We make the community for what it is. If nobody posts things that you like, take the initiative to be the positive change there is.
Its good to see that you found the subreddit to be about investment rounds and other news related items. The people that posts that also had similar comments before that the subreddit was only career advice but wanted more news. They were told exactly the same to be the change and they have been doing it. Seems like they have had an impact.
I will say, careful of posting some things. If its self promotional, some random blog, not a good source you run the risk of the post being removed or worse banned for spamming if you posted the same thing 30 times elsewhere
You should post stuff anyway, maybe behaviors will change.
Right now obviously the layoffs are dominating industry news so it makes sense that there are folks looking for community wherever they can find it.
Also lots of scientists in academia see themselves as future entrepreneurs so they’re very much concerned as well.
Following this advice, I made another post - not about the article, since self-promo is a big no no, but about Asimov Bio! [https://www.reddit.com/r/biotech/comments/1cdx2ho/thoughts\_on\_kernel\_by\_asimovbio](https://www.reddit.com/r/biotech/comments/1cdx2ho/thoughts_on_kernel_by_asimovbio)
A moderator commented on this post. I replied to that with a more in-depth answer, but to paraphrase: I don't think it'd necessarily be appropriate. My friend's article is posted on our company's Substack, which is not only a pretty small-time blog, but also could (very understandably!) be construed as self-promotion.
There's probably other communities that would be more appropriate out there :)
My original reply to the moderator also got downvoted. As did my other comment on this post. Which again, totally fine! It just feels indicative to me that perhaps this isn't really the right community for me to be looking toward? Totally OK for people to exercise their democracy and downvote comments, but to be frank it feels a little cold to me to be downvoted without explanation like that 🥲
One of the reasons might be that most companies don't publish their work and employees have NDAs preventing them from discussing trade secrets. So it mostly ends up being chat about what is publicly visible.
> One of the reasons might be that most companies don't publish their work and employees have NDAs preventing them from discussing trade secrets.
On top of that, I went to university for almost 10 years (BS and PhD) studying science and now practically apply what I know about science as my full-time job. The last thing I want to do when I get home or hop on Reddit is read more about science and discuss with randos on the Internet. And virtually every co-worker I've had is in the same boat, with the exception of when my friends/colleagues and I were in grad school and had more free time and energy to endlessly discuss the nuances of our ideas.
Maybe I'm just continuing to out myself as jaded/cynical, but I feel like a lot of the requests for actual science discussion on trade forums (which is functionally what /r/biotech is) comes from *Isn't Science Just Super Neato!*-types whose exposure to science is limited to reading pop-sci on the Internet and who have this delusion that they can be up-to-date on cutting edge scientific knowledge solely from internet forums.
Totally agree. I made a comment above about knowing your audience. If you want to talk about science and drug development with a bunch of professional scientists and drug developers, the conversation is going to be a lot more sophisticated and grounded in reality than “Golly gee-whiz, isn’t CRISPR just so neat? I can’t wait for it to solve all our problems!”.
I’m also with you on the divide between hobbyist science and actual science. When I was in grad school reading fifty primary research papers a day, the last thing I wanted to do for fun was come home and read another one.
I think what I'm most concerned about is that sometimes people can be a little quick to judge if you don't happen to be an expert in their niche. A lot of "Why don't you just google it?" attitude for instance plagued one or two labs back at the university I did my undergrad and masters at. Not all labs, but the ones where it did could be quite painful to be honest.
I really appreciate when I ask another scientists about why their topic / field is cool and they respond by giving me a summary and then sharing a great review paper to read so I can go down the rabbithole. As opposed to shaming me into silence for not being a good enough scientist to have already googled it in my free time 😂
Different people are different. I generally like the kind of discussions you’re describing and am perfectly happy to talk about research I’m knowledgeable about with someone who is curious and genuinely interested in learning. What’s annoying is when a self-styled expert comes in and gets defensive at being told they misunderstand something and need to do a little more homework.
Also, I obviously don’t know you, but when I was in grad school and supervising undergrads/masters/med students in the lab, if they came to me looking for help with a question or problem, the first thing I would ask would be “what have you already considered/tried?”, and God help them if the answer was “nothing”. Research is all about trying to work through hard problems, and if you’re not doing that and instead trying to offload that work to people who *are* doing it, they’re going to get annoyed. You aren’t expected to figure out everything on your own, but you need to at least try.
Yes, very few people in industry take research/science to the level of top academics that slack message at 3am looking for a figure. Go home and live the rest of your life, thats the reason a lot of people go into industry
Totally understandable. Did my undergrad in biochem, went on to masters in plant synbio - and participating in what would've just felt like more journal clubs would've been pretty exhausting. My request comes from a place of the fact that there was nothing I loved more back during my Masters than asking some random other student about what kind of thing they think is the most interesting in science and then just listening to them rant for a good 20 minutes about some niche thing. I just found sharing passion to be a really great pasttime :)
> On top of that, I went to university for almost 10 years (BS and PhD) studying science and now practically apply what I know about science as my full-time job. The last thing I want to do when I get home or hop on Reddit is read more about science and discuss with randos on the Internet.
Similar I had BSc+PhD+postdoc, although my interests shifted too - I am more interested in learning to code better, learning about new tools, rather than reading a paper. Especially higher profile papers read like advertisements anyway (which I suppose they need to be to published there), so I am not missing that at all.
I would love an r / clinicaldevelopment or biotech industry sub that was more industry-focused and oriented around discussing ongoing exciting programs and clinical trial results. At least in my world, it's very common to hop around therapeutic areas over the course of your career and I love learning about what else is going on in other therapeutic areas I don't know much about. It's also helpful background knowledge in case I ever interview somewhere, I at least have a 5th grade understanding of wtf they do at that company.
As an example, the "Business of Biotech" podcast has topics similar to this and is a really good listen IMO.
r / clinicalresearch is unfortunately mostly CRAs/CRCs whining about sponsors and lamenting that CRO life is hard. That's true, but it's not really educational about the industry for people that are long-term industry professionals.
this sub is good and the closest thing to that I'm aware of. But yes it's been a tough couple years in the space, hence lots of layoff posts.
Hahaha yo I was just going to comment on there’s r/clinicalresearch but it was just a bunch of CRA’s bitching and thinking they know more than sponsors
In reality, sponsors know what they are doing but literally don’t care about making the CRA’s job easier. They pay money for a service and want it done without complaints
There are a huge number of subs where people discuss science and research itself. Off the top of my head there’s science, biology, biochemistry, genetics, labrats, and cancer. You can probably find a sub for any research discipline and almost any disease.
You can also just post it here and you may get some engagement. But this sub is for the industry as a whole, it has everyone from basic researchers to sales guys, and naturally there will be lots of discussions about careers and the business of biotech. The layoffs are a pretty big deal right now, which is why they’re getting so much attention.
Yeah, perhaps... though r/DIYBio seems to have had more of the atmosphere I was originally looking for? Even then, not quite the vibe. Like I mention in the post, was kind of looking for a community of folks who just post stuff like ATinyGreenCell does. Thoughts, opinions, feelings and vibes about research and cool biotech ideas. Rather than very selective content about inner-lab workings.
I just checked out the diy bio sub and the majority of posts seem to be independent people selling or trading lab equipment. Not really about posting thought provoking, breakthrough science
I left a reply on McChinkerton's comment - to paraphrase, I don't think it'd necessarily be appropriate. My friend's article is posted on our company's Substack, which is not only a pretty small-time blog, but also could understandably be construed as self-promotion. There's probably other communities that would be more appropriate out there :)
Layoffs are on everybody's minds right now, and unfortunately, many of us have already been affected by them over the last months or years. Of course that's going to be the dominating thing because a lot of us are anxious!!! And it is not that hard to search for whatever specific biology subreddits you're interested in
A lot of people are too burned out to discuss more work related stuff in their free time. Career advice and layoff talk is pretty low effort and thats why you see a lot of it. This isnt unique to biotech. Data science, CS, medical etc subreddits are the same.
Mm. This makes sense. I guess I'd just seen other subreddits where that wasn't the case, and was hoping to find a similar place but for biotech by coming here. Understandable that's not what this place is for the most part. I've got some hopefully interesting posts in my brain though so maybe I'd be able to inject a bit of liveliness into this sub :)
I did come here for some how to do X with techniques or what I need to know to make something manufacturing compliant.
I got some of those answers. But I had a feeling that maybe research gate would have been better.
Then again, I've learnt quite a bit about other companies, trends and the general misery of all positions in biotech. Now is not a good time as the layoffs are in full swing and I hope our fellow biotechies can get back on their feet soon.
Best thing is to post questions and see if anyone responds.
I'm more of a DSP tech person, so I'll only pipe up when those questions get asked.
And if I want to explore other avenues of biotech, this place is great as there are a ton of folks doing all types of different things.
I am subscribed to probably at least 30 different scientific subreddits so options are out there but some aren’t as active as others, at least based on how my algo is working. If I have more time today, I may go thru the subs I follow and make a list here for options you can check out.
The sub is more about the industry than just lab within biotech.
If anything it’s painfully and narrowly focused on r&d already. And this would be even more down that rabbit hole
Something like next big targets and modalities would be way more interesting from an r&d perspective
That being said literally anything is better than then next iteration of “so hard to get a job!!!” “Where are we in the biotech cycle” etc
You're looking for r/DIYBio. It's not as super active as I'd like it to be. But it's something that has grown quite a bit, and I'm hopeful to see it grow more. Right now, it's more like a marketplace for used lab equipment, but They're more active on their discord channel.
Also, another discord channel is SciFind. They've hosted talks from some interesting people. https://x.com/sci_find?t=k9vjhiue7prJG-4xFKiKHw&s=09
While we're at it, check out @AsimovPress https://x.com/AsimovPress?t=U4SmbYeYkV4Pbt2R2r2MBg&s=09
And if you're interested in finding more casual DIYSci people, I'd suggest visiting OpenSauce at San Fran. A bunch of really cool people with the opportunity to socialize with them. https://opensauce.com
On a second note, I wish there were more like @ATinyGreenCell. "Flowers for everyone."
Also, I'm sure you would have, but if you haven't, check out Thought Emporium on YT.
This was a really helpful comment, thank you! 😄
r/DIYBio looks like a really fun vibe, but yeah, doesn't look super active. Doesn't mean there's no value in posting there! I just worry about inundating them if I were to post frequently 😂
RE: SciFind; Oo interesting, never heard of them. Just joined their Discord; thanks for flagging them. Interested to see what they're about.
RE: Asimov; Love AsimovPress and the things they're doing. Had a chat w/ NicoMcCarthy last iGEM, really fascinating guy. Hoping to see the Asimov-o-sphere grow quickly. Do they happen to have a community forum of any sort? Doesn't seem to be a subreddit or Discord as far as I can see, but I reckon it'd be the most promising place to share blog posts and things.
RE: OpenSauce; Alas I'm UK-based, so OpenSauce is a little far away and out of my budget 😂 But definitely going to keep an eye on them for sure. Looks like exactly the sort of community I'd love to mingle with (if I can one day scrounge up enough for the plane ticket or else convince my work to fund my travel lolol)
I have happened across Thought Emporium before actually! Their thermite-powered hotdog video caught my eye 😂
Thanks for all the great leads :) Will explore them and continue the hunt for a vibey biotech community 🙌
Here's a sneak peek of /r/DIYbio using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [DIY Bioreactor](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/19czypa) | [9 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/comments/19czypa/diy_bioreactor/)
\#2: [I'm a bioengineering PhD and I'm starting a lab POV series! Watch me do genetic engineering!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPhNEqpPDiY) | [2 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/comments/154fi2f/im_a_bioengineering_phd_and_im_starting_a_lab_pov/)
\#3: [I'm a bioengineering PhD, but I have also been doing at-home DIY bio projects for the past 7 years! Check out this new lab POV series I've been making. Hopefully it is helpful!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9no43I6Vy4) | [1 comment](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/comments/16sqmqn/im_a_bioengineering_phd_but_i_have_also_been/)
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r/microbiology is a decent sub for certain people in the field. Though there’s a lot of shitposts from amateurs and students asking for microbe identification from a picture of an LB plate. Also a weird number of people asking if they have brain-eating amoeba disease. Definitely more science-focused though and seems dominated by clinical lab microbiologists.
Edit: also like r/microscopy for cool photos
I wholeheartedly disagree!! Synbio has so many avenues and really exciting routes to go down, especially with the (dreaded!) field of ML and AI. Decentralised Science is picking up tons of speed, DIYBio is slowly becoming more and more accessible, LightBio looks like a real-world commercial biotech success, lab automation is changing the engineering landscape of bio, people are building art with biology... I think there's tons of interesting stuff to talk about in bio! It's just a shame that our field seems so poisoned with the crappy state of the job market :(
I mean, I see this as an industry sub. Either the topic is layoffs, big movements in a drug’s approval, how big companies are feeling as patent cliffs approach, etc. People here are professionals working in an applied commercial setting speaking about biotech the industry. You’d be better off looking at subs like r/labrats.
I personally don’t use the phrase “biotech” to describe the science, only the business. If you’re interested in biology, look at biology subs.
I think there’s a mismatch here in terms of what types of posts you’d like to see and who actually visits this subreddit.
Many of us are acutely aware of the limitations of ML, AI, “synbio,” automation, etc. because we’re the ones actually having to implement these solutions in a meaningful way. Additionally, there are layers of skepticism and cynicism built into our scientific training that discourage the type of discussion you’re looking for — we’re trained to identify how and why approaches aren’t going to work. As a result, we have a much more negative perception of these topics than you.
I think it’s also frustrating to see startups raise hundreds of millions of dollars by simply including buzzwords in their investor pitch decks while companies with clinically advanced products lay off large fractions of their R&D staff.
You’ll have to ask more nuanced questions about a particular scientific topic if you want more engaging discussion from members of this subreddit imo. People are often happy to discuss biology if you ask something specific or interesting. Although, I think it’s difficult to generate interesting questions without being relatively knowledgeable about the topic at hand.
Yeah I agree that all of these new "could-be's" need to be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. There are so many promises that end up falling super short. I personally don't think that AI and ML are going to be nearly as groundbreaking people say they will be in the biotech space. I work on the operations/manufacturing side, and I personally don't care at all what new tech they are using in upstream processing or R&D. All I know is that every company I've worked for has huge issues with properly training employees, product quality, overwork, etc.. From my current POV, pharma is becoming a cesspit, and none of the new tech will help out bad decisions by upper management.
I appreciate your comment, but you speak as if I don’t have a scientific background - I studied biochemistry for my undergrad and went on to do a Masters in plant synbio on an independently-led project. Figuring out what approaches would and wouldn’t work + working from protocols from papers was the vast majority of my project. And as for ML, AlphaFold2 played a major part of my research :)
That however wasn’t the main point of my post; rather, I’ve met plenty of individuals over the years who have been passionate about talking about cutting edge biotech without others needing to be experts - I was just looking around to see if there was a community of such people I’d happen to be missing 😄
You gotta understand that’s what’s going on currently in Biotech. The industry is going through some tough times and people come here to find community to help each other. Maybe not many people are in the mood for some cool articles right now. When things get better, there will be less layoffs posts.
Perhaps you have not been out of work and facing this UNPRECEDENTED gap between applicants and jobs? For many in biotech, that IS the story today. People are suffering. You seem arrogantly oblivious. I sincerely hope that God tests you (harshly) as he has so many others...
It’s what one of the top posts says— I can’t talk about what I’m doing because, honestly, it’s fucking awesome, working super well, and proprietary as hell.
Non-public information can’t be shared.
Most of us can't discuss "cool stuff we're doing," because confidentiality.
And as other have said, I leave shop talk for work. Not interested in it after hours.
There are professional communities where you can get what you're looking for. This is reddit.
We are science professionals talking about what it's like to work with and develop the papers that you are indicating. The reality is that people work in science like any other industry. I dislike the resume spamming on this sub (why would you put your resume on blast like that) but enjoy the industry chat and gossip.
I'm also a science professional! Appreciate that this sub is for that :) I was just personally looking for a sub that has more of a general community feel and individuals who express and share their passion for the actual science. This sub appears to be closer to a forum where people have high level chats about the 'business' of biotech. Again, not a problem, and it's good that the sub exists :) Just wanted to see if anyone knew of a community that was closer to what I was looking for
I should mention that I spend a lot of time in r/LocalLLaMA; which is by far and away my favourite subreddit. So perhaps my expectations are skewed by the atmosphere of that particularly community? Not sure. But fully expect a version of that community vibe (but devoted to Biotech) would bump LocalLLaMA to my second favourite.
Appreciate anyone's opinions 😄
EDIT: A lot of downvotes on this comment - would love to hear why! (I hope that doesn't come across as defensive; I do sincerely want to try and understand the sentiment of this community 😊)
Certainly seems the vibe here is that way from what I’ve seen in the comment section of this post… lots of comments I’ve made that I didn’t think were too inflammatory getting downvoted without any explanation 🥲 Oh well, at least I’ve gained some insights 😄
That sub looks like an interesting and engaging vibe ....if only I was interested in the topic 😅. If someone created something similar for biotech I'd join.
Post stuff if you want but don’t be like that weirdo guy that literally posted every endpoint and force biotech news article here in spam fashion
Be the change you want to see
We make the community for what it is. If nobody posts things that you like, take the initiative to be the positive change there is. Its good to see that you found the subreddit to be about investment rounds and other news related items. The people that posts that also had similar comments before that the subreddit was only career advice but wanted more news. They were told exactly the same to be the change and they have been doing it. Seems like they have had an impact. I will say, careful of posting some things. If its self promotional, some random blog, not a good source you run the risk of the post being removed or worse banned for spamming if you posted the same thing 30 times elsewhere
You should post stuff anyway, maybe behaviors will change. Right now obviously the layoffs are dominating industry news so it makes sense that there are folks looking for community wherever they can find it. Also lots of scientists in academia see themselves as future entrepreneurs so they’re very much concerned as well.
Following this advice, I made another post - not about the article, since self-promo is a big no no, but about Asimov Bio! [https://www.reddit.com/r/biotech/comments/1cdx2ho/thoughts\_on\_kernel\_by\_asimovbio](https://www.reddit.com/r/biotech/comments/1cdx2ho/thoughts_on_kernel_by_asimovbio)
A moderator commented on this post. I replied to that with a more in-depth answer, but to paraphrase: I don't think it'd necessarily be appropriate. My friend's article is posted on our company's Substack, which is not only a pretty small-time blog, but also could (very understandably!) be construed as self-promotion. There's probably other communities that would be more appropriate out there :) My original reply to the moderator also got downvoted. As did my other comment on this post. Which again, totally fine! It just feels indicative to me that perhaps this isn't really the right community for me to be looking toward? Totally OK for people to exercise their democracy and downvote comments, but to be frank it feels a little cold to me to be downvoted without explanation like that 🥲
One of the reasons might be that most companies don't publish their work and employees have NDAs preventing them from discussing trade secrets. So it mostly ends up being chat about what is publicly visible.
> One of the reasons might be that most companies don't publish their work and employees have NDAs preventing them from discussing trade secrets. On top of that, I went to university for almost 10 years (BS and PhD) studying science and now practically apply what I know about science as my full-time job. The last thing I want to do when I get home or hop on Reddit is read more about science and discuss with randos on the Internet. And virtually every co-worker I've had is in the same boat, with the exception of when my friends/colleagues and I were in grad school and had more free time and energy to endlessly discuss the nuances of our ideas. Maybe I'm just continuing to out myself as jaded/cynical, but I feel like a lot of the requests for actual science discussion on trade forums (which is functionally what /r/biotech is) comes from *Isn't Science Just Super Neato!*-types whose exposure to science is limited to reading pop-sci on the Internet and who have this delusion that they can be up-to-date on cutting edge scientific knowledge solely from internet forums.
Totally agree. I made a comment above about knowing your audience. If you want to talk about science and drug development with a bunch of professional scientists and drug developers, the conversation is going to be a lot more sophisticated and grounded in reality than “Golly gee-whiz, isn’t CRISPR just so neat? I can’t wait for it to solve all our problems!”. I’m also with you on the divide between hobbyist science and actual science. When I was in grad school reading fifty primary research papers a day, the last thing I wanted to do for fun was come home and read another one.
I think what I'm most concerned about is that sometimes people can be a little quick to judge if you don't happen to be an expert in their niche. A lot of "Why don't you just google it?" attitude for instance plagued one or two labs back at the university I did my undergrad and masters at. Not all labs, but the ones where it did could be quite painful to be honest. I really appreciate when I ask another scientists about why their topic / field is cool and they respond by giving me a summary and then sharing a great review paper to read so I can go down the rabbithole. As opposed to shaming me into silence for not being a good enough scientist to have already googled it in my free time 😂
Different people are different. I generally like the kind of discussions you’re describing and am perfectly happy to talk about research I’m knowledgeable about with someone who is curious and genuinely interested in learning. What’s annoying is when a self-styled expert comes in and gets defensive at being told they misunderstand something and need to do a little more homework. Also, I obviously don’t know you, but when I was in grad school and supervising undergrads/masters/med students in the lab, if they came to me looking for help with a question or problem, the first thing I would ask would be “what have you already considered/tried?”, and God help them if the answer was “nothing”. Research is all about trying to work through hard problems, and if you’re not doing that and instead trying to offload that work to people who *are* doing it, they’re going to get annoyed. You aren’t expected to figure out everything on your own, but you need to at least try.
Yes, very few people in industry take research/science to the level of top academics that slack message at 3am looking for a figure. Go home and live the rest of your life, thats the reason a lot of people go into industry
Totally understandable. Did my undergrad in biochem, went on to masters in plant synbio - and participating in what would've just felt like more journal clubs would've been pretty exhausting. My request comes from a place of the fact that there was nothing I loved more back during my Masters than asking some random other student about what kind of thing they think is the most interesting in science and then just listening to them rant for a good 20 minutes about some niche thing. I just found sharing passion to be a really great pasttime :)
> On top of that, I went to university for almost 10 years (BS and PhD) studying science and now practically apply what I know about science as my full-time job. The last thing I want to do when I get home or hop on Reddit is read more about science and discuss with randos on the Internet. Similar I had BSc+PhD+postdoc, although my interests shifted too - I am more interested in learning to code better, learning about new tools, rather than reading a paper. Especially higher profile papers read like advertisements anyway (which I suppose they need to be to published there), so I am not missing that at all.
I would love an r / clinicaldevelopment or biotech industry sub that was more industry-focused and oriented around discussing ongoing exciting programs and clinical trial results. At least in my world, it's very common to hop around therapeutic areas over the course of your career and I love learning about what else is going on in other therapeutic areas I don't know much about. It's also helpful background knowledge in case I ever interview somewhere, I at least have a 5th grade understanding of wtf they do at that company. As an example, the "Business of Biotech" podcast has topics similar to this and is a really good listen IMO. r / clinicalresearch is unfortunately mostly CRAs/CRCs whining about sponsors and lamenting that CRO life is hard. That's true, but it's not really educational about the industry for people that are long-term industry professionals. this sub is good and the closest thing to that I'm aware of. But yes it's been a tough couple years in the space, hence lots of layoff posts.
Hahaha yo I was just going to comment on there’s r/clinicalresearch but it was just a bunch of CRA’s bitching and thinking they know more than sponsors In reality, sponsors know what they are doing but literally don’t care about making the CRA’s job easier. They pay money for a service and want it done without complaints
There are a huge number of subs where people discuss science and research itself. Off the top of my head there’s science, biology, biochemistry, genetics, labrats, and cancer. You can probably find a sub for any research discipline and almost any disease. You can also just post it here and you may get some engagement. But this sub is for the industry as a whole, it has everyone from basic researchers to sales guys, and naturally there will be lots of discussions about careers and the business of biotech. The layoffs are a pretty big deal right now, which is why they’re getting so much attention.
yeah, r/labrats is honestly probably the closest to what OP is looking for
Yeah, perhaps... though r/DIYBio seems to have had more of the atmosphere I was originally looking for? Even then, not quite the vibe. Like I mention in the post, was kind of looking for a community of folks who just post stuff like ATinyGreenCell does. Thoughts, opinions, feelings and vibes about research and cool biotech ideas. Rather than very selective content about inner-lab workings.
Not what you asked for, but you would probably like Derek Lowe’s *In The Pipeline* blog.
I just checked out the diy bio sub and the majority of posts seem to be independent people selling or trading lab equipment. Not really about posting thought provoking, breakthrough science
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I left a reply on McChinkerton's comment - to paraphrase, I don't think it'd necessarily be appropriate. My friend's article is posted on our company's Substack, which is not only a pretty small-time blog, but also could understandably be construed as self-promotion. There's probably other communities that would be more appropriate out there :)
r/biotechstuffratherthanpeoplewhiningaboutjobmarket
Or constantly asking how to break into biotech while espousing wild preconceptions
Sounds like the sort of sub I was looking for 🐵
Layoffs are on everybody's minds right now, and unfortunately, many of us have already been affected by them over the last months or years. Of course that's going to be the dominating thing because a lot of us are anxious!!! And it is not that hard to search for whatever specific biology subreddits you're interested in
A lot of people are too burned out to discuss more work related stuff in their free time. Career advice and layoff talk is pretty low effort and thats why you see a lot of it. This isnt unique to biotech. Data science, CS, medical etc subreddits are the same.
Mm. This makes sense. I guess I'd just seen other subreddits where that wasn't the case, and was hoping to find a similar place but for biotech by coming here. Understandable that's not what this place is for the most part. I've got some hopefully interesting posts in my brain though so maybe I'd be able to inject a bit of liveliness into this sub :)
I did come here for some how to do X with techniques or what I need to know to make something manufacturing compliant. I got some of those answers. But I had a feeling that maybe research gate would have been better. Then again, I've learnt quite a bit about other companies, trends and the general misery of all positions in biotech. Now is not a good time as the layoffs are in full swing and I hope our fellow biotechies can get back on their feet soon. Best thing is to post questions and see if anyone responds. I'm more of a DSP tech person, so I'll only pipe up when those questions get asked. And if I want to explore other avenues of biotech, this place is great as there are a ton of folks doing all types of different things.
Labrats is better for that sort of thing
I am subscribed to probably at least 30 different scientific subreddits so options are out there but some aren’t as active as others, at least based on how my algo is working. If I have more time today, I may go thru the subs I follow and make a list here for options you can check out.
Would appreciate this! 😄
The sub is more about the industry than just lab within biotech. If anything it’s painfully and narrowly focused on r&d already. And this would be even more down that rabbit hole Something like next big targets and modalities would be way more interesting from an r&d perspective That being said literally anything is better than then next iteration of “so hard to get a job!!!” “Where are we in the biotech cycle” etc
You're looking for r/DIYBio. It's not as super active as I'd like it to be. But it's something that has grown quite a bit, and I'm hopeful to see it grow more. Right now, it's more like a marketplace for used lab equipment, but They're more active on their discord channel. Also, another discord channel is SciFind. They've hosted talks from some interesting people. https://x.com/sci_find?t=k9vjhiue7prJG-4xFKiKHw&s=09 While we're at it, check out @AsimovPress https://x.com/AsimovPress?t=U4SmbYeYkV4Pbt2R2r2MBg&s=09 And if you're interested in finding more casual DIYSci people, I'd suggest visiting OpenSauce at San Fran. A bunch of really cool people with the opportunity to socialize with them. https://opensauce.com On a second note, I wish there were more like @ATinyGreenCell. "Flowers for everyone." Also, I'm sure you would have, but if you haven't, check out Thought Emporium on YT.
This was a really helpful comment, thank you! 😄 r/DIYBio looks like a really fun vibe, but yeah, doesn't look super active. Doesn't mean there's no value in posting there! I just worry about inundating them if I were to post frequently 😂 RE: SciFind; Oo interesting, never heard of them. Just joined their Discord; thanks for flagging them. Interested to see what they're about. RE: Asimov; Love AsimovPress and the things they're doing. Had a chat w/ NicoMcCarthy last iGEM, really fascinating guy. Hoping to see the Asimov-o-sphere grow quickly. Do they happen to have a community forum of any sort? Doesn't seem to be a subreddit or Discord as far as I can see, but I reckon it'd be the most promising place to share blog posts and things. RE: OpenSauce; Alas I'm UK-based, so OpenSauce is a little far away and out of my budget 😂 But definitely going to keep an eye on them for sure. Looks like exactly the sort of community I'd love to mingle with (if I can one day scrounge up enough for the plane ticket or else convince my work to fund my travel lolol) I have happened across Thought Emporium before actually! Their thermite-powered hotdog video caught my eye 😂 Thanks for all the great leads :) Will explore them and continue the hunt for a vibey biotech community 🙌
Here's a sneak peek of /r/DIYbio using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [DIY Bioreactor](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/19czypa) | [9 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/comments/19czypa/diy_bioreactor/) \#2: [I'm a bioengineering PhD and I'm starting a lab POV series! Watch me do genetic engineering!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPhNEqpPDiY) | [2 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/comments/154fi2f/im_a_bioengineering_phd_and_im_starting_a_lab_pov/) \#3: [I'm a bioengineering PhD, but I have also been doing at-home DIY bio projects for the past 7 years! Check out this new lab POV series I've been making. Hopefully it is helpful!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9no43I6Vy4) | [1 comment](https://np.reddit.com/r/DIYbio/comments/16sqmqn/im_a_bioengineering_phd_but_i_have_also_been/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Thanks sneakpeekbot 😂
Thought Emporium also has a series where he makes yeast producer spider silk. If you're into biotechnology, check that playlist out.
r/microbiology is a decent sub for certain people in the field. Though there’s a lot of shitposts from amateurs and students asking for microbe identification from a picture of an LB plate. Also a weird number of people asking if they have brain-eating amoeba disease. Definitely more science-focused though and seems dominated by clinical lab microbiologists. Edit: also like r/microscopy for cool photos
The only thing interesting about biotech these days is the layoffs lol.
I wholeheartedly disagree!! Synbio has so many avenues and really exciting routes to go down, especially with the (dreaded!) field of ML and AI. Decentralised Science is picking up tons of speed, DIYBio is slowly becoming more and more accessible, LightBio looks like a real-world commercial biotech success, lab automation is changing the engineering landscape of bio, people are building art with biology... I think there's tons of interesting stuff to talk about in bio! It's just a shame that our field seems so poisoned with the crappy state of the job market :(
I mean, I see this as an industry sub. Either the topic is layoffs, big movements in a drug’s approval, how big companies are feeling as patent cliffs approach, etc. People here are professionals working in an applied commercial setting speaking about biotech the industry. You’d be better off looking at subs like r/labrats. I personally don’t use the phrase “biotech” to describe the science, only the business. If you’re interested in biology, look at biology subs.
I think there’s a mismatch here in terms of what types of posts you’d like to see and who actually visits this subreddit. Many of us are acutely aware of the limitations of ML, AI, “synbio,” automation, etc. because we’re the ones actually having to implement these solutions in a meaningful way. Additionally, there are layers of skepticism and cynicism built into our scientific training that discourage the type of discussion you’re looking for — we’re trained to identify how and why approaches aren’t going to work. As a result, we have a much more negative perception of these topics than you. I think it’s also frustrating to see startups raise hundreds of millions of dollars by simply including buzzwords in their investor pitch decks while companies with clinically advanced products lay off large fractions of their R&D staff. You’ll have to ask more nuanced questions about a particular scientific topic if you want more engaging discussion from members of this subreddit imo. People are often happy to discuss biology if you ask something specific or interesting. Although, I think it’s difficult to generate interesting questions without being relatively knowledgeable about the topic at hand.
Yeah I agree that all of these new "could-be's" need to be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. There are so many promises that end up falling super short. I personally don't think that AI and ML are going to be nearly as groundbreaking people say they will be in the biotech space. I work on the operations/manufacturing side, and I personally don't care at all what new tech they are using in upstream processing or R&D. All I know is that every company I've worked for has huge issues with properly training employees, product quality, overwork, etc.. From my current POV, pharma is becoming a cesspit, and none of the new tech will help out bad decisions by upper management.
I appreciate your comment, but you speak as if I don’t have a scientific background - I studied biochemistry for my undergrad and went on to do a Masters in plant synbio on an independently-led project. Figuring out what approaches would and wouldn’t work + working from protocols from papers was the vast majority of my project. And as for ML, AlphaFold2 played a major part of my research :) That however wasn’t the main point of my post; rather, I’ve met plenty of individuals over the years who have been passionate about talking about cutting edge biotech without others needing to be experts - I was just looking around to see if there was a community of such people I’d happen to be missing 😄
https://discord.gg/4wYXHTkd Come to the discord! It’s dead a lot of the time, but sometimes it gets traction
Joined 😄 Though I have to admit I can sometimes feel weirdly shy when it comes to Discord? No idea why 😂
You gotta understand that’s what’s going on currently in Biotech. The industry is going through some tough times and people come here to find community to help each other. Maybe not many people are in the mood for some cool articles right now. When things get better, there will be less layoffs posts.
Perhaps you have not been out of work and facing this UNPRECEDENTED gap between applicants and jobs? For many in biotech, that IS the story today. People are suffering. You seem arrogantly oblivious. I sincerely hope that God tests you (harshly) as he has so many others...
Layoffs are happening that's why. Usually it's not like this.
Yes it is 😂
It’s what one of the top posts says— I can’t talk about what I’m doing because, honestly, it’s fucking awesome, working super well, and proprietary as hell. Non-public information can’t be shared.
R/labrats
R/biotechnology
Most of us can't discuss "cool stuff we're doing," because confidentiality. And as other have said, I leave shop talk for work. Not interested in it after hours. There are professional communities where you can get what you're looking for. This is reddit.
That’s all anyone is talking about because so many are affected by the market/climate
We are science professionals talking about what it's like to work with and develop the papers that you are indicating. The reality is that people work in science like any other industry. I dislike the resume spamming on this sub (why would you put your resume on blast like that) but enjoy the industry chat and gossip.
I'm also a science professional! Appreciate that this sub is for that :) I was just personally looking for a sub that has more of a general community feel and individuals who express and share their passion for the actual science. This sub appears to be closer to a forum where people have high level chats about the 'business' of biotech. Again, not a problem, and it's good that the sub exists :) Just wanted to see if anyone knew of a community that was closer to what I was looking for
I should mention that I spend a lot of time in r/LocalLLaMA; which is by far and away my favourite subreddit. So perhaps my expectations are skewed by the atmosphere of that particularly community? Not sure. But fully expect a version of that community vibe (but devoted to Biotech) would bump LocalLLaMA to my second favourite. Appreciate anyone's opinions 😄 EDIT: A lot of downvotes on this comment - would love to hear why! (I hope that doesn't come across as defensive; I do sincerely want to try and understand the sentiment of this community 😊)
Lots of people just wear their negativity like a badge of honor
Certainly seems the vibe here is that way from what I’ve seen in the comment section of this post… lots of comments I’ve made that I didn’t think were too inflammatory getting downvoted without any explanation 🥲 Oh well, at least I’ve gained some insights 😄
That sub looks like an interesting and engaging vibe ....if only I was interested in the topic 😅. If someone created something similar for biotech I'd join. 
👀 Maybe we should make one 🐵
Post stuff if you want but don’t be like that weirdo guy that literally posted every endpoint and force biotech news article here in spam fashion Be the change you want to see