My Experiences

A little bit about what i’ve experienced in the industry so far.

Aziyo Biologics

My first taste of the biotech industry was at a company near my home in California called Aziyo Biologics. I worked here the summer after my freshman year of college for three months. Aziyo was a tissue bank, which is essentially an organ bank but dealing with all other bodily tissues that are not legally categorized as organs by the state. My job title here was a research and development intern, and during my three months that I spent working here I collected data on the tensile strength and collagen composition of a new skin graft that was in development. I learned a lot of unique and interesting lab techniques here as well as a lot of very interesting science, and as this was my first real job I also learned a lot about what was expected of me as an employee. In addition this internship gave me a lot of insight on how companies deal with government regulations and policy. Overall, this job was an amazing experience and I learned a lot from it, my time spent at Aziyo is actually what made me want to study bioengineering and to switch my major from biology and mathematics to bioengineering.

Jounce Therapeutics

My second touch with the Biotech industry was at a medium sized biotech company in Cambridge, Massachusetts called Jounce Therapeutics. This was also my first co op experience at Northeastern, meaning instead of taking a semester of classes I worked for six months instead. I was at Jounce from July to December of 2022 and during this time I learned much more about what biotech is like. Aziyo wasn’t a typical biotech in the sense that they were selling a product that was already approved by the FDA. This is due to the nature of skin grafts not being a patentable product so many companies can create essentially the same product. At Jounce however I think I got a very quintessential small biotech startup experience. I learned the ins and outs of the drug discovery process, from antibody and target identification all they way to clinical trials in humans. I also learned about how many different jobs i could go into as a bioengineer that I unaware of before. My time at jounce will undoubtedly be invaluable in helping me make big career decisions in the future and I am very grateful for the time I spent there.