Written by: Soumyadipa Das
A year of ongoing pandemic did not stop iJOBS Rutgers from exposing academic researchers to an industry ambiance. Keeping with the tradition, attendees took a virtual journey inside the thriving biotechnology company, Visikol, on February 16th, 2021. Visikol is a Contract Research Organization (CRO) [For more information about working in a CRO, visit this excellent article by iJOBS blogger Helena Mello] specializing in 3D cell culture assays and models, 3D tissue imaging, and digital pathology with primarily big pharmaceutical companies as their clients.
Currently located in Hampton, New Jersey, Visikol was started five years ago by four Rutgers University researchers and now has almost twenty employees. It all began when the company’s chief scientific officer and co-founder, Dr. Tom Villani, made a reagent that makes tissues optically transparent. His colleague, Dr. Michael Johnson, the CEO and then a fellow PhD student having previous entrepreneurship experience, quickly understood the implications of such a discovery and together, they founded Visikol. In a one-hour interaction with Dr. Johnson, event attendees had a chance to learn about the opportunities, onboarding process, pay scale, typical workday and future plans of Visikol. In addition to this, the CEO himself gave a tour of the office space and the lab over Zoom! A budding company, the space was small, but it had all the necessary equipment that the scientists need. In addition to the lab space, participants had a glance at the HPLC machine used for chemical analysis, the cell culture incubators and even got a sneak peek at the cell imaging space as well. We could also see boxes of incoming shipments from their clients and outgoing shipments, evidence that Visikol is growing day by day!
The Visikol team consists of scientists from all the Life Science disciplines and they are currently opening their doors to more. In fact, the CEO encouraged researchers with cell culture and tissue imaging experience to apply, as these are two areas of focus for the company now. Visikol hires scientists typically for two positions: 1) Associate scientist, someone with a bachelor’s in science or a doctorate without the requisite experience and 2) Scientist, someone with a doctorate and requisite experience. In response to the question of an audience member, Dr. Johnson said coding experience is not a necessity for applicants, unlike some job postings in industry. So, if you are interested in working in the field of Life Science, there is a high chance that Visikol has something to offer you.
Life as a Visikol scientist isn’t quite like life at other companies in the science industry. Although not a priority, Visikol publishes through webinars or blogs, thus bypassing the peer-review process which we may be used to in academic publishing. Another feature that makes Visikol a unique company is that scientists spend most of their time working at the bench, except for client meetings and their weekly project meetings to discuss the progress of each project in the company. Being a small company, Visikol offers employees quite a lot of flexibility in terms of choosing their projects. So, if you enjoy working on the bench but also want some flexibility with the content of your work, then you are encouraged to apply here.
The founders of Visikol started their company before they defended their theses, and they happily invite other enthusiastic graduate students to apply and join the team upon completion of their graduate degree. Internships and co-ops can also be arranged with the intention to transition into a full-time employee, and they try to keep the onboarding process short (~90 days). Also, although Visikol cannot sponsor work visas for the time being, international researchers can still work for them using OPT (Optional Practical Training). OPT is the permit for an international student to work legally in academia or industry in their relevant field in the US after obtaining an advanced degree (Masters, Doctorate) from an US institution without the employer sponsoring the visa for one year (extendable up to three years for those working in STEM).
If you are interested in learning how to grow a startup to a successful company, taking leadership roles in the future and more importantly, working in an intimate setting with flexible and ample learning opportunities, Visikol might be a very good choice for you. I hope this post has helped you to understand what it’s like to work for a growing biotech CRO firm and that you enjoyed reading this article!
This article was edited by Junior Editor Natalie Losada and Senior Editor Brianna Alexander.