There’s no one particular path of doing science – explore different options

No such thing as a standard career path – an interview with Christos Kyprianou

Christos Kyprianou is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of Austria. Instead of doing a postdoc right after his PhD in developmental biology, Christos joined The Company of Biologists as FocalPlane’s Community Manager. After setting up and getting the community site for microscopy off the ground, Christos decided to return to academia. What motivated him to switch in and out of academia? And what’s next for him?

Have you always been interested in science?

I was always interested in science. As a kid, I had this picture in my mind that I would be doing something science or medical related. Going through high school, the only thing that stuck with me was biology, and physics to a lesser degree. Then at university, the first lecture I had was on genetics and I really enjoyed it. That’s when I realised I would like to do science in one way or another.

After your PhD, you worked as the Community Manager of FocalPlane. How did this job come about?

A lot of the times, academia leads you to believe there’s one way to do science: bachelor’s, maybe a master’s, PhD, postdoc, then group leader. I remember when I was asked why I wanted to do a PhD during my interviews, I was a bit baffled, because I thought that’s the only way to do science. But now I know you can still do science in many different capacities. As I was going through my PhD, this was becoming more and more obvious to me. Towards the end of my PhD, my PI got a position at Caltech, and I was offered to go to Caltech, which I was interested in. But then the FocalPlane job advert came up, and it made me realise I wanted to try something different, and not just go down the default route of doing a postdoc after a PhD. I applied and got the job.

What was your role at FocalPlane and the Journal of Cell Science (JCS)?

I was involved in setting up FocalPlane and getting it off the ground. I was putting together the content, inviting people, organising events, and participating in events to spread the message. At the beginning, it was unclear to me how was I doing science by building a community and a website. But there were a lot of principles from science that would apply in building FocalPlane. For example, identifying who are the people that are key in driving the microscopy field, and bringing together people who are interested in microscopy but don’t have access to resources, and working as part of a team to create FocalPlane. I was also part of the Journal of Cell Science (JCS) team, so I got to read articles and write Research Highlights, which was a very good exercise in science writing. It’s about taking something quite complicated and summarising it using 200 words. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, I feel like I missed out on doing more things for JCS, like attending conferences.

After FocalPlane, you went on to do a postdoc at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. How did that opportunity come about and what influenced that decision?

There were a few factors, but the pandemic played a big part. For me, it changed from being all day in the lab to being at home, as the office was closed. The other thing was when I was commissioning content and talking to people about their research, I started to miss doing the hands-on science myself. And thirdly, the lab I ended up joining as a postdoc was one of the labs that I really aspired to be part of during my PhD. Magda, my PhD supervisor, was meeting that PI and they talked about some of my PhD work, so I took that opportunity to reach out to him. They were working on organ-on-chip technology, which was new and interesting to me. I thought that was the right opportunity for me to go back to doing research. I also wanted to do something translational, because I felt like I missed out on that with my PhD project. Maybe because some people say once you leave academia, nobody is going to want to take you back, I was feeling a bit pressed with time to not miss that postdoc opportunity. But I now know this is not true; I’ve seen people do that, even after longer breaks from academia.

You’re currently a postdoc at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of Austria. What motivated the move from the US to Austria and what are you working on now?

My primary career goal right now is to get into industry. It’s a bit less going with the flow and I’m trying to approach my career in a more targeted way, by building up a portfolio and working with projects in the translational and technology areas. Coming back to Europe was also because my family and my wife’s family are in Europe. In terms of the lab, I was looking for something that would help build my portfolio. I’m now in Nicolas Rivron’s lab that is developing stem cell-based embryos for the purposes of using it as a tool to understand health and disease in the context of fertility. It’s a technology that you can build on top of other technologies. I’m not working on a particular biological process; instead, I’m focusing more on learning how I can apply all sorts of questions using these technologies.

Apart from your research, you said you’re trying to build your portfolio in industry. How are you doing that?

The Wyss Institute in Boston, where I did my first postdoc, is a place where academia meets industry. My work there was more industry-adjacent. We were collaborating with startups and more established pharma companies to validate drugs. That was when I decided I wanted to build my portfolio towards industry. After moving to Austria, I wanted to get more exposure to what industry is like here, so I joined the initiative ‘Vienna Bio-Centre Industry Insights’. I attended a couple of seminars, and I was impressed by the quality of speakers, from names like BioNTech, Merck, and a few consulting companies. The initiative was looking for more co-leads, so I applied for the position. I think my experience at FocalPlane really helped with me being selected. Being a co-lead is a good way for me to meet people within and outside of the Vienna Bio-Center and understand the industrial ecosystem in Vienna and the wider German speaking area of Europe. We’re trying to come up with different types of events to give people an idea of what it is like to work in industry and provide networking opportunities with people in industry.

How has your experience at FocalPlane help you in your subsequent roles?

People talk about the importance of having soft skills as a scientist. It’s like a muscle I got to practise during my time at FocalPlane, such as bring people together, organising events, and knowing who to talk to. My experience at FocalPlane and The Company of Biologists helped give me more credibility in these skills. What FocalPlane has become now is beautiful. I really enjoy the variety of its content and how popular it’s become. I even met someone random at the Max Perutz Labs, who mentioned they were planning to write something for FocalPlane. It’s great that people in the field know about it and interact with it.

Looking back your career path so far, would you have done anything differently?

I would definitely have done a bit more extracurricular activities during my PhD. I think I was overly focused on doing my project and not being as involved with other things. I would like to have been more aware of what other opportunities are available and how else I could do science, and not just necessarily going down the academia path. Nowadays there are so many opportunities to try out and learn about different things, like workshops and recruitment events from consulting and biotech companies. These are good ways to get to know people with those careers and get outside of your PhD bubble.

Do you have any advice to someone thinking of switching career paths?

I think it’s a lot about informing and preparing yourself beforehand. If you’re thinking about making a career transition, it’s more about finding out exactly what that career is. Talk to as many relevant people as possible, and really find out if that’s for you. In many jobs, I feel like you can get trained and learn the specifics of it while on the job. For my role at FocalPlane, I didn’t do much science communication before, and it’s not like I had to build another community before. I was just another disgruntled microscope user who wanted to do more with his samples, but there weren’t resources out there easily accessible to people like me. But that was what Sharon, JCS’s Executive Editor at that time, said FocalPlane needed – someone who understood the target audience and their needs. But the rest, like organising events, commissioning content and talking to people, that’s all the stuff I learned on the job.

I’ve been seeing more opportunities for people to get into industry without a PhD. You mostly get trained on the job, and there are particular ways of doing things, so you don’t necessarily need a PhD. I think it’s important that undergrads and master students know about these opportunities before going down the PhD path. Equally I’ve seen people with years of postdoc experience who managed to get into industry.

Do you think you’ll stay in academia? Are there any other career paths you’ve considered?

I’ve been in academia for quite a long time, and I don’t think it’s for me in the long run. I’m exploring different options outside of bench work that allow me to serve science in a different capacity. Business development is something I’m interested in. I’ve been talking to friends who have done this switch and seeing what it’s like. There’s no one particular path of doing science, and it really does come in many different ways. Anything that contributes to science is valid, and everybody should feel comfortable exploring the different options.

Finally, what do you like to do in your spare time?

Because we just recently moved to Austria, we’re still trying to get into a routine. I’m just starting to get back to things like playing squash and going on hikes. A more recent hobby is 3D printing. I have my own entry level 3D printer that I’ve been modifying. I try to design and print my own things, like a coffee funnel so I don’t make a mess when I put coffee grounds into my Moka pot. I’ve been more focused on modifying the printer, so it performs better. I think that happens to a lot of people – they get sidetracked by building the printer rather than the actual printing. You can get a pretty cheap printer to start with, because the idea is if you get a bad printer, almost certainly every single part is going to break, so you get to learn what each part does as you’re fixing it. Pretty much like I think a lot of us are figuring out our careers as we go!

(2 votes)

Loading...