A scientist in the business world - my PIPS placement with the Knowledge Exchange team

About me

Hi! My name is Tomasz Drobkiewicz, I am a White Rose BBSRC DTP student at the University of Leeds, where I investigate the role of endosomal potassium in cell physiology and viral entry. Normally you can find me in the lab running lots of western blots, taking cool photos on a confocal microscope or trying to keep my cells alive. So, from a lab bench to the office chair… how did this happen?

Moving south – from industrial Leeds to rural Babraham

I learned about technology transfer from a patent attorney at one of our career fairs. From the beginning, the job sounded great! You can still be in a scientific environment, but instead of focusing in depth on one project and spending hours optimising experiments, you can be assisting scientists in putting their discoveries on the market, work with patent lawyers and build collaboration between institutions…this sounded amazing!

I found an opportunity at Babraham on my PhD programme’s website. At the time I really wanted to take some time away from Leeds and try living somewhere else. Cambridge (or actually the village of Babraham) sounded like good enough change of scenery. I reached out to Dr Emily Boyce, the Institute's Knowledge Exchange Manager and after a lovely chat, I got the place! I was ecstatic!

In late April I moved in at The Close, the Institute's residential accommodation, for the next three months, and what an amazing time I had.

At the entrance to the Institute from Babraham village

Scientists in the business world

Living on The Close, away from a bustling town and grocery shops was a change… but then again, literally everything was new. From day one I was thrown into the commercial world of science.

My day-to-day tasks revolved mostly around doing market research for different potential inventions from the Institute's scientists. This involved assessing the proposed invention and searching for similar ideas or technologies already available, not only in the published papers, but also checking out the marketability, what is patent landscape is like, the existence of any competitors, are there any potential licensees or buyers? This forced me to change the way I had been thinking about science and let me gain a broader perspective of the biomedical research. On top of that, this forced me to think about research as a business, and I really learned to appreciate a well-kept document filing system!

I was also involved in managing the Institute’s IP asset portfolio, helping the team to manage communication between the patent lawyers and our researchers; making marketing materials promoting the assets and technologies the Institute owns, and representing the Institute at events on the Babraham Research Campus, such as BioBabraham.

I also had the amazing opportunity of becoming a BRC Entrepreneurial Fellow and developing my own imaginary 'business'. The Fellowship runs in parallell to Accelerate@Babraham – a programme for young research companies to learn, grow and secure financial capital. It was a fascinating opportunity to sit next to great inventors – academics turned into entrepreneurs, from all over the UK, and learn how to manage the scientific business.

I have also spent a week in London attending the Primer Course at a bio-consulting company LifeArc, where I was learning the ins and outs of tech transfer from the best tech transfer professionals based at QMUL, UCL and Imperial. While the commute from Babraham was brutal, meeting new people working in Tech Transfer offices across the country was worth every minute spent on Thameslink.

Life in Cambridgeshire

Cambridge is so different to Leeds. Smaller, quieter… flatter. It was a nice change of scenery for the three months I spent here. I was lucky enough to know some people studying at the University of Cambridge and my close friend from Leeds was also doing their PIPS here at the same time. The town is beautiful, from gorgeous college buildings through the charming River Cam to the enchanting scenery towards Grandchester. Some cool memories I made were going to a formal dinner at the St John’s College, attending Cambridge Pride and discovering Mill Road's food scene.

It was also good to be able to visit London from time to time (and even take the Eurostar to Paris). Babraham itself, even if small, has fun, regular events. There are five-a-side football teams, campus bootcamp, local gym and spinning studio, as well as Campus events (such as Campus Fest) and food truck day. The local parish church (a beautiful church built in a roman style) organises community events for everyone to join.

The three months can change a lot

I am writing this with seven days of my internship left. These past three months were very much life changing and when I am back in Leeds, I will be looking at my project and at research in a different way. I feel that I am more aware of the importance of the market in scientific research.

I have learned to appreciate the skills I have developed during my PhD. I have always thought that I am good only for pipetting, but as it turns out, the good ol’ soft skills such as quick learning, flexibility and creativity can really be useful outside of the lab as well! In tech transfer you have to understand the ideas and needs of the scientists you work with, you need to know how to work with people and how to deal with tight deadlines. You have to translate the laboratory language and law language into plain English. And finally, you learn to appreciate every discovery and support the inventors.

Thinking about going back to my own research is a very bittersweet feeling, but I met amazing people and had a great time working with the KEC team at the Institute. I would recommend anyone who feels more business-inclined or is interested in seeing how the inventions are put on the market to reach out to your local Technology Transfer Office! It will be worth it, I promise.

Many thanks to all the people who made me feel at home: my manager Maha Riaz (Ashraf), Honor Pollard, Dr Aljona Kologmorova, Dr Emily Boyce, Francois-Xavier Robert, Susan Buttress, Dr Jenny Hirst, Dr Louisa Wood, Dr Louise Joplin, and the rest of the Babraham Institute and Babraham Research Campus.