This week’s Nature had an article critical of the
new $1 billion cancer cure project from the Obama administration. I agree with
the journal. While one sympathizes completely with VP Biden’s recent tragic
loss of his son to cancer, this is not the way to move forward. As in the past,
throwing big bucks at cancer will probably involve large scale, multi-investigator
‘translational’ research projects that are often inefficient and unproductive. What will ultimately benefit cancer patients
is continuing research on basic molecular mechanisms of cancer and how to alter
those mechanisms. For example, the recent evolution of the CRISPR gene editing
technology, a basic research discovery, is likely to have a greater positive
impact on cancer therapy than many of the more applied projects sponsored by
the NCI.
Friday, February 19, 2016
Friday, January 29, 2016
More Bad News for Biomedical PhDs
A recent article in SCIENCE provided a thorough study
of several thousand early career PhD graduates from several large public
universities. I guess the good news is that most of them were not employed at
McDonalds or Walmart. However, the bad news is the paltry salaries that many
young PhDs are receiving, particularly those in the biomedical sciences.
Most newly minted biomedical PhDs go on to do
academic postdoctoral stints, so it is not surprising that this group has low
wages. However, according to the study about 25% of graduates go into industry
where one would expect higher wages. To be sure industrial salaries are higher
than academic postdocs, but they still run in the $50-75,000 range. Considering
that a PhD is a 4-7 year investment, it is interesting to compare industry
salaries for early stage PhDs with those of a postman ($51,790).
The low salaries no doubt reflect the laws of supply
and demand. With universities continuing to churn out PhDs the value of the
degree is diluted. Overproduction of PhDs in the biomedical sciences, as well
as industry driven importation of low wage foreign workers especially in
computer science, both drive down salaries.
This is an old story that has been commented on
several times in this blog—but nothing seems to change.
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