During my internship at Pangea, I was exposed to many aspects of how a biotech startup operates and was given the freedom to get involved with as many projects as possible. From the beginning, the management team was supportive and nurtured both my drive and my enthusiasm surrounding natural products. They immediately recognised my strengths and ensured that the main project I was working on was best suited to my skill set and was in an environment were I could grow and hone my understanding of complex ideas. Within the team there are no bad ideas and I was encouraged to share my thoughts in meetings early on.

My main role was reading the scientific literature around the underlying molecular pathways of drug scaffolds we hoped target and to develop analogues of. This role progressed over the course of the internship and culminated in me designing a series of agonists targeting the original scaffolds receptor system and subsequently reaching out to CROs to develop these ideas.

During my internship I learned significantly more about how pharmaceutical companies are run than at university or at a larger company where I feel I would have only been exposed to a smaller aspect of drug development.

It was a great honour to work with such a diverse team, especially one that shared my passion for natural products and that pushed me to produce my best work.

Overall my work and determination paid off and I was rewarded with a full time position as a Scientific Research Associate. The Pangea working environment is supportive and all members have a huge amount of knowledge in their respective areas. I would highly recommend the Pangea internship to anyone wanting to fast track their career in biotech.