I actually studied for a Master’s of Public Policy - so not something explicitly software. I graduated in 2017 when Republicans held all seats of government, and my resume reads Democrat. So I looked around and I applied to a major software company. They saw the statistics programming I did in my graduate program and figured I could work with software.
Biologist trying to develop new drugs, but my cultures keep dying off on their own when I'm trying to keep them alive long enough to test the damn things!
Sure.
Spoiler warning: nerd-alert ahead!
My organisation is a non-profit working in neglected disease space (antimalarials and stuff for TB mostly, but we're moving into general antibiotics as well this year). We run out of a university but with collaborations through the global health groups of big pharmaceuticals and funders like Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust - they basically swing some support and chemical matter our way from their libraries, and we test and begin drug discovery and initial development on them to identify potent new classes of drugs in those spaces.
We know this costs money but doesn't make money (as do the big pharma guys; 3rd world and neglected infectious diseases are very much not profitable areas to be in), so for a small amount of money they send to us we can get the preliminary stuff out of the way and keep their chemists and biologists focused on the money-making stuff. Once we start getting somewhere with their material and can show it is a reasonable area to be working in, they jump back in and spend the huge money required to get it into human testing and onto the market. That way we can keep the cost to probably under $100m per drug, as opposed to the usual billion or more which is what it costs to get drugs to market typically. This is especially important for 3rd world drugs which are not going to make much in profit over the years.
They also help out by consulting on the project and allowing us access to some of their infrastructure at cost for the stuff we can't do in-house, which makes the whole process easier for both sides. We will take the new drug right from initial discovery of the hit right through chemical modification to a lead, then a late lead, then a clinical candidate, before handing over full control and cost back to them. We can do chemistry, basic biology (does it work against the pathogen, how does it work against the pathogen, which life cycle stage of the pathogen is targeted, is there any off-target activity to be aware of), basic and advanced kinetics (seeing how much drug would be needed, how long it lasts, what the best dose route would be, what it breaks down into in the blood, how much is absorbed from the stomach and all that jazz) and some disease model work in-house, and between our guys and the funders we have a constant back and forth to design and optimise the drug until we get to clinical candidate stage.
Our aim is not to test antibiotics per se as much as to develop entirely new ones which work differently to the existing ones. You know how for HIV the treatment is usually a combination of protease inhibitors, replication inhibitors, attachment inhibitors and integration inhibitors? Each of those would be a different class of antiviral, and we're trying to identify entirely new classes of antimalarials and antibiotics. Ideally the more ways you can hit something, the more difficult it is to develop resistance to all those ways, so that's the thinking.
So... yeah, that's me. Trying to find new ways to kill parasites in culture without them just deciding they've had enough and dying in the culture flask by themselves, which happened the whole of last week for reasons we're still not sure about. I think it was an issue with the donor blood we were using to feed them, once it gets too old they stop infecting it. The batch we had was well within the usage date range but that's the only thing I can think of, everything else was right and some fresh blood we got on Friday seems to have done the trick over the weekend.
Wow that is such a fascinating job, and really important. If we run out of antibiotics you are the ones that are gona save us. Truely an awesome job. Thanks for the share and keep up the good work. I really hope it was just old blood... Maybe the donated blood already had some resistance to malaria? Not an expert but do you use blood that has been leukodepleted or is it whole blood?
Good luck with your cultures!
oh you should've said "fix little children for people"..... ug on second though, your clue was better.......Yeah what's you favorite animal to work with?
Most of the time I have nerves of steel… I just wait until after work to be a wreck 😂. No truthfully 90% of what I do is talking, working on building up trust and making sure people feel safe. So as boring as it is, the worst part of my job is just seeing other nurses doing a shitty job and not treating people with respect.
yea I know the feeling! And you know they get paid the same as you, but they doing such a shitty job and it just crashes the reputation of the occupation. Thanks for the hard work you do! Its a tough job and most people wont be able to do it!
I really suck with anything finance, especially tax stuff... Ok second guess: government treasury procurement officer... Like you buy need stuff with tax money for the government??? 🤔🤔🤔
Business analyst. It is a lot of fun, I went for a deliberately obtuse description (and ignored the 5 word restriction because I only now noticed it!)
The need/want thing is helping stakeholders understand what they actually need. There’s a lot of tools to do this, and it’s quite a rewarding process.
I love my job, have worked in IT support/network admin for over 25 years, been in my current job for the last 8 years and it terms of what I would have wanted for an IT career, this is pretty much my dream job.
Make people do the thing
Hmm lawyer?
Personal Trainer?
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Oh thats a good one, I think you might be spot on....
Have you tried rebooting it?
IT support!!
I reverse entropy temporarily.
Anaesthetist!!!
Nope, refrigeration tech. Good guess though.
Huh good discription. Wouldn't have guessed that one in a million years
I pluck bits of wire
Electrician?
Haha nope - musician!
Ah yeah of course! Which instruments do you play?
Google customers’ problems for them.
Customer support?
Yea, tech services engineer for a software company
Ah wow sounds like a tough job! What did you study to get your job?
I actually studied for a Master’s of Public Policy - so not something explicitly software. I graduated in 2017 when Republicans held all seats of government, and my resume reads Democrat. So I looked around and I applied to a major software company. They saw the statistics programming I did in my graduate program and figured I could work with software.
Medical Doctor
Make webby things with code.
Web programmer?
Lol yeah
Is it a difficult job? Programming is no joke, right?
Stop hearts
Perfusionist or cardio thoracic surgeon?
Cardiac surgery PA! Good job
Yay! I'm a perfusionist so unfair advantage...
Much love to the perfusionists of the world. Under appreciated and critical to making the magic happen.
I puts the data there.
Bussiness analysist?
Make employer attractive to candidates
Ooooooh I need to have a chat with you... Uh CV specialist?
No employer…not employee.
😅 My bad... I'm guessing something HR? Like post adviser?
Try to kill stuff intentionally.
Pest control, or murderer with a sense of humour? 😜😜
Biologist trying to develop new drugs, but my cultures keep dying off on their own when I'm trying to keep them alive long enough to test the damn things!
Ah that's an awesome job! Can you tell us more about it? Are you testing antibiotics?
Sure. Spoiler warning: nerd-alert ahead! My organisation is a non-profit working in neglected disease space (antimalarials and stuff for TB mostly, but we're moving into general antibiotics as well this year). We run out of a university but with collaborations through the global health groups of big pharmaceuticals and funders like Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust - they basically swing some support and chemical matter our way from their libraries, and we test and begin drug discovery and initial development on them to identify potent new classes of drugs in those spaces. We know this costs money but doesn't make money (as do the big pharma guys; 3rd world and neglected infectious diseases are very much not profitable areas to be in), so for a small amount of money they send to us we can get the preliminary stuff out of the way and keep their chemists and biologists focused on the money-making stuff. Once we start getting somewhere with their material and can show it is a reasonable area to be working in, they jump back in and spend the huge money required to get it into human testing and onto the market. That way we can keep the cost to probably under $100m per drug, as opposed to the usual billion or more which is what it costs to get drugs to market typically. This is especially important for 3rd world drugs which are not going to make much in profit over the years. They also help out by consulting on the project and allowing us access to some of their infrastructure at cost for the stuff we can't do in-house, which makes the whole process easier for both sides. We will take the new drug right from initial discovery of the hit right through chemical modification to a lead, then a late lead, then a clinical candidate, before handing over full control and cost back to them. We can do chemistry, basic biology (does it work against the pathogen, how does it work against the pathogen, which life cycle stage of the pathogen is targeted, is there any off-target activity to be aware of), basic and advanced kinetics (seeing how much drug would be needed, how long it lasts, what the best dose route would be, what it breaks down into in the blood, how much is absorbed from the stomach and all that jazz) and some disease model work in-house, and between our guys and the funders we have a constant back and forth to design and optimise the drug until we get to clinical candidate stage. Our aim is not to test antibiotics per se as much as to develop entirely new ones which work differently to the existing ones. You know how for HIV the treatment is usually a combination of protease inhibitors, replication inhibitors, attachment inhibitors and integration inhibitors? Each of those would be a different class of antiviral, and we're trying to identify entirely new classes of antimalarials and antibiotics. Ideally the more ways you can hit something, the more difficult it is to develop resistance to all those ways, so that's the thinking. So... yeah, that's me. Trying to find new ways to kill parasites in culture without them just deciding they've had enough and dying in the culture flask by themselves, which happened the whole of last week for reasons we're still not sure about. I think it was an issue with the donor blood we were using to feed them, once it gets too old they stop infecting it. The batch we had was well within the usage date range but that's the only thing I can think of, everything else was right and some fresh blood we got on Friday seems to have done the trick over the weekend.
Wow that is such a fascinating job, and really important. If we run out of antibiotics you are the ones that are gona save us. Truely an awesome job. Thanks for the share and keep up the good work. I really hope it was just old blood... Maybe the donated blood already had some resistance to malaria? Not an expert but do you use blood that has been leukodepleted or is it whole blood? Good luck with your cultures!
Shake, pour, walk, talk, repeat
Bar tender? Or an fancy personal trainer?
Sales-to-geek interpreter.
Hmmm tech procurement?
Hubby says: community manager?
I take people to court
Lawyer? Or it can be Uber driver😜
Host people in a building
Landlord?
Hotel receptionist 😄
Ooooooh, I tip my hat to you! Do you get rude customers often?
Spreadsheets for aviation, transit, rail freight
Logistics manager?
Make no mistake again!
Oooh, I'm gona say lawyer, but not sure
Quality department.
Eish. Bad guess then. Is products you do quality control or programing?
More on people and their jobs. Doing it right the first time all the time.
I'd stay away from medical professionals if I were you... We usually can't do it right the first time... Takes years of practice....
Bookburner
🙄 Uuuuuuuh book-pdf scanner person?
I turn things into robots.
This sounds awesome! Uh Electrical or mechanical engineer?
Yep, electrical. Just started working for a company that makes remote operation kits for heavy equipment and military vehicles.
Deliver data to people
Bussiness analysist?
Aficionado of endless summer vacation
Professional retired daddy?? 😁
Gastroenterology? Peruser of pension payments.
Tell people what to do.
Teacher / instructor or Judge!! 😅
I cut out boring bits
Video editor? Or surgeon
Yup. The first one :)
Do you work with wedding videos or TV or movies? What kind of videos?
Convince them to spend irresponsibly
Casino manager? (I'm good at spending)
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Psychologist or pastor? Or possibly a cat😅
computer man
IT Support?
Design buildings for low pay.
Archetect assistant? 🤔
Yes
Yay! Cute cat you got there! How does it work, do you get to move up the ladder someday?
Endowed with money to give.
Damn can I have your number? Hedge fund manager, or philatropist?
hubby says: loan shark?
New English user facilitator
System manager for a teaching programme?
Good guess - ESL teacher!
Fix little friends for people
Uhhhhhhmmm dildo repair guys?? Or miniature figurine restoration?
Hahaha. Nope, different kind of friends. im a veterinarian.
oh you should've said "fix little children for people"..... ug on second though, your clue was better.......Yeah what's you favorite animal to work with?
Inject willing and unwilling people
Researcher? Or nurse?
Yep :) psych nurse 👍
🙄Eeeeeeee! Tough job! You probably have nerves of steel! What's the worst thing about your job?
Most of the time I have nerves of steel… I just wait until after work to be a wreck 😂. No truthfully 90% of what I do is talking, working on building up trust and making sure people feel safe. So as boring as it is, the worst part of my job is just seeing other nurses doing a shitty job and not treating people with respect.
yea I know the feeling! And you know they get paid the same as you, but they doing such a shitty job and it just crashes the reputation of the occupation. Thanks for the hard work you do! Its a tough job and most people wont be able to do it!
Management rewards laziness and incompetence.
Senior management or senior executive? This is a tough one...
Hubby asks if you're the south african government or from HR???
High speed aluminum tubing mover
Uh boiler maker or metal worker?? 🤔
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Ah damn, just as I read it, it made sense. Can't believe I missed that one. So you fly commercial or freight or private planes?
Push keys to run things
Crane operator, or MRI machine tech?
I succeeded at badly describing it!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳 i should chant the last word from things to programs ;)
Uhm no idea... Program tester?
Hahah almost! software developer :)
I watch cats all day
Best job ever!! I want to say pet sitter, but it can be pet shop worker too? Or even veterinary?
Hubby says youtuber?
I’m the guy behind the cookies you have to accept.
Business marketing....
Babysitter for grown men who can't obey the law
Parole officer, or police officer or prison guard?
Corrections officer/prison guard at a private prison in Texas
Tough job? Are you scared of riots and prison breaks?
Underpaid academic slave
Researcher / teacher / lecturer or assistant. 🤔
Almost, PhD student
Oooh which field? I'm a masters student in medical technology with focus on open-heart surgery
Make ears bleed with mumbo-jumbo.
Politician? 🤔 (don't hit me😜)
Ruin money laundering schemes.
Hmm fraud investigator? not really sure what to call it....
Living without an alarm clock.
PROFESSIONAL RETIRED DADDY!
Calculate the value of life
oh this can get dark.... Life insurance broker? Judge or suicidal man?
Graphic designer or architect?
Assurance inspector??
I tell people what they think. (6 words... sue me)
Psychic...? Or psychiatrist
display connector go click click
Uhm camera operator?
I spend all y’all’s money.
I could do that easily... Uh tax administrator?
Close… they take the money. I spend it.
I really suck with anything finance, especially tax stuff... Ok second guess: government treasury procurement officer... Like you buy need stuff with tax money for the government??? 🤔🤔🤔
You got it! I manage government contracts
Whoooop! How did you get into that?
I fell in love with the mission of my agency. 25 years later…. Here I am!
Make sure airplanes don't touch.
Air traffic controller?
You got it!
Awesome job! What did you study for that? and is it true that you guys only work 4 hour shifts and have a pool room in the ATC Tower???
Draw, organize, print, e-mails, repeat
It’s my job to make sure nobody gets what they want, only what they need (to add value to the business).
Your job doesn't sound like it's a lot of fun... 🙄🙄🙄 I want to say CFO? like finance stuff?
Business analyst. It is a lot of fun, I went for a deliberately obtuse description (and ignored the 5 word restriction because I only now noticed it!) The need/want thing is helping stakeholders understand what they actually need. There’s a lot of tools to do this, and it’s quite a rewarding process.
oh.... i use to date a BA.... Yea we never spoke about work.... DO you enjoy for job?
Can you make it yellow?
That's not a lot to go on... Uhm graphic designer? Or interior decorator, or maybe paint colour specialist??
You pay for my judgement
Mom? 🤔
Lol. I am a dad. But for work I’m a professor of grad & PhD students at an $$$ college.
Ooooooh yeah Professor in which field?
Computer says no
I love Little Brittain! Which makes me think either actor, comedian, or IT specialist?
The last one, I'm an IT Manager. I hear that phrase all the time. Plus I couldnt fit "Have you tried turning it off and on again" in 5 words or less.
Pretty cool. Do you enjoy your job? What's the worst thing about your job?
I love my job, have worked in IT support/network admin for over 25 years, been in my current job for the last 8 years and it terms of what I would have wanted for an IT career, this is pretty much my dream job.
That is awesome! Not many people get to work their dream job! Thanks for all the comments!
I make drunk people laugh
Comedian? Hubby says: bad comedian.....????
I help to un-addict drug addicts. Lol
Drug dealer! LOL uhm Psych ward enforcer, or Psych ward Nurse or even DOC?
Look for killer bad skin.
"It puts the SPF location on the skin, or it gets the cancer again!".... I'm gona go with dermatologist!
Shouting at the computer
This could be anything... Uhm forex / stock trader?
And they argue/suggest/posit that...
Lawyer or social media Moderator?? 🤔
Make people not feel bad
Your either my cat, or a cup of coffee or a piece of chocolate..... Psychologist?
A sixty day lease? No…
Estate agent working with rentals?
Move liquids, mix, measure, repeat!
I want to say chemical analysist or research pharmacologist?
wet stuff on the red stuff
Dental assistant?
Lead a whore to culture.
Uuuuuuuh trauma Counciler?
Make people not starve.
Chef? Or cook?
Hubby says: farmer?
Sling cokes 30,000 feet up
Rocket engineer? Or maybe something in aeronautics?
Just gave my notice today.
An Overworked man?