Blog

As anyone who works within the LIMS industry well knows the development of the digital lab has been a long time coming and has yet more ground to cover. But we're well established enough now, and the market has had a long time to set itself up, so now we can start to draw a clear picture of how the LIMS market is reflected in the world, where the big business is and where it...

My daughter is 6 years old and one of the wisest people I have ever known. A few days ago I asked her the question that I used to dread being asked when I was a child; the question that is so open-ended that it seems exciting to ask, but is rather unfair to the recipient: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I almost kicked myself for saying it. As soon as the wo...

Two months ago, we gained a new colleague here at Next Phase. Steve Smith is our new Head of Rare Disease and Gene Therapy and his appointment started me thinking about the rare disease sector and how medical devices play a part here. A rare disease is defined by the European Union as one that affects less than 5 in 10,000 of the general population, whilst the FDA define ...

#everythingCRISPR The curious scientist should be excited to know about the creation of The CRISPR Journal is here!!!! February 2018............ The New Year is here and an exciting one it is expected to be. CRISPR technology and ground-breaking advances within the research associated to CRISPR is changing the world. Researchers are deploying CRISPR across a wide range...

I have been asked many times what the dress code will be for an interview. Whilst it seems like a question with a straightforward answer, it isn’t always that simple! When your clients are pharmaceutical and biotech businesses it obviously raises the question in a candidate’s head “What is the dress code?”, because no-one wants to be under-dressed or over-dressed. A coupl...

Technology is ever evolving and manufacturers are constantly looking for ways to give their product the market edge. It is unsurprising that communication between humans and machines is at the forefront of this, after all we are becoming ever dependent on technology and what it can offer us. From Alexa reminding us to pick up milk to our iPhone’s providing us with navigat...

As a specialism, Validation attracted me as a Recruiter when I supported an SME company to find a Validation Technician for them. So then, I researched the topic and started to talk to professionals within the pharmaceutical industry to gain a deeper understanding of their profession. It is such a broad and varied professionalism and in my opinion, it requires a range of ver...

The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and the CRISPR associated Cas system is the latest addition to genome editing derived from components of the bacterial immune system. CRISPR permits targeted gene editing offering a simple, rapid and broad application to genome editing. In 2012 researchers had realized that CRISPR could be adapted, eng...

Whilst updating myself on industry news I have found an abundance of articles discussing the problem and potential solutions to ‘surgical smoke’. This was an alien term to me so I began to read on with interest. Surgical smoke is the gaseous by-product produced by electro-surgery, laser tissue ablation, ultrasonic scalpel dissection, high speed drilling or burring, or ind...

When I moved to the UK nearly 7 years ago I would have never thought in my life that one day I’d be going back to my roots and my childhood bedroom will replace the office for a week. This happened though last week, as my amazing boss was happy to accommodate my needs to return to Hungary for a dentistry appointment. I have worked from home before for a day but not for a ...

The statistics related to deaths caused by drug and alcohol misuse are shocking and are unfortunately a global problem. In 2016 the Office for National Statistics recorded 7,327 premature deaths from alcohol and 2,593 deaths due to drug abuse in the UK alone. Similar patterns can be seen across the world with some parts of the US fighting an Opioid Epidemic, with the Nationa...

I had already heard about chatbots, briefly, at the recruitment agency expo a couple of months ago and then later it came up in a social media training session. I must be honest, I didn’t exactly pay too much attention at the time, though I have recently come across a couple of articles about recruiting chatbots. So, I was intrigued to take a look at what exactly is a chatbo...

Parkinson’s UK estimates that 1 in every 350 people in the UK is affected by Parkinson’s disease, which is roughly 145,000 people, with millions being affected worldwide. This is a horrible disease without any current cure and without one definitive test. So, due to common misdiagnoses the figures are conservative and may actually be up to 40% higher, also when it is diagnos...

As an Industrial Designer, your portfolio is vital to displaying your abilities in order to secure an interview, think of it as your shop window. As the old saying goes a picture paints a thousand words – therefore you need to be sure that it is the right picture. Whilst researching for this blog I came across reoccurring views from within the industry to ensure your desi...

1. Data is only useful if its function is useful. 2. Data, for the sake of data, is of no function at all. 3. Context and explanation must be self-contained within the data. Data which requires explanation is like a painting which requires a description. 4. Any data in which context and explanation cannot be self-contained has little effective usefulness and will...

As Valentine’s Day is approaching I can’t help thinking about the fact that dating and recruitment have a few things in common. These two missions are quite an important part of our personal and professional life.  So, I was interested to give it a go and present the similarities when it comes to recruitment and dating. With dating you focus on finding “the one”, “you...

It is alarming to discover that such a gap exists and even though 56% of undergraduate students in the UK are female, they are still massively underrepresented in certain areas of the discipline. Statistics also show that despite efforts to rectify this the gender gap continues to widen and has nearly doubled in the last eight years. It seems timely, given that it is 100 ...

Having worked alongside and helped to find jobs for Responsible People in the last year, I have noticed a real shift in the work being undertaken by RP’s. They are expected to fully understand the WDA (Wholesale Dealer’s Authorisation) license, meaning how to obtain this and keep hold of it through the MHRA. In addition to this having a good understanding of GDP guidelines, ...

It is hard to view social media, newspapers or television without seeing developments within artificial intelligence and the affects it has (and will continue to have) on the way we live our lives. For example, the 2018 Winter Olympics, in South Korea, will not only play host to athletes and avid fans but also 85 robots!! These will be utilised across a wide range of functio...

When it comes to renewable energy, there are a variety of ways to go about it: tidal, wind turbines, solar power and even nuclear energy. However, one of the biggest players is biofuels. These are considered some of the most readily available sources of fuel, and so it’s no surprise that there are a variety of companies going into this exciting industry! Biofuels are any ...