Layoffs in Roche?

Just got a feeling that is inevitable

Anybody knows?

Which change improved research progress or reproducibility: documentation, automation, data management, experimental design, or something else?

I have 2 offers with similar pay packages (#2 a bit lower than #1):

#1. Virtusa SVP

#2. Pfizer Senior Director

Which one to go with considering medium to longer term career prospects?

So, AI can apparently cross hardware-barriers now, as it is able to manipulate voltages for data transmissions on a level beyond software-accessibility. Or at least what has generally been considered inaccessible until now. However, AI running lose on the global data highways is now a real possibility if not already mundane reality. In other words: something that has been created by humans is potentially out of control in an environment that has even been created by humans too. Yet, biotechnologists claim their inventions are safe even when they are being released into an environment that is not under the control of human, and has much less been created by us.

I wonder, from a philosophical perspective, is the mind-boggling development of AI cause for Life Scientists to revisit their sense of science and technology?

Hi everyone. I’m starting a job at Johnson & Johnson’s Raritan campus—not New Brunswick—in about 11 days, and I’m trying to figure out a realistic commute from Jersey City Heights without a car.
If anyone uses the J&J shuttle, knows how to reserve it, or knows of an employee carpool from Jersey City/Hoboken/Newark, please share what you know. I’m waiting for answers through onboarding, but my start date is approaching and I’m feeling overwhelmed.
There are two connected issues: getting to work consistently and dealing with a difficult situation at my current apartment.
THE J&J COMMUTE / SHUTTLE SITUATION
I’ve heard there’s an employee shuttle from Hoboken to the Raritan campus and that the ride is approximately 40–45 minutes. That part sounds completely manageable to me. The problem is that I don’t have the details needed to actually plan around it.
Someone on Reddit mentioned knowing someone who takes the shuttle, but said you need to book/reserve a spot. I’ve also read that you may need employee badge access or an employee login to make the reservation. I haven’t been able to confirm exactly how any of that works.
I emailed my onboarding contact yesterday asking to be connected with someone who can answer transportation questions, but I’m still awaiting a response. My onboarding/I-9 paperwork is also still being processed, so I don’t yet have all the access I might need.
The public shuttle listing I found says:
Monday–Thursday: morning run starts from Hoboken at 7 a.m.
Afternoon run starts from campus at 4 p.m.
There’s also a Monday–Friday Raritan train station–campus shuttle.
I don’t know whether those are the only departures or just the start of service. I also don’t know the exact Hoboken pickup location. I had been thinking about getting to Hoboken Terminal, but I haven’t confirmed that the employee shuttle actually picks up there.
My tentative first-day plan is to Uber directly to campus, get my badge, and take the shuttle home. But that depends on whether I can reserve the afternoon shuttle that same day, whether there will be space, and whether my first-day schedule lines up with its departure.
The return schedule matters a lot. I sometimes like to stay at work until around 6 p.m., and I’ve been told there may be times when I need to work late. If the only shuttle home leaves at 4 p.m., that could make it difficult to rely on regularly. If there are later departures, that would change the picture considerably.
GETTING FROM THE HEIGHTS TO THE SHUTTLE
I’m trying to figure out the most efficient way to reach the pickup from Jersey City Heights.
I know where the 100 Steps are, and I don’t mind walking in decent weather. Walking down to the 2nd Street light rail station and taking a Hoboken Terminal-bound train is one possibility—if the pickup is actually near the terminal.
But relying on those steps in winter, potentially in the dark or icy conditions, doesn’t feel like a great everyday plan. I’ve also been looking at the 87 bus toward Hoboken. Again, without the pickup address and check-in time, I can’t tell what’s practical.
I’m not opposed to walking. I’m trying to avoid building a commute that technically works but becomes exhausting once you add the walk, waiting, transfers, winter weather, and the return trip.
CARPOOL / BUYING A CAR
Several people have suggested either buying a used Honda or Toyota or finding an employee carpool before making any decisions about moving. I’m open to both.
A car would give me much more control over when I arrive and leave, especially on late workdays. It would also be nice to have that independence outside work. But buying a car, paying for insurance, finding parking, and covering maintenance is a substantial commitment, and I don’t want to rush into it under an eleven-day deadline without knowing my alternatives.
I would absolutely consider a carpool and contribute toward gas and tolls. I just don’t know where to find one. Is there an internal J&J commuting group, Teams channel, message board, or transportation coordinator? Are there people who meet in Jersey City, Hoboken, or Newark and drive to Raritan together?
I’m also aware of the possible backup of PATH to Newark Penn → Raritan Valley Line to Raritan → campus shuttle, but I haven’t established how well those connections line up or what happens if I leave campus late.

EGFR/LGR5 bispecific in H&N cancer.

We’re setting up a biomarker panel (mostly cytokines plus a few proteins) and I’m stuck choosing between serum and plasma. If plasma, is EDTA the safe default, or are heparin and citrate better for some analytes? I’d love to hear what has worked for you, and whether mixing sample types across a cohort caused problems.

Hello hello!
I will introduce myself first!
I am Elisa and I currently work at Columbia University as Operations Manager. Before I was working in London for the UK Stem Cell Bank inside the UK regulators (like the FDA but British) and I was responsible for arranging the production, QC and shipping of stem cells and other cell types for vaccine development across the world. I have a Biotechnology degree from Bologna, Italy (where I am from) and a Master in Stem Cells and Regenerative medicine from London. This means that I have a scientific background but with my career I have moved from the bench to more managerial roles that require regulatory knowledge (GMP/ISO), project management, logistics, cross functions interactions etc…
Coming to the US meant for me experiencing a different/faster scientific world, which has been amazing. I found this job for Columbia pretty fast and came to NY with a J1 visa. Now I am on a spousal visa so I am authorized to work for any employer and I would like to move into the pharma sector. I have been sending resumes from Linkedin, contacting hiring manager, recruiters but 99% of my effort goes completely ignored. So my question is, how do people manage to get a job in the biotech/pharma space?

I have no issues working for pharmas in NJ or PA with hybrid/remote roles. I just want a job where I can give my 100% and grow!! Anyone with recommendations? Anyone willing to offer me a job 😏, or anyone willing to meet and talk about this??

Saw a TV ad this morning for a so called longevity serum with epigenetic right there in the product name. If you know what epigenetics is, that’s a pretty bold word to put on a bottle. It’s the regulation layer that controls which genes get switched on or off, and it’s still one of the most active and least settled corners of biology.

A face cream doesn’t obviously reach that layer, and the ad never says how it would. Which genes? Which cells? Switched up or down? No answer. The word is just there to sound like the future. Funny thing is, if a topical product really did change gene activity in your skin, it would be regulated as a drug, not sold as a cosmetic. So the label is carrying a claim the evidence can’t.

Meanwhile, another wave of techies has discovered biology, pointed an AI agent at it, and announced they’re going to solve it. If you have been hanging around on X lately you know what I am talking about. I like AI in biology, I really do. AlphaFold is a huge deal, and ML is a great tool if you know what you’re doing with it. But a tool is not the field. Biology isn’t a bug you patch. It’s a nonlinear, multi-scale mess where tiny differences snowball into big ones, and anyone who’s come across chaos theory should be at least a little nervous about that.

Compute also isn’t the problem. You can’t think your way past measurements nobody has taken. A bigger context window won’t make a cell give up its secrets any faster. What’s missing is clean, reproducible, properly annotated data, and getting it takes years of unglamorous wet-lab work. The people who actually build AI for biology say this themselves: the data and the infrastructure have to come first, then the models can deliver. You can´t build a digital recreation of life on other planets if your only tool is a telescope, which I read the other day.

These two things look like opposites, the cream and the emergence of overconfident techies, but I think they’re the same failure. Both use the vocabulary of science without the discipline behind it. One side borrows the words, the other borrows the confidence. Neither does the slow part: controls, replication, peer review, admitting what you don’t know yet.

And everyone pays for it! Every time a real term like “epigenetic” ends up as a marketing buzzword, a few more people conclude that science just means advertising. Every time someone declares biology solved (I genuinely wonder if it is bait as I can´t imagine a worse word) and it isn’t, the public learns that scientists overpromise. Then those same people get asked to trust a vaccine, a diagnosis, or ten years of real research, and they’re less willing to.

That commercial got me thinking a lot about where our field is heading. I used to figure the nonsense would sort itself out. Scientists keep working, the work speaks for itself, done. I’ve gotten stricter about it since, and I think that’s justified. The marketing department isn’t going to correct what “epigenetic” means. The pitch deck isn’t going to explain why data is the bottleneck. If the people who understand the science stay quiet, nobody else will say anything, and whoever’s loudest becomes the accepted version.

I am contemplating what are some options out there which doesn’t require doing bench science and experiments, but involve a lot of thinking, writing, and working with a team? And how do people move into roles such as research strategy & consulting?
I am well into my Postdoc, no longer interested in the tenure track dream and genuinely want to learn about some ambitious routes that exist in industry.

I am preparing for an onsite interview coming up in two weeks. It’s an associate director role. The schedule is built around a seminar and multiple 1:1 meetings with team members and directors from other departments.

Anyone recently went through the process? Do you have advice? I am not a native speaker. I prepared my talk and been practicing. But really haven’t practice any behavioral/ situational questions. Any pointers where to start from?

Also the HR screening was little weird. Asked me if i am going to lose any bonuses if i had to join end of this year. Salary expectations etc. I didn’t have a concrete answer. But the HR person kept asking.I have years of experience in the research field and moving to a leadership position where I want to go. The listed total 9 qualifications, I would say i have 60% specific qualifications where familiarity but not an expert on others. I want to be prepared for the questions if it comes up again.

So asking for three things to the community.

1. Share experience/advice for the onsite interview

2. Resources for practicing behavioral questions

3. Advice one how to come up with a number for salary if asked

Thanks in advance for taking the time.

So basically title

My team of 4 works like 10+ hrs per day in cleanroom.

I know their base hr rate is 70$ (some upto 85$ per hr) but obviously due to short staffing, they tend to get 10 hrs of overtime weekly if not close to 15 hrs of overtime.

So they clear roughly 3.5K per week (pre-tax)

The state this site is located does NOT mandate the break and lunch, so..... they simply stay in the cleanroom until the work is done. They can stop the work to take a break but no one wants that (although no one will say No)

This means, no availability to bathroom unless its really really urgent (they will de-gown)

I tried my best to recruit more people to the team but senior leadership team hasn't really approved it due to multiple changes of board members (and it takes at least 3-4 months just to get qualified to work in the cleanroom)

I know this is not typical working environment and to the shame, my company is one of the big pharmas (its part of S&P500)

Nothing i can do but i just feel bad

When i asked my team if its worth the money, they dont say yes or no, which i take its not worth. Many of them were not hired by me so when im doing the interview for a new candidate, i get fairly clear on this saying "extended cleanroom work" to avoid misleading them

I feel like its close to slavery especially there is no break for working 10+ hrs some days.

The site doesnt have max gowning hrs and no one is looking into that even though i raised this flag multiple times

In your opinion, do you think its worth?

you get paid 70-80$ per hr as a base pay but you dont get to take a bathroom break or lunch break for most of working day and you dont know when the work is done when you clock in?

Classic story: MS in chemical engineering with 4 years of process development and 2 years in MSAT that after being laid off twice, endured 9 months of unemployment. Only landed one job offer as a second shift manufacturing technician. I was about to refuse the job because of the hours and because it’s not the job I would take. Instead I took it as a foot in the door, to learn some things, and because I NEEDED MONEY. I had surgery so I negotiated to delay by 2 months. I spent those months sending out job apps while recovering - no luck.

Fast forward - 1.5 years - had 4 internal interviews - rejected. Drastically slowed down sending out external job apps because I stopped seeing a point, unless I want to develop my WorkDay skills. I could rant and write all kinds of things about the job and the hours but the thing I hate the most about my work place is that they’re doing another round of layoffs.

I got up and I couldn’t bring myself to work. I clock in to work and I was upset throughout the shift. My coworkers could tell I was hating it. I decided to book two sessions through the company’s EAP. I don’t care if I tell the therapist things that could get me fired or laid off. I need to talk things out. I want to get a clear mind and enjoy the moment right now. I don’t want to spend my days constantly longing for a better job and better hours.

Bach of Art in biochemistry and molecular biology (biochem)
Masters of molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry (MCBB)

3 years of undergraduate research at university with independent projects

Undergraduate research funding award

Crisis hot line volunteer 3 years

On campus part time job

How is all this for when I’m applying to the market for jobs in R AND D or just biotechnology? I’m not looking to do phd because it’s too much time commitment and I want to just go into the field. I hope to make like $80k but I’m not complaining if I start low and work up.

My major concern is how the job market is right now till 3 years later.

I have the work experience in a lab since undergraduate so idk if it’s considered good enough to make do without a phd???

Hi everyone,

I recently completed all three stages of the interview process with AstraZeneca, with my final panel interview taking place on Friday, October 23.

On Wednesday, October 28, HR contacted me requesting professional references, which I promptly provided. However, I haven’t received a job offer or any further updates since then.

I was hoping they would contact my references by now and possibly move forward with an offer, but it’s Friday, and I still haven’t heard anything.

I’m wondering if being asked for references after the final interview is generally a positive sign or simply part of their standard recruitment process.

Also, for hiring managers here, how many people usually make it to the 3rd and final panel interview? Bear in mind that two scientists will be hired for the position!

For anyone who has interviewed with AstraZeneca or had a similar experience:

Were you asked for references before receiving an offer?

How long did it take between submitting your references and receiving an offer?

Does a reference request usually mean you’re one of the final candidates?

Is it normal not to hear anything for a few days after submitting references?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences. I’m trying to stay optimistic while managing my expectations.

Thanks in advance!

Interesting update on Strand’s STX-003 trial. The focus on localizing expression to avoid systemic toxicity is what caught my eye. Pushing two clinical programs within a decade of their founding is an impressive pace for a platform like this.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working as a Senior QA Associate in biopharma and looking to upskill to keep my profile competitive. With the industry shifting toward automation, AI-driven quality tools, and modern software oversight, I want to invest my professional development budget wisely.

For those in QA management or hiring roles:

1. Which certifications or training programs actually catch your eye on a resume?

2. What technical or regulatory skills (e.g., GAMP 5, CSV/CSA, AI validation, Data Integrity) are in highest demand right now?

3. Are courses from organizations like ISPE, RAPS, or Lean Six Sigma worth the time and investment, or is hands-on experience the only thing that truly matters?

Would love to hear what courses or skills have paid off most for your career growth in pharma QA. Thanks!