Nay Wei Soong obtained his Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Southern California. He performed his postdoctoral training in gene therapy at USC’s Norris Cancer Center. In 1997, NW moved to the Bay area to join a start-up called Maxygen Inc. While there, he pioneered the use of its Molecular Breeding directed evolution technology for viruses and headed the Virology research group there until 2005. Nay Wei evolved to his current role as an immunology medical science liaison with Centocor Inc., Johnson & Johnson. He is an instructor with the UC Santa Cruz Extension Biotechnology program and coaches his two boys swimming and wrestling.
Change is inevitable – except from a vending machine. In a constantly shifting marketplace, job security is surely and certainly becoming a thing of the past. Just as surely and certainly, our employability and careers are in our control. We evolve, our careers evolve and we transcend our previous phase. Nay Wei shares his experiences and lessons learned from the evolution of his own career- from a virologist in a once promising biotech, founded on a directed evolution technology - to a medical science liaison in a global pharmaceutical. The inflexion points in his career are superimposed against the evolution of the biotech’s business model and highlight the signals to watch for, to change lanes.
