Anand Muthusamy is a Fellow at Convergent Research, where he's laying the groundwork for a focused research organization (FRO) to monitor the real-time activity of biomarkers in humans. Anand is a chemist and neuroscientist. He recently completed his PhD at Caltech, worked at Janelia Research Campus, and did his undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania. Check out his recent paper on bioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.15.584894v1 Defense talk on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OK1kBOKsaaw FRO proposal overview: https://fas.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Muthusamy-Garrett-Mo ..read more

Episode 82. Alexander Titus is a professor at USC, doing research at the intersection of biology and AI. He completed his PhD in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences at Dartmouth. He's also the founder of Bioeconomy.xyz and advises the U.S. Government on AI and national security. Titus spent time at McKinsey and Google and helped build Colossal Biosciences and Form Bio.  ..read more

Episode 80. Amy Kruse is Chief Investment Officer at Satori Capital and a Venture Partner at Prime Movers Lab. Amy completed her PhD in Neuroscience at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After leaving the bench, Amy spent time as a Program Manager at DARPA and has worked in various operating roles in the neurotech industry ..read more

Episode 79. Sammi Sison is co-president of Nucleate, an international student-led organization designed to help scientists kick off careers in entrepreneurship, business development, and venture capital. Sammi is a PhD student at UC San Diego where she studies translational processing in the brain.  ..read more

Episode 78. Kim Edwards, my partner, is the guest interviewer. We talk about motivations for starting a company. Check out the journey in real-time on my newsletter:  transitionstates.substack.com ..read more

Episode 77. Jun Axup is Chief Operating Officer at E11 Bio, a Focused Research Organization. She is an entrepreneur and former Chief Scientific Officer and Partner at IndiBio. She's also a musician, artist, and community builder. Jun completed her PhD in Chemical Biology at Scripps Research.  Check out some of her awesome projects at her personal website:  https://junaxup.com ..read more

Episode 77. Jun Axup is Chief Operating Officer at E11 Bio, a focused research organization. She is an entrepreneur and former Chief Scientific Officer and Partner at IndiBio. She's also a musician, artist, and community builder. Jun completed her PhD in Chemical Biology at Scripps Research.  Check out some of her awesome projects at her personal website:  https://junaxup.com ..read more

Episode 76. We turn the table in this episode. William Marks, a longtime friend, interviews me in 2020 on the motivations behind getting into neuroscience and starting a podcast ..read more

Episode 76. Aiden Aceves is a Vice President at Insight Partners, an investment firm. Prior to entering VC, Aiden completed his PhD in Bioengineering at Caltech and a bachelor's degree at UC Riverside.  ..read more

Episode 75. Andrew Akbashev is a Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. He holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University and completed a postdoc at Stanford University. If you're not already, follow him on LinkedIn, X or YouTube for insights into navigating academia and science careers Timestamps:  00:15:14 How to pick a thesis advisor 00:28:06 Evaluating student-advisor compatibility 00:36:31 When doing a postdoc makes sense 00:52:15 How to offer more career opportunities to PhDs 01:12:01 How to incentivize high ..read more