by Annette Bak, Ph.D., M.B.A., AAPS President
I had the chance to reflect on the latest AAPS in person conference, the National Biotechnology Conference, in Anaheim, California.
First, let me extend a million thanks to the amazing, creative, hardworking, and engaging NBC programming committee led by Lauren Stevenson and Heather Myler, as well as AAPS staff for all they did to kick the NBC off and keep it running throughout the week in Anaheim.
We started out learning “How to Think Like A Rocket Scientist” with Ozan Varol’s inspirational plenary presentation. This is a great book with many gold nuggets for science creativity. A key message” is to “spot the unwritten assumptions in your field, change them to make a leap forward.” The book is a very worthwhile read if you have not gotten to it yet! And then of course networking. The fun ofconnecting at the opening receptionSo good to see old friends andcolleagues and form new connections in person!
The fourthemes: new modalities, COVID learnings, well-characterized biologics, andf course career development, were filled with science and strategy. I kicked the conference off in a symposium on COVID learnings track and was amazed to learn that the pandemic gave rise to nearly 8,000 clinical studies on diagnostics, vaccines, antibodies, antivirals, and behavioral interventions for mental health.. A key take home from this track was the importance of logistic/operations to get therapeutics out with lightning speed including approaches to accelerate CMC and clinical study logistics. But not to forget, mitigation strategies for key laboratory and manufacturing supplies as discussed in a Poster forum I attended.
The mentorship breakfast is one of my favorite events at all AAPS conferences. I get so much energy out of helping early career scientists be successful in their careers. And this year at NBC was no exception as I was at a table with engaging discussions on career paths like science versus management), self-leadership, personal branding, and the importance of intercultural communication and understanding.
The solution center was buzzing with activity throughout the conference. I personally found a new technology to spray-dry biologics and the process of following up with new connections after the conference to learn more about nano-particle and nucleotide-therapies characterization workflows. The solution center also featured a learning center, and I personally learned the ins and outs of field flow fractionation to characterize lipid nano particles.
Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Laura Carter right before she gave an inspirational closing plenary presentation at the NBC on innovation in drug development. Carter shared great strategic insights on using innovation paired with a balanced risk posture and the perfect closing talk for a great week at the NBC. Carter is the CFO at Gossamer Bio and had an interesting career path that she has promised to share with us in a near term AAPS Newsmagazine career feature.
Thank you,
Annette Bak