Build the Skills You Need to Succeed in Life Sciences Industry Roles
You already know how to think like a scientist. But as a graduate student, postdoc or early-career researcher considering an industry role, success will depend on more than strong research skills. You are expected to:
- Design efficient, decision-focused experiments.
- Work with large, complex datasets.
- Understand how discoveries translate into therapies.
- Collaborate across teams and functions.
- Communicate insights clearly to diverse stakeholders.
These are not always part of traditional academic training.
This new multi-part industry career preparedness course from the American Physiological Society (APS) will equip you with the practical skills and context needed to successfully transition from academia into life sciences industry settings.
What You’ll Learn
- Experimental Design and Data Analytics. Learn to design rigorous experiments and apply tools like R Python and data visualization platforms to generate actionable insights and support data-driven decisions.
- Effective Scientific Documentation. Learn principles of industry-standard research documentation, including data integrity, regulatory compliance, and audit readiness.
- Communication. Strengthen your ability to clearly and persuasively communicate scientific ideas to diverse stakeholders, driving projects, collaboration and approvals.
By the end of this course, you’ll have the tools and vocabulary to contribute immediately in a research and development environment.
Who’s designing this program?
The program is being developed with an advisory board of industry scientists and leaders across drug development, translational science, medical affairs and science policy—representing all aspects of the biotech industry.
Paul Kassner, PhD, senior vice president, RAPT Therapeutics Inc.
Kassner is a senior scientific leader with more than 25 years of experience across academic research, biotechnology and translational medicine.
Michael Nestor, PhD, Board Director, Government-University-Industry-Philanthropy Research Roundtable (GUIPRR), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine; Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder, Autica Bio
Nestor is a cross-sector neuroscientist and science policy leader with experience directing research programs, governing national initiatives, and stewarding competitive research funding across academia, government, philanthropy, and industry.
Carrie Northcott, PhD, Head of Digital Medicine and Translational Imaging, Pfizer Inc.
Northcott is a pharmacologist, toxicologist and physiologist whose career spans the drug development process from preclinical models, study design and data interpretation to the development and implementation of novel measures within clinical studies and commercial application across therapeutic areas.
Krishna Subramanian, PhD, Vice President, Head of Non-clinical Development & Translational Science, Seelos Therapeutics Inc.
Subramanian is an executive and translational scientist with more than 20 years of experience taking gene therapies, drugs and medical devices from concept to clinic and is a scientist who has lived the academic-to-industry transition.
Boxiong Tang, MD, PhD, Managing Director, Ascentage Pharma
Tang has almost 30 years of experience in medicine, public health and health economics and outcomes research and provides leadership and consulting services to life sciences organizations.
Bryan Wilson, PhD, Regional Medical Director, Rare Diseases, Genentech
Wilson is an executive pharmaceutical biotech leader with 20 years of expertise in medical affairs leadership, commercial collaboration, managed and market care, cross-portfolio therapeutic expertise, scientific strategy and product launch strategy.