Clinical laboratories?

[fantasty]

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I have a friend graduating with a phd in microbiology. She's been doing the job search and looking at various opportunities, including your typical post-docs, etc. But, she's been wondering about options not traditionally leading to setting up her own research lab.

We were talking about it, and I suggested training to be the director of a clinical lab. But, I'm sorry to say, I know very little about this. I know certain medical fields have fellowships in this (like clinical immunology or clinical chemistry / microbiology within pathology) for becoming medical director of these labs. But, can anyone here offer insights on how a phd biologist gets involved in managing clinical labs?

 

[MasonPrehealth]

Many articles in ScienceCareers do discuss the path of being involved in clinical research organizations or clinical laboratory management. The best advice we all give is to find people who do that line of work and investigate what it takes to do it.

However, if he/she is trying to transition into that job, let it be known that he/she should look into temporary or part-time positions doing that line of work because chances are (unless the networking is really good) that one will not get hired immediately to such a position unless his/her past experience had a lot of relevance to the specifics of that position.

 

[Scottish Chap]

I have a friend graduating with a phd in microbiology. She's been doing the job search and looking at various opportunities, including your typical post-docs, etc. But, she's been wondering about options not traditionally leading to setting up her own research lab.

We were talking about it, and I suggested training to be the director of a clinical lab. But, I'm sorry to say, I know very little about this. I know certain medical fields have fellowships in this (like clinical immunology or clinical chemistry / microbiology within pathology) for becoming medical director of these labs. But, can anyone here offer insights on how a phd biologist gets involved in managing clinical labs?

Several medical schools offer a formal postdoctoral fellowship in clinical specialties to make a PhD board-eligible in that discipline and it is there that you will gain the training required to be a clinical laboratory director. Washington University in St. Louis is a good starting point - they offer clinical fellowships in microbiology and clinical chemistry for PhD's. You do not need to transition into it by gaining part-time experience, just apply. Most programs do not receive many quality applicants. Interestingly, you will be judged mostly on your research potential as this is an integral component of each program too and the clinical stuff is not hard to pick up. I completed a fellowship in clinical chemistry. It's my experience that most people who embark on these fellowships have no prior clinical training or experience of clincal laboratory medicine. I interviewed for a couple of faculty positions before deciding to do something else. Starting salaries after a two year clinical postdoc are now >100K. Good luck.