Back in 2003, when becoming an engineer or doctor was the dominant trend , I too desired to be one of those. Just after finishing my XII grade , I took the medical entrance exam but could not get through a good college and my scores qualified only for dental courses. Since I was so ridden by the conventional trend of pursuing MBBS, that too from one of those cream colleges I declined both the management seat offered for medicine, and the dental degree. Parallely I had also applied for bachelors courses (microbiology and biochemistry) in Delhi University. With a good CBSE score I comfortably got through both of these courses and opted for B.Sc Microbiology. At the time of taking admission I remember really well, the HOD (head of department) of microbiology heard me telling someone that microbiology is a good option that the field could offer a bright future ahead. Later sometime, the HOD called me, and recalling my overheard conversation said “this field may not offer the future you are expecting. What could be more likely in the future is that you may find yourself researching in a lab, away from the world of business or sitting in the position where you see me today”. I overlooked her words then, as I was overly convinced about the bright road that lay ahead. Time in DU really flies and at the end of a balanced, fun and academic 3 years (tipping more towards fun) I had the degree in my hand.
Graduation was over and next was the default, as none of the seniors I knew had got decent jobs after graduation. I decided to join M.Sc Genetics, again from Delhi University. My decision was based on, the advice I had sought from experts. I spoke to some of the best doctors in the country and I don’t remember any one of them discouraging me or showing me any negative side of the career Genetics could offer. Forget negative, each one of them of insisted that Genetics, had immense future and current scope was the future. They were convinced of a near future in which genes would be used to make tailor made babies, alter genetically running diseases etc and that, researchers geneticists would be in huge demand, giving specialized advice to clinicians and doctors. As I still had that liking to be associated with medicine, I decided to give it shot.
Honestly I had keen interest in the analytics part of mendelian genetics, population genetics, quantitative genetics. I found these branches more logic orientated, compared to the other courses taught. Other subjects like developmental genetics, biochemistry I was not too fond since these involved retaining and cramming skills .
Second year of masters, students start applying to all the good institutes for all sorts of different fellowship and PhD programs. Somewhere at the back of my mind I had a belief that research was not something I wished to seek as a career option, but had not accepted this though whole heartedly. I spoke to some seniors and professors in college about what next to do and suggestion that came in do a PhD, you have no other way to succeed.
A lilttle Gyan: Here is my two cent advise to all those of who wish to go the unconventional way, beyond research. Your seniors and professors perhaps may be confined within the academic research boundaries, so it may be very useful to hear diverse advice and interact with people with varied backgrounds. Given the lifetime professors devote to their work, their opinion may be ridden with passion and biaseness for the type of work they have been doing, which is completely understandable. In life whatever is your calling and if you do not find yourself treading on that path, find the relevant people to talk to, seek their advice, read up their work explore possibilities in this small interconnected world though linkedin, google etc. There will be many things to your rescue. I can tell you from my experience, that one should not hesitate in approaching, make the first move, like how a love struck boy would pursue his girl. There are plenty of nice humble people that do respond. I realized this late, but as they say better late than never. The sooner you start to explore, the greater is the chance that possibilities covert into reality. The hearing people in the corporate and the private sector made me realize that the realm of science, that too a niche filed like genetics was also relevant in the business world. The corporate community and industries requires our specialization in ways more than our laboratory skills. Management consultant in setting up science based industries, subject matter experts in patents are a few areas to name. I am glad IISc career support group is there now and hope that this forums opens up the plethora of opportunities to students, makes them connect to the right people early on .
Coming back to my decision to go ahead with research. I was naive then about exploring opportunities and reaching out to people. Also I was swayed by the opinion of the professors around me and therefore took the obvious next step of doing a PHd. Vola! It was DU hatrick, I joined the Genetics department for my PhD. First two years were absolutely great, I had the opportunity to be creative. Experiments failed but trouble shooting was fun. The chance of structuring each experiment into small steps and identifying at which step experiment could have gone wrong was interesting. Not only I was involved in doing analysis for my own experiments but was also helping other lab members in theirs. Discussions, debates, arguments over positive and negative controls, experiment planning, work organization all of it kept us occupied and consumed. However gradually my interest started to decline. I just wished to get done with the PhD, there was hardly any supervision or guidance, my experiments kept failing and my trouble shooting approach was also not helping. I started introspecting and contemplating why this is happening and realized that work was getting monotonous. Time really is a luxury, as research projects and experiments move at their own pace. It was slow for my liking. Challenges were there but I was facing the same challenge every time. Nothing new was coming my way, I longed for something different, a change in atmosphere, changes in challenges too, not wanting to fight the same devil every day. Finally what I always suspected, I came to accepting it. Research was not my cup of tea. Even though data analysis, strategy making, experiment organization, trouble shooting was good but the conducting that actual experiments was not me.
In 5 long years, I managed to finish my research. Research was not my thing but I was grateful that I was armed with the knowledge of science. I was sure of not doing a post doc, but had no clue about how I could use my hard earned PhD in work that would excite me.
To the surprise of my supervisor I was the only student who did not request for a reference letter for higher research. I explained to her that I did not wish to continue with research. I was glad to learn that she did not encourage me otherwise. She was happy to know the clarity of my thought and said that “I would have been happy had you continued with research, but I am sure that whatever you will take forward you will do well” .
Then began the real struggle. I started researching on the internet about alternate career options after doing PhD. In particularly two career choices caught my fancy, management consulting and the field of IPRs. Fortunately a professor in the department had contacts to help me get connected to people in both these fields. Management consulting ones indicated that even though it was a popular trend in the west, for firms to hire PhDs, such a trend was not much prevalent in India, especially if you hold a PhD in life sciences. Management consulting “people in India were skeptical of the abilities of a PhD candicate to do real world business. I was also being considered over qualified. A few said, people with PhD in life science are not good with numbers, I had to fight pre-conceived notions.
I turned to my next option, which was fairly easier considering the direct relation of Intellectual Property Rights to science, but not completely science as there is as much a legal side to it. I spoke to a lady, an alumni of IISc who introduced me to the patent world. She was really kind, gave me a fair idea about the scenario of Intellectual Property Rights in India. She said that as a technical expert you will provide a support system to lawyers who practice IP, but decision making lies in the hands of lawyers, unless you pursue law.
I started to look out for jobs in this field and was fortunate enough to get myself a job in a reputed law firm, which has an IPR wing. It been close to 8 months working with this law firm as a subject expert on life science, and here are some observations I made.
Before I pen down my observation of IP in India, I’ll put down some basic IP concepts. Three parameters which determine the patentability of an invention is Novelty, Inventive Step and Utility.
When anyone applies for a patent you claim a priority which holds a huge significance. This priority date signifies who filed for the patent application first, hence in situation where two or more applicants have the same invention then the person holding a earlier priority date gets the right (basically it is the early bird, which gets the worm). As patent are territorial, you can apply for a patent in multiple countries or you may just stick to one country. After a patent application is filed, it has to be published before it undergoes examination by the Examiner/Controller. After the application is published, the examiner puts his objection (which is similar to comments the reviewer gives for a research article). Now the objections are the grounds on which the Examiner thinks the patent should not be granted. The objections can be divided in two parts technical (science related) and non technical (which are more of procedural formalities). The technical objections are raised under Section 2, 3, and 10 of the Indian Patent Act. To the Office Action/First examination report a response has to be filed. The response filed is examined and the decision of grant or rejection of a patent application is taken. I have simplified the process for explaining, but that is not the case. It takes a minimum of 7-8 yrs from date of filing the patent application to the final decision.
Now let me move to some of the observations I have made in the brief period of my patent work experince .
- Section 3 of the India Patents Act describes what is not a patentable subject matter in India. Anything falling within the ambit of Section 3 cannot be patented. In life sciences, since most of the research is related to cells, living material naturally occurring it is hard to get a patent. For instance method of diagnosis, disease prevention cannot be patented. Similarly animal and plant cell cannot be patented. Proteins, genes, stuff naturally occurring cannot be patented. Section 3c, 3i, 3j, 3h determine what is non patentable subject matter in India. Section 3 is very conservative, hence getting a patent application in Life Science is not easy. There are more patent application for Chemistry and Engg, and significantly less for biology.
- If a patent application is filed in many countries, Indian Controllers/Examiners mostly cites the same objections in the examination report as given for the same patent application in Europe or US patent office.
- Compared to the west, where universities apply for patents, the scenario in India is not that bright. University must understand the significance of patent, the new generation of researchers should be made aware of patenting. Researchers in India still do not understand IPR. India still lacks behind when it comes to understanding commercial value of a patent. We really need that IPR in India is practiced by people who understand science.
- The way science is read by a researcher is very different when a lawyer reads it. At times there are situation that the researcher within may not agree to the argument what a lawyer puts forward, and the lawyer may not understand your logic. At times it is frustrating and sometimes ita amusing. India really needs people who understand science and they practice Intellectual property rather than putting it in hands of people who do not understand the subject or have limited knowledge on the subject.
- Intellectual property is not completely science, and for a researcher who has just practiced science for all his life it does get difficult in the start, but once you get hang of it its exciting. But if you enjoy debating, arguing, can think out of the box, can provide logical reasoning, are spontaneous in your thoughts, enjoying reading, can think of multiple ways of interpreting the same stuff but each interpretation has a different meaning from the other Intellectual property is a good option to consider.
It was back in 2003 when that HOD warned me of the options available to PhDs, I am glad I made a breakthrough. Even though, still there are not that many options compared to the west, but if you can create one do it because nobody will do it for you. Ultimately all us did falter somewhere during our PhDs, still we went on to complete it, if we could do it then surely it can be done after a PhD also.
I’ll just concluded in the end for all those pursuing research/PhDs/post-doc do something which you are passionate about. Its important for everyone to know academics is not the only option after PhDs, alternate career options do exist but you have to figure out what works for you. Breaking out of academics to that alternate option may seem hard initially as that first step is the hardest. In the job market, your research articles are really not that important, but yes in the academic world they are an asset. The rigorous training given during PhDs, lets you become an independent and persistent worker apart from the additional skills gained, and that persistent worker within will go a long way Its important to grow in knowledge not only vertically but also have that horizontal expansion, not to restrict oneself to one option, network outside speak to people to know what else exists. The IISc Career Support group is one such platform please use it as much as you can.
About the author: Reetu Mehta did her PhD in microbial genetics, to determine the genetic mechanism determining enteric production. Currently, she is utilizing her scientific training in analysing intellectual property and works for a law firm providing subject expertise https://www.linkedin.com/in/reetu-mehta-32b6111a
Photo source: Abhinav Dey
This work by ClubSciWri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
