Here are my 10 crucial pieces of advice for students who aspire to a career in pharmaceutical labs: 1. You need a solid foundation in science. Master the basics, and learn how to apply that knowledge. 2. But, try to also take classes and build skills in complementary areas like business, legal topics (especially intellectual … Continue reading “10 Bits of Advice for Students Interested in Drug Development”
Author: Daniel Sem
Daniel S. Sem, Ph.D., MBA, is President and CEO of Bridge to Cures, Inc. and is also CEO and VP for Drug Development at AviMed Pharmaceuticals. Sem is also Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Director of Technology Transfer, and Director of the Master of Pharmaceutical/Chemical Product Development program at Concordia University Wisconsin, and serves on the editorial boards of PLoS One and the Marquette University Intellectual Property Law Review. He is currently serving on the Board of Directors for BioForward, and on the Scientific Advisory Board of PhysioGenix.
Dr. Sem has 20 years of experience in drug discovery and development, and has over 50 papers and 10 issued patents on drug discovery and development techniques. He co-founded two drug discovery and development companies (Triad and AviMed). He served as VP for Biophysics at Triad Therapeutics, where he developed a platform technology for designing focused combinatorial libraries targeting kinases and dehydrogenases. He co-founded Triad Therapeutics based on technology he developed and patented, and he assisted in securing two rounds of venture financing, totaling over $40 million. Triad was voted one of the top 10 biotech startups in 2001 by Drug Discovery Today, and licensed kinase drug leads to Novartis for up to $60 million.
Dr. Sem received his B.S. in Chemistry from UW-Milwaukee, his Ph.D. from UW-Madison in Biochemistry and his MBA from Marquette University.