OMGenomics Podcast

Jul 16 2024 9 ep. 44 mins 10
OMGenomics Podcast artwork

A casual conversational podcast about the non-scientific parts of life in the biotech industry, this show contains conversations about topics including career paths, side hustles, and whatever is going on in the field right now. Hosted by Maria Nattestad and Robert Aboukhalil, this show includes a mix of interviews with guests doing interesting things in this space, answering listener questions, and otherwise just talking about topics we think are interesting, all while avoiding the actual science as much as possible. We're taking the conversations we might have at a conference cocktail hour and bringing them to you on your walk, drive, or while you do dishes.

  Technology  Science
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001: Sabbaticals

Feb 05 2023 33 mins  
We discuss our experiences with unofficial industry sabbaticals, aka taking time between jobs for our own projects. Topics: * Funemployment versus sabbatical * Robert's 2021 sabbatical building sandbox.bio learning platform and 42basepairs genomics cloud platform * Maria's 2017 OMGenomics entrepreneurship experience, building Circa visualization software and a YouTube channel

002: You Might be an Imposter

Mar 05 2023 30 mins  
Accepting that we're all imposters in bioinformatics, we tell stories from our own careers. Topics: * Robert's grad school experience in a biology program coming from a computer engineering background. * Maria's experience interviewing at grad schools. * "You can't just go around being like, I'm an idiot. Even if you feel like an idiot, that's just not helpful." Where to fin

003: Job hopping

Apr 05 2023 20 mins  
Inspired by opinions seen on Twitter, we discuss whether people should stay much more than 1 year per company to avoid being judged by future employers as a job-hopper, and whether companies should be discriminating this way. Topics: * Benefits of job hopping, early versus late in your career. * A debatable statement by chatGPT. * Is it ethically okay? disloyal? greedy? * Bei

004: The PhD question with Steve Osazuwa

May 05 2023 61 mins  
Our guest Steve Osazuwa helps us answer the PhD question (namely, should you do one?). Since we both have PhDs, we are bringing on our friend Steve who has been successful in bioinformatics without a PhD to add his perspectives. Topics: * How Steve ended up in bioinformatics. * Starting a PhD after working in industry. * What Steve's barber thinks about his colleagues' advice.

005: Consulting with Nils Homer

Jun 05 2023 52 mins  
We interview Nils Homer, the co-founder of Fulcrum Genomics, a thriving bioinformatics consulting business. Topics: * Why Nils decided to start a consulting business in the bioinformatics space. * Embracing open-source. * Finding customers is the easy part. * Scoping and pricing in science when figuring out what work is possible or necessary is a huge part of the work itself.

006: Running biotech startups differently with Kaja Wasik

Aug 05 2023 70 mins  
We interview Kaja Wasik, co-founder of Variant Bio, whose goal is to develop new therapies by studying the genetics of communities with exceptional health traits. Topics: * Kaja's circuitous journey in the biotech startup industry. * How Variant Bio ethically collects genetic data from more than 20 populations worldwide. * Their unique approach to benefit sharing with the comm

007: So good they can't ignore you

Sep 05 2023 26 mins  
In the last episode of the season, we discuss Cal Newport's book "So Good They Can't Ignore You" and our experience applying those ideas to bioinformatics. Topics: * Why "follow your passion" is bad advice, especially in science. * Career capital: acquiring rare and valuable skills to craft a career you'll love. * How your personality affects which skills you might pursue. *

008: Academic software

Apr 15 2024 61 mins  
Academic software has a bad reputation for being poorly maintained. We discuss our experiences maintaining our own bioinformatics tools and the systemic issues that influence the quality of academic software. Topics * Lessons we've learned from maintaining our 8+ year old tools: Ginkgo, Assemblytics, SplitThreader, Ribbon. * Discussing career implications and systemic incentive

009: Rewriting software is bad... but it might work for us

Jul 16 2024 44 mins  
We discuss our experiences with rewriting software, why it's nearly always a bad idea, and the ONE situation where it's justified anyway. Join the discussion in the comments on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5JDhydALi8c Where to find us online: https://omgenomics.com