mAcademia

02/02/2023

“The true superpower I actually developed in my Ph.D. is the fact that I can go from knowing nothing about a particular subject, area - a complicated one - to become one of the leading researchers in that area… the Ph.D. is the means, not an end”. Dr. Hanwen (Evan) Bai.

Having a supportive PI during his PhD in Yale encouraged him to go after his heart and find his path. The ability to take a new subject, investigate it and later become an expert is a superpower Evan has developed through his graduate years, and he is applying it not only to science, but also to interior designing.

Evan had an extraordinary career path. For the past seven years, he has been a computational genomics team leader at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Pharmaceuticals. With excitement in his voice, Evan talks about his love for science and his essential work in a drug discovery company.

Evan moved alone from China to the US for his undergraduate studies, and later continued pursuing his Ph.D. at Yale University. His dream was to have a beautiful home, and when he did not find an Asian-inspired design for his dream house, he decided to turn this hobby into a profession. In parallel to his scientific career, he pursued an interior designing diploma and founded Hanwen Interiors, an interior decorating firm specializing in modern, Asian-inspired homes.

Evan also finds time to give back to the community, he is a proud member and a volunteer in the LGBTQ+ community, leading groups and donating money, among other activities.

We were so fascinated by Evan and his extraordinary path, he always looks forward, using his ‘superpowers’ to become an expert in another subject, bringing beauty and good to the world.

11/10/2022

Have you had a chance to listen to our recent episdoe?

We had the absolute honor to talk to Dov Moran, Managing Partner at Grove Ventures about science, discovery, entrepreneurship and more!

Dov Moran is one of the most prominent Israeli hi-tech leaders in the world.
He is an investor, inventor, and entrepreneur, who is best known as the inventor of the USB flash drive and founding Modu, a modular cellular device company.

24/08/2022

If you were wondering what is 'Nest Catalyst' or why Elena is more interested in entrepreneurship lately or why Ofer talks a lot about his new startup and what he is doing - wait no longer, a new 'life updates' episode is here to fill in all the blanks!

Join our group on facebook to have a chance to ask more questions, find a community of science career enthusiats, and interact with prior and future guests!

07/07/2022

Live episode - life updates with Elena Itskovich and Ofer Yizhar Barnea

14/06/2022

When Corrie Painter was given just a few months to live, she didn’t give in, she pushed forward.

In her own words:

"When presented with a challenge, it doesn't set me into depression, it sets me into motion"

I think that is only possible when you have had the chance to have a deep look inward and identify what is truly important to you. Then it makes sense to give up something that to others seems gold (like the K99) and embrace something that others sometimes don’t appreciate (like a ‘9 to 5’ job and advocacy work).

Don’t be misled though - through her work she had conducted impactful research and led work that will impact many thousands of cancer patients in years to come.

We feel truly fortunate to have had this conversation with Corrie and we know it’s insights will stay with us for a lifetime.

Tune and in and share with us in the Facebook Group or Instagram account what you thought!

06/06/2022

Have you had a chance to listed to the latest episode with Prof. Ronit Sachi-Fainaro?

Such an incredible scientist, leading a research group at Tel Aviv university, founding three companies in the past couple of years, sitting on boards, leading institutes - really, there is nothing she has not done!

Funny, insightful, fascinating, inspiring, and so much more! Tune in!

12/05/2022

Joe Brew, PhD, is the cofounder and CEO of Hyfe, a startup geared to analyze phone audio to identify, characterize and classify cough. Sounds familiar? Although inspired during the Covid pandemic, this app has much more extensive implications, including clinical risk assessment in remote areas.

We talked with Joe about his journey to founding Hyfe, his transdisciplinary studies, about low hanging fruits and how they can benefit societies, about the paradox of academic publishing and much much more. Joe is a funny, optimistic, adventurous scientist and his enthusiasm is contagious. Tune in!

07/04/2022

Celebrating two years to mAcademia!

07/04/2022

We had the honor and pleasure to host Dr. Gil Blander for our recent episode!

Gil leads a team of biology, nutrition & exercise physiology experts, and data scientists at InsideTracker and is the founding member of ScienceAbroad - The Organization of Israeli Scientists Abroad ad.

We talked about how he founded InsideTracker, who helped him along the way, how to innovate, why he founded ScienceAbroad and much more.

Tune in!

15/03/2022

How is like to combine an academic position and a scientific role at a company? How translatable is a PhD in computer science to real world problem?
io is an exciting company in the data storage areas and is pushing the envelop using cutting edge scientific discoveries, recently raising a whooping $73M for scaling.

Tune in and join group to discuss more!

09/03/2022

08/03/2022

In mAcademia, every day is a !

Thank you Katie Langin. Linda Rubinstein, Rachel Diamant, Avraham, Elisabeth Bik, Elina Lavit, Gily Meir, Yulie Klerman for a year of amazing conversations!

With Ofer Yizhar Barnea.

02/02/2022

Ori Zelichov, M.D. is the VP Clinical Development of Nucleai, a startup company developing image analysis technologies for precision oncology.

Dr. Zelichov leads the medical strategy and clinical development for the company. Prior to joining Nucleai, Ori was the Medical Director for Novellus, where he led to the development of a novel targeted treatments for cancer, now being tested in clinical trials.

We talked about product development, the company evolution to match market needs, the 'mom' dilemma and so much more.

Want to continue the conversation? Join our group on facebook.

06/01/2022

Yulie Klerman solves puzzles of the complex healthcare ecosystem, helping health tech companies crystalize product/market fit and develop a go-to-market strategy for their innovative solutions.

We talked about how to develop a career starting with a science degree and get proficient in business, how to start in one country and move to a different one, how to start in one area and move to a different one. We talked about passion, curiosity and loving what you do.

Yulie is a VP of Business Development at Rhino Health, an end-to-end Federated Learning and Privacy Preservation platform facilitating privacy-centric data collaboration.

In her previous role, she launched a Health Data Connectivity Platform for the safe and effective incorporation of health, consumer, and digital data at Liveramp. Yulie is obsessed with data democratization, interoperability, and privacy.

Want to continue the conversation? Join our mAcademia group on facebook.

17/11/2021

Interested in incorporating new and developing technologies into medical devices?

Gavi Feuer is the Engineering Director and Co-founder of Rafael Medical Devices, where he takes surgical procedures to the next level in order to improve their safety, efficacy, cost, and efficiency.

We talked about research in engineering, product development, being bold in career development, team work and much more.

Tune in!

12/10/2021

"Making products is hard"

Dr. Assaf Zemach shared his journey to the academic PI position and how he gave it up in order to join his family and moved to industry.

03/10/2021

New episode 📣

Rachel Diamant, chief IP officer and head of pipeline development at Emendo Biotherapeutics shared with us her career story.

We talked about IP and it’s role in forming successful companies, company culture, and much more - don’t miss it!

14/09/2021

We had the pleasure to interview Prof. Karen Avraham from Tel Aviv university about her academic career, about mentorship, academic recruitment and so much more.

Tune in!

10/09/2021

Have you had a chance to listen to our latest episode with Dov Shamir? If you ever thought about startups (especially in healthcare) or how to supports others in doing so - tune in!

Dov fell in love with science but not the way it was done in an academic lab, wanting to be closer to impact - he made sure to try creating startups and products, work in therapeutic development, engineering, finance, and investing.

Currently, Dov is the Senior Manager of Entrepreneurship at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP), the commercialization office of the Mount Sinai Health System. He leads MSIP’s newly established Elementa Labs, an incubator program that strategically positions external health care and biotechnology startup companies for the next stage in their development.

As an experienced scientist and entrepreneur, Dov supports founders by providing mentorship and guidance to develop their platforms and helps position their companies to the ecosystem for future growth and success.

17/08/2021

"​If you are intentional about your growth you can achieve remarkable things"

​Ohad Manor is head of data science and computational biology at Century Tx. We talked about growth mindset in career development, about imposter syndrome in scientists, about career development and much more! Tune in!

16/08/2021

Do you how it is like to listen to someone that truly believes and loves what he is doing?

Listen to Fried, Prof. of biochemistry, explains why teaching college level biochemistry (.literacy.for.kids) to kids is the most exciting thing to do!

Thinking of making a project or a dream come true? Listen to Daniel to hear how his long love to science and teaching brought him to build an online school for kids!

06/07/2021

Self care is NOT an indulgence!

Dr. Gily Meir is a certified mental performance consultant that shared her career path. We focused on how to:

🥇 Keep peak performance (also for scientists!)
🥳 Set up a thriving lab environment
😴 Avoid Burnout (!)

Don't miss this fun and super useful (!) episode!

22/06/2021

Katie Langin, PhD, is the associate editor for the Careers section of Science. Her professional roots are in academia, as she holds a Ph.D. in ecology and spent years as a grad student and postdoc, studying the ecology and evolution of birds.

The transition to publishing was not trivial and entailed re-evaluating her career goals, her interests, the things she enjoys and the life she wants for herself.

Her first taste of journalism was at National Geographic, where she joined the daily news team as an AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow—an experience that widened her view of possible career options in front of her.

She served as a news intern at Science before joining the Careers news team as a staff reporter and editor in 2018.

08/06/2021

Not sure what biotech positions relevant to you? Thinking about Pharma but not sure about drug development and how to fit in?
Elina Lavit helped us to map most relevant positions, what they entail and how to start and develop your career!

Don't be afraid to apply if you are not ticking all the boxes, you will in a year!

25/05/2021

Thinking about a bio startup? Don't miss this episode!

Omri Amirav Drory shared not only his own path from postdoc - to founder - to investor but also shared some of the principals that he uses to evaluate companies and what are the best practices that scientists can adopt to become great founders!

Join Group to continue the discussion!

11/05/2021

alert!

It was such a pleasure to chat with Adi Lavy about his career path in the industry after a recent postdoc at Berkley! He has down to earth approach and such useful advice to those who want to explore their own careers.

We talked about how to better prepare to career in the industry during the postdoc, about how working in the industry is different and how to learn from it and much more. Tune in and join the group to continue the conversation with Adi and others!

27/04/2021

We are celebrating ONE year anniversary to the mAcademia Podcast!

We are so humble and grateful to our guests - for their time, honesty, and generosity - discussing their own careers and helping other young scientists to find their paths. We could not have done this without them!

We are also forever thankful to our community of listeners - thank you for listening! Thank you for your feedback, comments, shares and kind words, it is the wind beneath our wings!

There are many ways to have a successful, interesting, fulfilling career after a PhD, there is more to science than just academia!

Curious to learn more about Lena and Ofer, the podcast hosts? How mAcademia was created? What we've learned along the way? Tune in to this special episode, in which we switched seats with the lovely Estherina Trachtenberg for this anniversary celebration episode!

16/04/2021

Where can you get the most impact?

Dr. Sahar Gelfman is a computational genomics specialist, now the manager of Neuroscience & Ophthalmology Genetics at Regeneron, a biotechnology company.

Sahar Gelfman shared his career jounrey with Ofer Yizhar Barnea. They talked how networking helped Sahar shape his career, about how aspiration for real impact guided Sahar's career choices, about how being focused on bringing the most impact to drug discovery led him to Regeneron. By now, perhaps it won't surprise our listeners, that the scale of experiments and investigation he conducts at Regenron is times largers than even in a leading academic lab.

Learn about how science can be done outside academia to bring immediate impact to patient's lives.

Link to episode in comments.

29/03/2021

Dr. Christian Tidona is a molecular biologist, biotech entrepreneur, an angel investor, and the founder of BioMed X Institute in Heidelberg, Germany.

BioMed X is an independent research institute, for identifying big biomedical research challenges and provide creative solutions by bringing and coaching early-career researchers.

We discussed Christian's career path, how innovation can be accelerated, and how scientific discoveries can be done outside academia. We also talked about the new, exciting, model of BioMed X in Israel.

Join the mAcademia Group to continue the conversation with Christian and others.

As always, find the link to the episode in the first comment.