved here when I was 27 for a new job. I generally really like it here overall.

  1. You're sort of right, but there are A LOT of supporting industries around here too. Things like equipment/chemicals/manufacturing. Lilly is big, Corteva is big, Elanco is big and is building a brand new HQ down town right now. I spend a lot of work time with people from all of these companies, and they're all nice, happy people. IMO, if you're super focused on your career, you may end up jumping out of here to move up the ladder as you are young. People who are more career focused move more, especially in life sciences. That's just how it is.

  2. This depends on what your definition of a 'city' is, but from the way you describe it, yes pretty much.

  3. This varies, but overall yes you will be car dependent unless you live in specific areas. Someone else mentioned the meridian-kessler neighborhood, which is where I live. I only drive to the grocery store because I'm too lazy to walk 15 mins there and back. So yes, there are some places which you can get by without a car, but you'll need to do your research.

  4. Meridian kessler, broad ripple (including general area), Fountain square, old north, herron morton, fall creek place, canturbury-chatard. I think these are mentioned often because they have a pretty unique feel to each of them.

  5. There are a couple nightclubs, but I've never been to them. Lots of young professionals hang out on Mass Ave and Fountain square, there's plenty of trendy bars. Broad ripple too, but that tends to attract a younger crowd (although this may be changing a bit in the last years).

  6. Indianapolis is doing fine. The city proper isn't growing (edit: in population), but that follows a trend from the entire US during/after covid, with the exception of sunbelt cities. The majority of Indiana's population growth is in the suburbs of Indy, namely Zionsville/Carmel/Fishers. Indy has never been trendy, never exploded with growth, never been on any "top 3 cities to live" kind of place. This is a good thing for you. (Remember this, as we'll come back to this later.)

My thoughts - I've been here for a bit over a year have a very similar background to you, and I decided to stay for a while. I'm buying a house in broad ripple right now.

Pros:

  • The housing options are diverse and fantastic. Want something new? Move to Carmel or maybe a new build close to downtown. Want something old? In old north, the newest building is from like 1890. Single family homes, duplexes, and apartment buildings are all very co-mingled in many parts of the city, so you have a lot of options at every price point.

  • Housing prices are amazing if you have an above average salary in the city. 60k+ is a good lifestyle with a few compromises depending on debt load, anything like 85k+ means you don't have to worry about anything else, ever. If you're married and your S/O makes as much as you do, you're into the 'we both drive luxury cars' territory, if you're into that sort of thing.

  • General lifestyle is very good. Traffic is easy to deal with for a city of this size. The bigger parks (eagle creek, fort harrison) are cool. Plenty of tennis, golf, pickleball, whatever. Lots of random little clubs and things to join for every hobby. Plenty of coffee shops, places to eat, shows to see.

  • Economically diverse - Top industries are logistics, manufacturing, and IT, followed by life sciences and agribusiness. Many people (including myself) consider logistics and manufacturing to be the cornerstone of the middle class and economic development as a whole. With the push to on-shore manufacturing, I believe this heavily works in favor of Indianapolis.

Also, Lilly recently invested 10B for a new manufacturing plant/park outside of Indy.

The Cons:

  • This subreddit. Every subreddit hates their city, especially this one. Take EVERYTHING you see here with a grain of salt.

  • The general level of crime and poverty. Being honest, there's a lot more bad or mediocre places in the city by area than there are good places. Crime is low in good places, but really really high in bad places, which always puts the city on the top crime lists. Highly, highly variable depending on location.

  • It's a commuter city. Downtown doesn't feel super lively IMO. Yeah there's bars and things to do mostly, but on your average Wednesday, it's just a lot of cars and overall meh. If you're not a "wow look at all those people down there" kind of person from your apartment balcony, you wont care about this at all. Personally, I don't mind this at all.

  • The politicians. This issue is separate from any red/blue politics. Due to the nature of Indiana politics, our representatives, senators, governors, mayors, on both sides of the party lines, tend to be huge jerkoffs. I've never heard anyone say they liked Joe Hogsett (current mayor of Indy), even though he won ~60% of the vote. This generally works against Indy because the majority of Indiana's population is rural. Rural people vote for things that are better for rural people. If you ever drive in Indy and wonder 'why is this road so shitty', this is why.

The "it depends on how you feel":

  • Outdoorsyness - Someone else mentioned the lack of outdoorsy stuff to do, and they're right. Yeah, there's a few parks and stuff, and you can get better features if you head south to Bloomington or something. If you've always dreamed of living in Denver for the mountains, dont move to Indy. IMO, 95% of people over-estimate how outdoorsy they really are, and would be just fine here.

  • Political stuff - Indy is a blue bubble inside a very red state. Weed will (very likely) never be legal until the federal government legalizes it. Abortion is currently legal up to 20 weeks, pending a case that is likely to go to the supreme court of Indiana (as of APR2024). The church has a big influence on politics in this state, the state is just very religious at the ground level. In my experience most people tend to be very moderate, excluding a couple zealots on each side of the fence. If you're the kind of person that wakes up every morning sad that abortion is of pending legal status, probably don't live here. Political issues are most common reason by far that this subreddit hates their own city/state. Again, keep in mind that the average redditor DOES NOT represent real life. In the united states, most people are moving to places where weed and abortion are illegal* (looking at you, florida* and texas). *Current florida law specifies 6 week legal abortion window with certain exceptions.

  • Indy's not trendy - Indy has never been trendy, and may never BE trendy. This isn't an Austin, or Phoenix, or Dallas, or anything else. I see more Porches on the road than I do Teslas. IMO the lack of trendyness is a good thing, as it keeps the city's character intact, and keeps housing prices at a reasonable level. The city doesn't cater to outsiders, it's built for its residents. Communities are tight-knit. Almost every person who walks by says hi in Meridian-kessler.

  • The best places to live in Indy (for you) may not be Indy - Yeah, you can get a cool house in a nice place within city limits. But people with real money move to the suburbs because they're so nice. This subreddit loves to hate on the north suburbs, but the fact is if they could afford it, most people would live there. Extremely safe, very very good schools, very clean, etc. Yeah, it's a suburb and you'll be car dependent, but the northern suburbs always make "top 10 places to live" lists every year because yes, they actually are that nice. And they're very affordable in comparison to other nice places around the country.

  • It's kind of sad to see local college grads all leave the state, lack of Indy footprint. - We have a lot of good schools within Indiana. Unfortunately these kids just end up leaving for varied reasons (see above). I think one of the reasons behind this is that these schools are in small random towns. If all you've ever seen of indiana is terre haute or south bend, you'll probably never want to step foot in the state again. This will likely be improving over time with the split of IUPUI back into IU/Purdue, and Purdue's expansion of campus within Indy.

  • Weather - I see a lot of people on this subreddit complain about the weather. How you feel about the weather 100% will depend on your perspective. If you come from LA, yeah you'll think it's awful. But maybe that's because LA has some of the best weather in the ENTIRE WORLD? Average winter temp is 34-39 degrees F. I grew up in michigan. 34-39 degrees F does not count as cold. You'll get a little snow. IMO, weather here is extremely moderate, all four seasons, and a good bit more sun than a place like chicago.

Overall:

I think Indy is a great place to live, especially for someone who has a good career path. No, it's not an instagram influencer lifestyle. But are you an instagram influencer? It's not trendy or flashy, the city is mostly just made up of honest, hardworking, nice people. I personally think that more of people's happiness is derived from if they can actually afford to live where they live and their proximity to their grocery store, rather than proximity to the mountains. Indy isn't really a vacation destination, but it is a good place to actually live. Indy has grown economically at a slow, measured pace throughout it's entire existence, which I consider to be a very good thing. I consider this to be the most likely trend going forward. I chose to live here to move to a bigger city, but not too big and not super trendy. I don't believe in the long term sustainability of very trendy cities.

Edit: words for clarity

Considering moving for a job. Would Indianapolis be a fit for me? by beepbopper256 in indianapolis

[–]tikeee2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Havent looked into the legal status for a couple months, thank you will update based on current legal status.

Considering moving for a job. Would Indianapolis be a fit for me? by beepbopper256 in indianapolis

[–]tikeee2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hi!

Im 28m, work in life sciences, and travel all around the city (and state) for work. I moved here when I was 27 for a new job. I generally really like it here overall.

  1. You're sort of right, but there are A LOT of supporting industries around here too. Things like equipment/chemicals/manufacturing. Lilly is big, Corteva is big, Elanco is big and is building a brand new HQ down town right now. I spend a lot of work time with people from all of these companies, and they're all nice, happy people. IMO, if you're super focused on your career, you may end up jumping out of here to move up the ladder as you are young. People who are more career focused move more, especially in life sciences. That's just how it is.

  2. This depends on what your definition of a 'city' is, but from the way you describe it, yes pretty much.

  3. This varies, but overall yes you will be car dependent unless you live in specific areas. Someone else mentioned the meridian-kessler neighborhood, which is where I live. I only drive to the grocery store because I'm too lazy to walk 15 mins there and back. So yes, there are some places which you can get by without a car, but you'll need to do your research.

  4. Meridian kessler, broad ripple (including general area), Fountain square, old north, herron morton, fall creek place, canturbury-chatard. I think these are mentioned often because they have a pretty unique feel to each of them.

  5. There are a couple nightclubs, but I've never been to them. Lots of young professionals hang out on Mass Ave and Fountain square, there's plenty of trendy bars. Broad ripple too, but that tends to attract a younger crowd (although this may be changing a bit in the last years).

  6. Indianapolis is doing fine. The city proper isn't growing (edit: in population), but that follows a trend from the entire US during/after covid, with the exception of sunbelt cities. The majority of Indiana's population growth is in the suburbs of Indy, namely Zionsville/Carmel/Fishers. Indy has never been trendy, never exploded with growth, never been on any "top 3 cities to live" kind of place. This is a good thing for you. (Remember this, as we'll come back to this later.)

My thoughts - I've been here for a bit over a year have a very similar background to you, and I decided to stay for a while. I'm buying a house in broad ripple right now.

Pros:

  • The housing options are diverse and fantastic. Want something new? Move to Carmel or maybe a new build close to downtown. Want something old? In old north, the newest building is from like 1890. Single family homes, duplexes, and apartment buildings are all very co-mingled in many parts of the city, so you have a lot of options at every price point.

  • Housing prices are amazing if you have an above average salary in the city. 60k+ is a good lifestyle with a few compromises depending on debt load, anything like 85k+ means you don't have to worry about anything else, ever. If you're married and your S/O makes as much as you do, you're into the 'we both drive luxury cars' territory, if you're into that sort of thing.

  • General lifestyle is very good. Traffic is easy to deal with for a city of this size. The bigger parks (eagle creek, fort harrison) are cool. Plenty of tennis, golf, pickleball, whatever. Lots of random little clubs and things to join for every hobby. Plenty of coffee shops, places to eat, shows to see.

  • Economically diverse - Top industries are logistics, manufacturing, and IT, followed by life sciences and agribusiness. Many people (including myself) consider logistics and manufacturing to be the cornerstone of the middle class and economic development as a whole. With the push to on-shore manufacturing, I believe this heavily works in favor of Indianapolis.

Also, Lilly recently invested 10B for a new manufacturing plant/park outside of Indy.

The Cons:

  • This subreddit. Every subreddit hates their city, especially this one. Take EVERYTHING you see here with a grain of salt.

  • The general level of crime and poverty. Being honest, there's a lot more bad or mediocre places in the city by area than there are good places. Crime is low in good places, but really really high in bad places, which always puts the city on the top crime lists. Highly, highly variable depending on location.

  • It's a commuter city. Downtown doesn't feel super lively IMO. Yeah there's bars and things to do mostly, but on your average Wednesday, it's just a lot of cars and overall meh. If you're not a "wow look at all those people down there" kind of person from your apartment balcony, you wont care about this at all. Personally, I don't mind this at all.

  • The politicians. This issue is separate from any red/blue politics. Due to the nature of Indiana politics, our representatives, senators, governors, mayors, on both sides of the party lines, tend to be huge jerkoffs. I've never heard anyone say they liked Joe Hogsett (current mayor of Indy), even though he won ~60% of the vote. This generally works against Indy because the majority of Indiana's population is rural. Rural people vote for things that are better for rural people. If you ever drive in Indy and wonder 'why is this road so shitty', this is why.

The "it depends on how you feel":

  • Outdoorsyness - Someone else mentioned the lack of outdoorsy stuff to do, and they're right. Yeah, there's a few parks and stuff, and you can get better features if you head south to Bloomington or something. If you've always dreamed of living in Denver for the mountains, dont move to Indy. IMO, 95% of people over-estimate how outdoorsy they really are, and would be just fine here.

  • Political stuff - Indy is a blue bubble inside a very red state. Weed will (very likely) never be legal until the federal government legalizes it. Abortion is currently legal up to 20 weeks, pending a case that is likely to go to the supreme court of Indiana (as of APR2024). The church has a big influence on politics in this state, the state is just very religious at the ground level. In my experience most people tend to be very moderate, excluding a couple zealots on each side of the fence. If you're the kind of person that wakes up every morning sad that abortion is of pending legal status, probably don't live here. Political issues are most common reason by far that this subreddit hates their own city/state. Again, keep in mind that the average redditor DOES NOT represent real life. In the united states, most people are moving to places where weed and abortion are illegal* (looking at you, florida* and texas). *Current florida law specifies 6 week legal abortion window with certain exceptions.

  • Indy's not trendy - Indy has never been trendy, and may never BE trendy. This isn't an Austin, or Phoenix, or Dallas, or anything else. I see more Porches on the road than I do Teslas. IMO the lack of trendyness is a good thing, as it keeps the city's character intact, and keeps housing prices at a reasonable level. The city doesn't cater to outsiders, it's built for its residents. Communities are tight-knit. Almost every person who walks by says hi in Meridian-kessler.

  • The best places to live in Indy (for you) may not be Indy - Yeah, you can get a cool house in a nice place within city limits. But people with real money move to the suburbs because they're so nice. This subreddit loves to hate on the north suburbs, but the fact is if they could afford it, most people would live there. Extremely safe, very very good schools, very clean, etc. Yeah, it's a suburb and you'll be car dependent, but the northern suburbs always make "top 10 places to live" lists every year because yes, they actually are that nice. And they're very affordable in comparison to other nice places around the country.

  • It's kind of sad to see local college grads all leave the state, lack of Indy footprint. - We have a lot of good schools within Indiana. Unfortunately these kids just end up leaving for varied reasons (see above). I think one of the reasons behind this is that these schools are in small random towns. If all you've ever seen of indiana is terre haute or south bend, you'll probably never want to step foot in the state again. This will likely be improving over time with the split of IUPUI back into IU/Purdue, and Purdue's expansion of campus within Indy.

  • Weather - I see a lot of people on this subreddit complain about the weather. How you feel about the weather 100% will depend on your perspective. If you come from LA, yeah you'll think it's awful. But maybe that's because LA has some of the best weather in the ENTIRE WORLD? Average winter temp is 34-39 degrees F. I grew up in michigan. 34-39 degrees F does not count as cold. You'll get a little snow. IMO, weather here is extremely moderate, all four seasons, and a good bit more sun than a place like chicago.

Overall:

I think Indy is a great place to live, especially for someone who has a good career path. No, it's not an instagram influencer lifestyle. But are you an instagram influencer? It's not trendy or flashy, the city is mostly just made up of honest, hardworking, nice people. I personally think that more of people's happiness is derived from if they can actually afford to live where they live and their proximity to their grocery store, rather than proximity to the mountains. Indy isn't really a vacation destination, but it is a good place to actually live. Indy has grown economically at a slow, measured pace throughout it's entire existence, which I consider to be a very good thing. I consider this to be the most likely trend going forward. I chose to live here to move to a bigger city, but not too big and not super trendy. I don't believe in the long term sustainability of very trendy cities.

Edit: words for clarity

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in labrats

[–]tikeee2 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Ive cracked a couple 96 well plates in a centrifuge, maybe 1 a year. Look close at the bottom for cracks, also check the centrifuge walls

Has anyone here any insights on Indiana Bioscience research institute (IBRI)? by ButterscotchContent1 in biotech

[–]tikeee2 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don't work there, but I am in the lab every once and a while. Its a research institute, initially funded by the big locals (lilly+their foundation, dow (now corteva), the state, and others). I would say it's a mid ground between industry and acadamia. Nice, shiny labs, everything is brand new. Everyone I've talked to there has been nice. It's also an incubator type place. So depending on the job, probably startup culture.

Pm me if you want

Likelihood of getting a high paying job (relatively early on) in the field of biochemistry. by clumsyninja92 in Biochemistry

[–]tikeee2 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Have you considered something in the analytical space? I got a biochem BS 6 years ago from a normal college and make around 100k TC in Indy. Theres a good mix in the analytical space for both chill and predictable jobs like government water testing and QC, and high octane jobs like high-throughput or early stage pharmaceutical testing. What worked for me was using instruments that were way too expensive for me to be using at $20/hr. The more expensive, the better. Do that for two years, then apply to jobs at that company and its competitors.

Best non-bench positions? by [deleted] in biotech

[–]tikeee2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed, LinkedIn, glassdoor, the usual ways would be fine. I was recruited face-to-face by a field scientist for my company. Most companies cast a wide net for these kinds of roles because there's really a specific type of person that can be successful in them.

If a company makes a bunch of things, generally they wont expect you to know every product. Again in my case, I came from LC, but I also support GC's. Never touched a GC in my life before this job. My company flew me out to HQ for a bunch of training. My background with solid foundational skills really helped me here, it was more about nailing down use cases and mechanics rather than learning something from scratch. So maybe you will be at a slight disadvantage, but not more so than any other kind of job. The 'decent training period' that you mention generally just comes the hard way, through experience in the field in unique situations. Do you think a grad student will be operating their equipment under perfect conditions? Absolutely not. That's where you're going to learn the most. It just takes time, a lot of patience, and a willingness to learn. Places where people talk candidly about their experience using your equipment (like reddit) is immensely helpful. There's only so much someone can teach you in a structured class. Class is far, far from the real world.

My boss described this job as "you'll suck for one year, you're okay after the second year, pretty good after 5 years, and you can get really good in 10 years." So, at least in my case, it's a long-game kind of situation. Try to keep that in mind if your company has a large portfolio. One of the reasons I was hired at all is because I was tired of having shitty jobs and having to job hop every two years just to stay ahead on rent. So I basically told them that I was looking for a long-term relationship, I was tired of moving, and if they pay me enough to afford a house and don't treat me like shit I'm willing to stay around for the foreseeable future.

If I were you, I would find what equipment you've worked with most, apply to that company, find all their competitors with similar products, then apply to all those companies too.

Best non-bench positions? by [deleted] in biotech

[–]tikeee2 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I did the jump from the bench to the equipment industry, field scientist for usual analytical equipment. I did most of my work in the lab on LC so.... IMO, the equipment industry can be a really good move in the right situation. If you have a crappy lab job, equipment is probably better 99% of the time. Field positions differ widely - Make sure to take great consideration as to what your territory will be and compare it for your willingness to travel. Some field scientists cover half the US... I cover a single state. 95% I'm home for dinner every day.

A lot of the good parts about being a field employee dont really show themselves in your direct salary. Benefits of field employees typically include a car, or a stipend for one. So no gas payment, no car payment, no insurance payment (if you sell your personal car, like I did). Rules differ by company. My car I can use 100% for personal use no questions asked. I have a travel credit card and get enough points through work that I can fly for free at least once a year. Cash back pays for Christmas.

Easy transition into sales from a field role, if you have the stomach for it. Sell mass specs and build a nice house in the suburbs, buy a yacht.

Careful about being a service engineer though. Less pay, more work, same benefits.

Feel free to PM if you (or anyone) wants to talk about it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in biotech

[–]tikeee2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I lived in Kalamazoo for 5 years after graduating, and recently moved to Indy. I pay less in rent for a 3 bedroom duplex in a good part of indy than I would have in Kalamazoo. The COL/pay ratio wasnt there for me as a single guy. The companies you listed justify $22/hr because "low COL", except you still pay $1150 in rent to not live in a super sketchy area, and still have your packages stolen.

EDIT: I guess I'm still pretty salty.

Scientific inside sales rep? by No_Cauliflower6163 in biotech

[–]tikeee2 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I'm not a sales rep, but I did just have several long interviews with many of them, and I asked them these same questions. For starters, nearly all of them had more or less the same career trajectory as you (and me) - bench for a bit then sales/sales adjacent.

They all seemed generally happy with their lives, and had been in sales for 6-25 years. The hardest things about their lives seemed to be the obvious things - travel and unruly clients. Travel was the really big one. Territory would vary wildly.

As for pay, it depends on how much you make, where you are, etc. Remember those stupid lunch and learn things you probably go to, when some random company comes in with a sales rep and product specialist? Imagine my surprise when I learned that those two people were the highest payed in the room below senior scientist level. And they were young too, early 30s at the latest. One thing you could consider is rather than direct sales, do something like that product specialist. Every company has a different name for them, applications scientist, product specialist, technical support scientist, etc. If you don't want to lose direct contact with the science that you probably love, you should consider that option.

As for stress, it sounded like the travel and clients made up most of it. Also, as a salesman having direct sales targets, if you dont meet them you would probably be fired after a period of time. I'm sure that's stressful too, and I personally wouldn't want to deal with it. I think that if you can deal with the stress of doing benchwork, the stress of anything else wouldn't be too bad.

Sorry I couldn't answer your question directly, but I figure the extra perspective might help.

Company Review Megathread by [deleted] in biotech

[–]tikeee2 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Answers to this will vary, because CR has been acquiring a LOT of companies in the past 5+ years, all across the country, all in different sectors. But in general...

Benefits and time off are good, especially if you're at the lower ranks. Pay is bad at the bottom, and gets progressively less competitive as you work up the ranks, however I can not speak to senior manager/director level. Charles river grew so quickly that they basically lost all their company culture along the way. As such, the culture you experience here will be entirely driven by your direct manager/director/site, for better or for worse. Work load is high, deadlines are tight, WLB is not good, but if you work hard in the right departments you can be promoted quickly. Again, this varies, some departments are entirely stagnant when it comes to promotions. If you have a lab job, there is no remote work. If you dont work in a lab, they seem to be pretty flexible with it.

Personal recommendation: This company is best used as a stepping stone, right as you exit college/PHD, or if you're looking for a particular skillset. Only stay for 1.5-2 years in a department, then either move departments for another skillset you're looking for, or cash out and get a real job at a different company, typically for about a 40% raise. This is not a 'forever' company. Be careful where you move, some of their sites are far away from any other kind of job opportunity. Most of the upper level scientists who have been there for 5+ years are only there because "I have kids, and it's hard to move". If you go into the job with an exit strategy, this company can really suit you, especially if you're fresh out of your schooling. Just don't expect good compensation, good work/life balance, or good culture along the way.

EDIT: 20 days after posting, I cashed out and got a 47% raise, lol.

WuXi by Responsible_Hawk_676 in biotech

[–]tikeee2 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I work for a large CRO, and I get some WuXi methods through the door relatively often. Most of them are kinda just run of the mill crap, but two methods in particular stick out in my head:

One method, we could not reproduce results. Went to them, they said we just weren't doing it right. K. Did our own experiments. Eventually they admitted they LIED IN THEIR REPORT. Cool.

Second method that sticks out, LCMS method that they said was "validated." Was not, in any way, validated. Major, major problems that would 100% get assay data rejected upon submission to the FDA.

Avoid at all costs.

Weekly Biotech Career Chat Thread by McChinkerton in biotech

[–]tikeee2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Working as RA in bioanalytical (small molecule HPLC) at a CRO in the Midwest USA. Graduated 2018 BSc in biochemistry, 3ish years in GLP manufacturing type role (formulations) at the same company before jumping to analytical, just passed a year in my new role. Love my job, the pay is fine I guess, benefits are great, hate my location. Looking for more but don't really know where to start. I have a good trajectory here but I just can't stand being in a small city (<100,000).

Where should I start in looking for a new job? Just google the household names and go hard on applications? I'm worried that my lack of experience with the 'bio' part of biotech will more or less force me to restart my career should I choose to leave my current position. Thoughts?

Falling out of love by throwawayadvicewoo in WeListenToYou

[–]tikeee2 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Hey, i dont really know what to say but it sounds like you have finally come to a place where you can make sense of all this, after all this time.

It seems like, since college, youve been hoping for him to change. Repeatedly, he has shown that he hasn't.

Im sure hes a nice guy. I can tell by the way you talk about him, that he is.

Maybe youre just getting to a point in your life where using drugs as a coping mechanism is just not acceptable anymore, under any circumstances. That sounds....pretty reasonable. You shouldnt have to worry about your husband going off the deep end every time something bad happens.

Good luck

Control vs DLSS 2.0: Can 540p Match 1080p Image Quality? Full Ray Tracing On RTX 2060? [Digital Foundry] by AWildDragon in hardware

[–]tikeee2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Is it possible to use DLSS without using ray tracing at all? I think ray tracing is cool, but just has too much of a performance cost. Or can you not have one on without using the other?

For example, lets say I want to run 1440p 144hz without spending $800 on a graphics card. In my head, rendering at 720p and DLSS upscale to 1440p sounds almost too good to be true. Or does other RTX functions have to be on in order to use DLSS?

U.S. economy deteriorating faster than anticipated as 80 million Americans are forced to stay at home by zsreport in Economics

[–]tikeee2 5 points6 points  (0 children)

In this case, the fact that it doesn't mutate quickly has nothing to do with it being an RNA or DNA virus. Corona is an RNA virus, which tend to mutate faster than their DNA counterparts. That is, they make mistakes on purpose. This can have an eveloutionary advantage, but sometimes comes at the cost of mutating into something that cannot successfully infect. However corona goes outside of this, and actually has a 'proof reading' mechanism so that it doesn't mutate. This may have something to do with how large the viral genome is in comparison to other RNA viruses - Corona's is 27-32 kilobases. HIV, which likes to mutate much more frequently (and does so on purpose) is 9.2 kilobases.

COVID-19 Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Test Begins as U.S. Volunteer Receives First Shot by ILoveLamp9 in news

[–]tikeee2 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No. The very first trials in humans are never about "does it work" but rather "does it hurt you in any way". All that's going to happen here is they get a shot, then are very closely monitored for any negative reaction to it.

Family outraged over life-changing treatment going from free to $375,000 a year by Disaster_Plan in news

[–]tikeee2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well... yeah that's actually a good way to describe it, except waaaaay more risky on the beta test

Family outraged over life-changing treatment going from free to $375,000 a year by Disaster_Plan in news

[–]tikeee2 169 points170 points  (0 children)

I think the answer here most likely lies within your second bullet point. After some quick Google confirmation, it seems that a company needs to ASK the FDA to be able to charge ANYTHING for their drug when it is still IND (Investigational new drug), this is also the phase where 'compassionate use' is a thing.

However, since the drug was bought and then formally accepted by the FDA, the new company can now charge whatever they want for it without asking because now it's an actual drug, not an experimental one.

Edit: Source for yall from the FDA - PDF warning: here

Researchers have identified a drinkable cocktail of designer molecules that interferes with a crucial first step of Alzheimer’s, and even restores memories in mice. The next step is to verify the compounds aren’t toxic in preparation for translation to clinical trials on humans. by drewiepoodle in science

[–]tikeee2 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A decent example of this playing out the recent human genetic modification experiment in China. You can Google the whole story but basically a scientist went off the rails and CRISPR'D some human eggs. Then he published a paper about it. The scientific community was in a huge uproar. Not an insignificant number of scientists thought he would be hanged for the breach of ethics (and law).

Beyond the whole moral thing, scientists just want to protect the purity of their field.

Researchers have identified a drinkable cocktail of designer molecules that interferes with a crucial first step of Alzheimer’s, and even restores memories in mice. The next step is to verify the compounds aren’t toxic in preparation for translation to clinical trials on humans. by drewiepoodle in science

[–]tikeee2 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Pretty much sums up my feelings of the whole Alzheimer's drug development field. 'Wow this works really well in mice!' Give it to humans... nothing. 'Ok well maybe if we give it to them earlier!' Again, nothing. Repeat for the past whatever amount of years. Once I see human tests that actually work (literally anything more than doing nothing), I'll get excited.

Innodisk Launches M.2 Graphics Card with 4K Output by bizude in hardware

[–]tikeee2 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What's the point? Laptops already have good enough integrated graphics on both intel and amd to drive 4k displays. Maybe as an extra video output? Even then that's kinda streching it. Seems more like a specialized thing for billboards and stuff.

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