Biophysical Society Bulletin | November 2022

Biophysicist in Profile

many years earlier to put his available time and energy into supporting the American Society of Biological Chemists (now the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biolo gy), even though his research was predominantly biophysical in focus. However, he encouraged me to continue attending Biophysical Society meetings and participating in this society,” he explains. At the end of the fellowship, Vickers accepted a tenure-track position in the Department of Chemistry at Georgia State University. His research focused on the thermodynamics of conformational transitions in large allosteric enzymes and relied primarily on microcalorimetry. After six years as an as sistant professor, Vickers decided to make a change in career direction and he accepted a research position with a large veterinary pharmaceutical company that had a major drug development project for a recombinant protein—that was recombinant porcine somatropin (growth hormone for swine). Over his subsequent career of more than 30 years, Vickers worked in research management, quality management, and regulatory affairs for three different veterinary drug compa nies, usually referred to as “animal health companies.” “The breadth of my education has paid many dividends, partic

ularly in the later years in regulatory affairs. I was handling and submitting the various sections of a new drug dossier for Food and Drug Administration approval, and this includ ed effectiveness data, safety data, environmental impact data, manufacturing information, quality control and quality assurance data, and human food safety data for those drugs being given to food animals. Being able to understand and discuss all of these packages with the regulatory authorities was critical to moving the new drugs to an earliest approval.” He retired in 2017 from the Bayer Animal Health US division of the German parent corporation. Asked what advice he might have for current biophysics students who are considering a career in the pharmaceutical industry, Vickers responded: “I would advise you to broaden your interests and your experiences as much as is possible. A PhD program must be focused in order to complete it in a reasonable time; however, you should take the opportunity to interact with colleagues in various related fields of research. Read. Ask questions. Don’t hesitate to add your comments to a discussion outside your expertise area, particularly if some result does not make sense to you. Biophysics teaches a very broad approach to problem solving and you can have valuable inputs to many questions and problems.”

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November 2022

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