David Markun -- Student of Life Sciences
Although my work history to date has been in financial, commercial, and consumer software, I have since 2006 been pursuing an
interest in things biological, with the idea in mind that eventually I would ply my systems software trade in a life sciences
context. To me, some of the work being done in life sciences these days is the most intellectually exciting stuff I
encounter.
I've taken some steps, described below, to learn my way into what is current in life sciences. With these studies,
I don't expect to become a molecular biologist, or a bioinformatician, or a developer of bioinformatic software applications.
What I do expect is that I will wind up using my talent for system software in some biological enterprise, solving
operating-system-related problems to enable others to better solve biological problems.
Concretely, what I've done so far to pursue this interest is:
- Attended Drug Discovery Technology conference in Boston in 2006.
- Subscribed to trade magazines (e.g. GEN and BioTechniques), and to various online publications in biology. It's a real
fire-hose of information, and most of it blows on by me, but as time goes by I find I see more and more connections between items
I've read in these sources.
- Attended Bio-IT World in Boston in 2008 and 2009, including pre-conference workshops on DNA sequencing.
- In 2009, began taking courses at Harvard, so far in Genomics, Epigenetics, and Proteomics.
- I lack some of the prerequisites for these courses, and even some of the prereqs for the prereqs, but I'm filling in those holes on a just-in-time basis using online resources.
- One thing that has proven totally addictive about the Harvard courses is the online access to journals that is provided to
enrolled students. With
that, I can read current papers whenever a question arises -- for example
- A question comes up in a class lecture
- A research result gets mentioned in the popular press
- A friend or neighbor publishes a paper
- A family member has a medical issue
- A question arises in the course of my hobby of Calorie Restriction for longevity.
My studies and inquiries to date (which are continuing)
have taught me this:
- Fundamentals of molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, genomics, epigenetics, proteomics, and genetic
engineering.
- Exposure to some of the most current commercially supported methods of doing work in those fields.
- How to find and read current papers in scientific journals.
- How scientific papers are written.
- A rudimentary sense of how industry and academia interact with each other in life sciences.
- Stages of bringing drugs and medical devices to market.
- How intellectual property plays out in life sciences.
Contact David Markun
