Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists (1998) / Chapter Skim
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Chapter 4 Opportunities, Constraints, and Future Needs
Chapter 4 Opportunities, Constraints, and Future Needs
Pages 49-62
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From page 49... ...
In principle, gene therapy should be applicable to many diseases for which current therapeutic approaches are ineffective or when the prospects for effective treatment appear exceedingly low. As of June 1995, 106 clinical protocols involving gene transfer had been approved by the National Institutes of Health (NTH)
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From page 50... ...
Current research is providing improved techniques by which to determine the highresolution structures of macromolecules, and these methods are being used to study processes of molecular recognition, signal transduction, allosteric regulation, and protein folding. The resulting data are often of immediate practical value for such undertakings as rational drug design.
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From page 51... ...
Careers in this challenging field will require training in population biology, ecology, the social sciences, and related agriculture sciences. BIOLOGIC CONTROL OF PLANT PESTS The metier ins in agricultural he major increases in productivity that followed World War II were attributable in part to the widespread use of synthetic chemical pesticides for the control of insects, weeds, and plant pathogens.
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From page 52... ...
Nongovernment sources of support clearly are important for basic life-science research and funds from private foundations, such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the American Cancer Society or American Heart Association, will probably continue at the same or slightly increased levels. But private philanthropy does not have the resources to compensate for a substantial decrease in federal funding (Ruzek and others 1996~.
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From page 53... ...
Increased attention to undergraduate education at research universities has resulted not only from these financial factors, but also from evidence that their clientele is becoming aware that some portion of undergraduate tuition has implicitly subsidized research. The intellectual justification for this subsidy is that undergraduate access to leading researchers is a unique feature of research universities.
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From page 54... ...
Academic health centers (AHCs) include basic-research faculty and clinical researchers, as well as medical educators and physicians, these scientists work collectively to provide teaching, research, and clinical care.
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From page 55... ...
Indeed, some AHCs today receive over 50% of their income from revenues for patient care. Faculty practice plans in 1993 provided at least $2.4 billion in support of academic programs, including undergraduate medical education ($702 million)
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From page 56... ...
The current heavy reliance on funding from the private sector carries some danger that some basic-research problems with less potential for commercial payoff will not get the attention that they need and deserve. That is already evident in the decline of support by major agricultural-chemical companies of research on microbiologic control agents for plant diseases.
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From page 57... ...
DOING THE MOST WITH THE FEWEST The number of jobs for doctoral-level microbiologists is projected to grow at an annual rate of 6%, about ~ 5% of the growth represents hiring of postdoctoral fellows, not scientists with permanent positions, according to a recently completed survey by the American Society for Microbiology (Van Ryzin and others 19961. The ASM survey showed, however, that the fastest growth was in emerging fields of biotechnology, such as bioremediation, molecular immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy.
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From page 58... ...
As more and more genetically engineered products near the marketplace, there will probably be new employment opportunities for life-science PhDs in federal` patent-licensing offices and in some regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration. THE DIVERSITY AND SPECTRUM OF CAREERS FOR LIFE-SCIENCE PhDs ACADEMIC-CAREER TRENDS Life-science PhDs who seek academic careers with a greater emphasis on teaching might find satisfying careers at several kinds of non-PhDgranting institutions: conventional` 4-year liberalarts colleges that award bachelor's and sometimes master's degrees, 2-year junior and community colleges whose degree is usually an associate in arts, and public and private elementary and secondary SCHOOLS.
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From page 59... ...
Two-Year and Community Colleges The committee found that the 1,471 institutions at this level of higher education employ only about 600 PhDs in life sciences, and the prospects for substantially increasing this number appear to be small. There might be an increased demand during the coming decade, fueled again by the echo generation of the baby boom, which is predicted to increase enrollment at 2-year colleges by about 1 1%.
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From page 60... ...
Although a few states have special programs to train candidates with advanced degrees for public-school teaching, the burdens of supporting oneself and paying for this additional training are likely to be serious disincentives. Finally, experienced administrators in public-school systems have offered the opinion that life scientists who are extensively trained in cuttingedge research would not find school teaching captivating.
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From page 61... ...
That figure and others mentioned earlier indicate that there is considerable interest in nontraditional career paths among life scientists. Most PhD programs do not, however, offer the broader exposure and training that would be helpful for entering nontraditional career.
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