Medicinal chemistry (1 Viewer)

Tim035

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Where I was 'hoping' of ending up is one of the following:
- Working in R&D for a pharmaceutical company, most likely in lead development
- Working as a clinical trials associate
- Working in quality control / assurance
- Professional poker player (jokes, although I'm making $100 - 200 a week at the moment).
 

Survivor39

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Rekkusu: kind of depressing to hear that...out of curiosity though, is what you say true for all BABS/MedSci majors/honours programs or are there at least some areas with better job prospects than others?
Well, it's hard for any one to answer that because we don't know where every single student has went after graduation.

But in all seriousness, if you have an Honours degree and you are good enough (Hons Class I or at least High Class II.1) you will get a job in research! Seriously! There were two pretty average Honours students from my lab who graduated and they got a job as a Research Assistant! It may take them longer than others with a 1st, but it's not like they have to end up working in Big W or whatever.

If you want to head into soemthing other than research, then may be try your luck with sales with major scientfic equipment companies or become a technical officer for a scientific company (you answer technical questions about the companies products and help people troubleshoot their experiments). I always sees ads flowing around.

I have no idea what happens to a majority of those with just a bachelor degree without Honours. I know know two of my friends now doing Pharmacy at Newcastle and Usyd, 1 is doing part time research assistant and full time masters in physio related stuff.
 

Survivor39

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Where I was 'hoping' of ending up is one of the following:
- Working in R&D for a pharmaceutical company, most likely in lead development
You will most likely need a PhD in pharmacology as the position you are after requires extensive skills in the development of drugs.

- Working as a clinical trials associate
.
You will need a PhD for this option as well. Without a PhD, at best you will end up being a clinical trial assistant. There are a few Masters courses around will help you enhance your knowledge in clinical trials. But at the end you will still need a PhD, preferably in a topic related to clinical trials (go to a hospital)!

- Working in quality control / assurance
You may want to consider joining a graduate program with NSW Health, Sydney Water or simlar organisations and get exposure in different disciplines within public health. The requirement for many graduate programs is a bachelor's degree with or without Honours. A PhD student in my lab recently applied for one but she was unsuccessful because she's over-qualified. So think carefully and see what you want to do first.
 

Tim035

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You may want to consider joining a graduate program with NSW Health, Sydney Water or simlar organisations and get exposure in different disciplines within public health. The requirement for many graduate programs is a bachelor's degree with or without Honours. A PhD student in my lab recently applied for one but she was unsuccessful because she's over-qualified. So think carefully and see what you want to do first.

If I enjoy I honors, I probably wouldn't mind doing a PhD, although I know my parents would be highly annoyed if I said I was going to be mooching off them for another 4 - 5 years (is it at all possible to make enough money to sustain yourself whilst doing a PhD?).


Graduate program's are an interesting option I haven't overly looked at yet.
 

Survivor39

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is it at all possible to make enough money to sustain yourself whilst doing a PhD?).
A standard Australian Postgraduate Scholarship is about 21 k p.a. You might find it a bit hard to move out - but I still see people manage.

If you are good, you can get the UNSW Research Excellence Award, which is worth 31 K p.a. This plus tutoring and demonstrating you are looking at about 36 K. p.a. Overall, that's nearly $700 per week, so there is no reason why you cannot afford to move out.

All scholarships are tax-free by the way.
 
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Rekkusu

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It's probably a little early to consider PhDs at this time Tim. But as Survivor said, we'd highly encourage you to try out honours if research positions are in your mind. If after honours, you are still highly inspired, then by all means a Masters or PhD will set your path in the right way.

Graduate Programs in the Dept of Health are pretty competitive, they accept about 20 students or so. Salary is great, got a friend working there, she's been with them for 2 years and its already 62k.

This site will supply you with all the information: Department of Health and Ageing - Our Graduate Program

Best to apply in your final undergraduate year. The salaries, etc are all there.

Be wary though, this job is for policy, etc there is no practical element in it. But it pays good.
 

Nebuchanezzar

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Uhh, I guess in hindsight 50 is a stretch (I blame exams =\)

I agree it gets much easier once you get the hang of things and learn to spot patterns, but it still feels like there's a lot of variation between related reactions - to the point where it's hard to answer questions without being aware of pretty much every little variation and reagent combination. Or at least grind it out with a lot of questions before you can actually start answering questions reliably simply by identifying patterns.
Naaaaaaaaah.

The alpha proton is acidic
Nucleophiles butt in from the ass end
Push arrows until complete

That was my way of remembering things
 

Tim035

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Best to apply in your final undergraduate year. The salaries, etc are all there.
Guess that would kind of be now seeing as I just sat my final undergraduate exam... Sounds highly law related, do science graduates really qualify for these positions?
 

EdmondDW

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Naaaaaaaaah.

The alpha proton is acidic
Nucleophiles butt in from the ass end
Push arrows until complete

That was my way of remembering things
If everything in organic chem is as simple as u said...then everyone will get HD...
 

Rekkusu

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ROFL Neb, Edmond's got a point.

In fact if it really was that easy, then there wouldn't be a need for books like Mcmurry or hartman to list every god damn reaction there for us to route-learn. And medical admission tests wouldn't bother putting 70% organic chem. There's always these exceptions in chemistry, even organic chemistry lecturers don't know what they're talking about 90% of the time, cos it's such a badly understood area in science.

@Tim: No not really, it allows anyone from any scientific degree to apply. It brings in multiple areas of expertise, not just law, it includes medical economics (D vs Supply), epidemiology, public health.
 

Nebuchanezzar

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if you're rote learning organic chem then you're not doing it right and maybe you should consider doing biochem or something other fake ass subject :p

Second year carbonyl chemistry isn't that hard and if you understand polarity, arrow pushing, and the acidic alpha carbon then you're going to be able to understand 75% of the reactions you're quizzed on. the fact that 70% (apparently) of a medical test might be an indication that organic chem is more about logic than rote learning, eh?

and if your lecturer didn't know what he was on about that's more indicative of the shit quality of unsw, ololololololol.

how you doing any rekkusu?
 

Rekkusu

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God damn Neb you sound like my organic chem lecturer (well the one I had like ..... 3 or 4 years ago back in 1st year science hahaha).

Lol definitely right about the crappy quality of this uni! We're getting these shitty people being promoted up to the rank of a/prof or prof, and yet on the other hand, they're saying the uni's losing money, so they need to start firing or redundant-ing people.

You know one of the science deans - Ballard? Apparently this dude came from nowhere, and wasn't even a/prof back at his old uni. Yet he's the prof rank. Another chinese dude comes into BABS from China or something, and he gets a full lab and given a new course to teach to start getting himself his own funding.

The only real people who are worthy of their titles atm are Prof mitchell and cavi.

hahahah not bad dude not bad, studying for exams still. We'll start ours around next week sometime. How about u, u usyd nazi?
 

EdmondDW

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God damn Neb you sound like my organic chem lecturer (well the one I had like ..... 3 or 4 years ago back in 1st year science hahaha).

Lol definitely right about the crappy quality of this uni! We're getting these shitty people being promoted up to the rank of a/prof or prof, and yet on the other hand, they're saying the uni's losing money, so they need to start firing or redundant-ing people.

You know one of the science deans - Ballard? Apparently this dude came from nowhere, and wasn't even a/prof back at his old uni. Yet he's the prof rank. Another chinese dude comes into BABS from China or something, and he gets a full lab and given a new course to teach to start getting himself his own funding.

The only real people who are worthy of their titles atm are Prof mitchell and cavi.

hahahah not bad dude not bad, studying for exams still. We'll start ours around next week sometime. How about u, u usyd nazi?
hmm...Ballard is from University of Iowa and he is a professor there....the other Chinese guy is Robert.Yang? if i didnt guess wrong...He got a good publication record, he even published an article on SCIENCE as first author, when he was doing his phd degree in Columbia Univ, After moving to UNSW he also gave some good articles in J Cell Bio...

Cavi, his research is definetly not a hot area, I am not familar with, so hard to judge...mitchell, well she is so beautifullll....
 

Nebuchanezzar

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the first year organic chemistry lecturer (i forget his name but he was bald with white stringy hair and smelt of BO) was a bit hopeless at lecturing. Nice guy but the totally wrong approach.
 

mitochondria

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Looks like I'm a little late and missed out on the fun already. :(

Hi, Survivor39! :) (If you still remember me. :p) Hmm... the weird thing is that I'm visiting Cambridge this Friday o_O.


the first year organic chemistry lecturer (i forget his name but he was bald with white stringy hair and smelt of BO) was a bit hopeless at lecturing. Nice guy but the totally wrong approach.
That would be Prof. Bishop, and I completely agree with you on all accounts.. :p


Oh, in a org chem lecture I heard that the school of chemistry is going to bring in the new academic specialising in medicinal chemistry next year
That is true. :) From what I can tell we are really serious about the position and in bringing medicinal chemistry as a proper chemistry course, too. There were many contenders and they are mostly very very good chemists. (Note that a lot of them probably got a pay rise in their respective universities as a result of that - you can be the judge of what that means. :))


The structure is pretty much like medical chem...they just changed the name and want to absorb more students to take chem major...
To be fair, coming from someone who's usually very very cynical - I don't think that's the case. At least that isn't the major intention from what I can tell. :p


But I suspect still not too many ppl will do chem major...coz students thought chem is hard...
Unfortunately, you are right.


look at the 2nd yr organic chem mid-session exam...the mean is 19.5/40 which is a failure...some of my friends just dropped it after several weeks...
As deadfishlol has pointed out, the mean really means nothing. :) Also, having been through it and having been a demonstrator for that, it's really... not surprising.


hmm.. I think I'll need to revise resonance structure and all the first year organo reactions over summer.
;)


This course would probably get a lot more attention from yr.12's than the Adv sci. major, which is rather vague tbh.
Rofl at the latter. I got scammed into Adv. Sci. program. :(


(but they tend to be extremely biased, and I'm talking from experience - lecturers tend to want 3rd years, so that they can attract them into their honours).
Not all of them do that, really. :)


If not, it is never too late to reconsider your career.
It's never too late - but planning ahead is very very important, particular if one decides to continue after undergrad.


Science involves alot of faith and hard work for little money and low job security.
*Nods*.


If I don't do honors next year I seriously have no idea wtf I would do instead.... I mean seriously, wtf does a B. Med Sci qualify you to do?
If it's not too late, I think honours sounds like a good idea for you. It's a year of buffering if you haven't decided whether you really like research or not and it's one of those years that you usually gain from it regardless your final decision.

Edited: I only just realised that you've been encouraged to do it already. :x


- Professional poker player (jokes, although I'm making $100 - 200 a week at the moment).
Survivor has commented on the other ones the way I would have. :p As for this last one - I think it's a fantastic backup plan. At least it sounds more reliable than my chocolate shop backup plan. :p


Naaaaaaaaah.

The alpha proton is acidic
Nucleophiles butt in from the ass end
Push arrows until complete

That was my way of remembering things
Rofl! ;)
 

Survivor39

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Hi mitochondria. Welcome back!

What are you doing in Cambridge?
 

mitochondria

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Hello! :) I'm just visiting a friend in Cambridge this Friday who started her PhD there a couple of months ago. I left Sydney for a conference in Israel a while ago and since then I've been staying in North Wales doing some work with my unofficial supervisor. :p Going home for Christmas. :)

How is Cambridge treating you? :p I went there a couple of weeks ago to visit my friend and loved it. :)
 
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Survivor39

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I've got a tough (but very good) supervisor who always pushes for results.

So my thumb is pretty much dead from blisters after pipetting too much.

Lab work aside, the architecture and history here is amazing, especially near the King's College Chapel. Have you had a chance to punt along River Cam?
 

mitochondria

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I've got a tough (but very good) supervisor who always pushes for results.
;)


So my thumb is pretty much dead from blisters after pipetting too much.
For me it's mostly staying up a few days in a row. :eek:


Lab work aside, the architecture and history here is amazing, especially near the King's College Chapel. Have you had a chance to punt along River Cam?
Agreed! I made quite a lot of Harry Potter references to my friend while I was there. :p I went punting as well and it was a lot of fun! (Except that my other friends kept complaining about how I was going to capsize the punt every 2 minutes - which I didn't).

Sounds like you are doing fabulous there so all the best! :) Will you be going home when you finish?
 

Survivor39

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;)
Sounds like you are doing fabulous there so all the best! :) Will you be going home when you finish?
I'm gla you've enjoyed the Cambridge experience. Who knows you might end up here doing a postdoc.

Yes my plan is to come home after I'm done here (still a while to go yet), but this will also depends on what offers I get here. For example, if a Nobel Laureate asks me to work in his/her lab, then it would be crazy if I don't stay, wouldnt it?! :D
 

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