PhD student at UiT
Applying for the DLN industrial internship turned out to be one of the best decisions I made this year. I got the opportunity to work at a global pharmaceutical company and my internship was a definite highlight this year both academically and otherwise.
My name is Bente and I’m PhD student in computational chemistry at The University of Tromsø, Norway. Being used to a relatively small academic workplace at my university, my workdays were suddenly at the R&D center of AstraZeneca in Gothenburg! At AstraZeneca, I was able to see first-hand how a large pharmaceutical company operates while making a meaningful contribution to the company.
Through the DLN Industry Internship program, we received a skilled and motivated student that could help us on a shorter project. The student got easily into the project, despite not having a previous experience in the topic, and worked independently to produce value to the company - AstraZeneca.
I was welcomed by the Molecular AI department at AstraZeneca. Having a background in chemistry, I was accustomed to the chemistry aspect involved in drug design, but I knew little about the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI). My group consisted of talented scientists working with AI-assisted retrosynthesis planning, i.e., discovering synthetic pathways of target molecules from available starting materials using AI. I was given a project related to their open-source retrosynthesis tool called AiZynthFinder. During the first month, I performed retrosynthesis experiments and gained an understanding of their software and the search algorithm used in predicting synthetic reaction routes. I also contributed to the team by writing code that is now part of the publicly released software. For the rest of my stay, I used the data I generated to build a machine-learning model for predicting the optimal hyperparameters in retrosynthesis experiments using AiZynthFinder.
The DLN internship allowed me to experience life outside academia and to test my skill set in a different work environment. I’m grateful to have gained hands-on experience in a field that was new to me and to develop my skill set. Not no mention the Molecular AI department itself! Weekly cake breaks, after-work drinks, and attending the annual Christmas party made my stay complete. I’m confident my experience will serve me well as a continue pursuing a career.
Centre for Digital Life Norway Industry Internship
PhD students in Norwegian biotechnology have the opportunity to explore career options outside academia through Digital Life Norway’s Internship Program.
New 2023 call is out! Apply by 12 March 2023. ►