Young scientists ditch postdocs for biotech startups

Academia has long used post-docs as sources of cheap labor. Good for them for finding a strong path into greener pastures in the private sector.

These things go in cycles, but right now I sense a strong desire to get out of the mess that is often found in academic science.

While it makes a lot of sense for individuals, science in the end will suffer since only potentially profitable studies will be made and basic research abandoned. Of course that might happen anyway in today's publish or perish climate and universities in profit seeking mode.

Do we want the fruits of scientific progress to be made publicly available and shared by all of society (one must grant that even public universities have already begun privatizing their work, which is sad) or for it to end up privatized as part of patent portfolios to go to the highest bidder and to serve those with the most capital?

I already know what the answer is if we look at the current incentives in place, but what do we want?

This sort of thing isn't new though, although every generation seems to forget the experiences of the past. The first wave of biotech startups was in the 1970s -- most of them failed with the main survivor being Genentech. It's not unlike how waves of Internet startups come and go. At times academia is the place to be, then industry, then academia again.

Which biotech startup is the hottest around?

Not surprising at all, considering how insanely competitive academic biology is today.