Another year, another fantastic class of Octant Apprentices! This year, we welcomed five new Octant apprentices to the Octant community. Over the past year, they’ve become invaluable members of our team, piloting new covalent chemistries, building out new DMS assays, and developing software to support our drug discovery mission. We’re so proud of how much these fresh graduates have grown and are excited to share their reflections on the Octant Apprenticeship with the world.
Nithish: The best part of Octant has definitely been the people (and the coffee). It seems odd to be excited to go to work to talk to people, but the quality of interactions and friendships I’ve made at Octant even beyond work has been very refreshing. Not being from the Bay Area and still being able to find a little community immediately has made my desire to stay at Octant and in the area so much higher. What’s especially exciting is that I can go from joking around at the espresso machine, doing the New York Times crossword, and getting lunch with coworkers to then switching gears and really moving the needle in our work without missing a beat. I’ve also really, really loved the science. Everyone is very willing and eager to teach me new things and show me what they’re working on. Even being on the software team, learning about all the science that the chemists are doing by building tools for them and what the biologists are doing by attending open meetings has improved my understanding of the field and of what really drives me in this space.
Nate: It’s hard to pick one aspect of working at Octant that stands out as my favorite. One of the top contenders for that title is definitely the people. It’s been an absolute pleasure to work side by side with such a talented, generous, and kind-hearted group these past eight months. Everyone is always happy to share their time or knowledge, which I think is something quite special about Octant. Another aspect I really appreciate is the independence we have as OAs, as well as our capacity to significantly influence the direction of the company. I feel like in my short time here, I’ve been able to contribute so much more than I thought possible. The food’s also wonderful. Our Ops team definitely does a spectacular job taking care of the company.
Carmen: Octant provides an intellectual community unlike any other. I learn something new in every moment, at every turn. Even playful conversations at the lunch table are filled with quick wit and excitement for learning. I have been particularly inspired by the passion and joy that each of my coworkers brings to the table; there is genuine excitement towards both driving forward the field and for learning and understanding the natural processes that power the human body and health. I have learned not only how to do science but how to really think about science, and I think that is pretty cool.
Nate: We’ve been working on expanding our analytical capabilities at Octant to help move our drug programs forward, and I’ve had the pleasure of being a significant part of that process. I’ve helped build out new instruments purchased at auction, keep them running as they break down, and even develop new analytical methods to provide critical data for our drug programs. Within all of that work, I’m most proud of the LCMS method I developed to quantify the concentration of a challenging analyte in a cellular extract. It was quite impactful for me to undertake a project we didn’t know was going to be possible with our instrumentation and then make it happen baby step by baby step.
Jamal: I think taking on the validation of a potential target that Octant was interested in pursuing. With the support of my mentor, I was able to start from scratch by generating the cell line models for the disease, engineering them with our reporter systems, and eventually testing the literature compounds we were interested in. In the end, we didn’t move forward with the drug target. However, it was an amazing opportunity to basically take on the whole project from start to finish, and I ended up learning so much about the disease as well as the drug discovery process in general.
Nithish: Octant has an incredible diversity of experiences and of people, and it’s something that’s really opened my eyes to what’s possible. As a result, the most challenging part has been fighting the urge to get involved in everything from chemistry to biology to data science and even all the little clubs Octant has to offer. My undergrad experience in cancer genomics was a cornerstone in my interest in computational biology. My experience at Octant has made me interested in so much more. Now I think often about how to synthesize all the experiences I’ve had so far both with the OA program and in my previous experiences to have a solid understanding of what I want to do for graduate school and beyond. It’s safe to say that the OA program has really challenged me to rethink what I know, how I learn, and why I love biology and computer science.
Carmen: Octonauts often joke about the “firehose” of information that is experienced by everyone in their first few weeks in the company, though I would like to argue that this experience is not limited to the first few weeks. This is driven largely by the constant fluidity of the work, requiring flexibility to adapt as new data or information drives the ship in one way or another. I have had to learn how to shift my brain in between each unique project, to keep up with the many programs at the company and have learned how to optimize my time to balance between reading, researching, analyzing, and conducting experiments. The never-ending firehose has certainly kept me on my toes throughout my experience in the OA program.
Carmen: OA barbeque! Stellar costumes from everyone (shoutout SynBio for being the cross section of Hollis and 67th), great engagement with our trivia game, and exceptional mac and cheese! It was so fun wearing silly sweaters and Santa hats all day, the image of Nate’s hat poking up from behind his desk (pictured below) still gives me a chuckle to this day.
Jamal: I’d say the game night we had at Game On. It was really fun trying to figure out the different rooms with fellow Octonauts.
Brad: Another year here at Octant, then hopefully grad school for synthetic organic chemistry!
Carmen: Another year at Octant while applying for MD-PhD programs in genetics and molecular biology, in hopes of pursuing a continued career in drug discovery and translational medicine.
Jamal: I will be heading to medical school at Perelman School of Medicine.
Nate: Another year at good ol’ Octant, then off to grad school for a chemistry PhD in materials with applications in renewable energy.
Nithish: Another year at Octant with a focus on data science, then hopefully grad school for computational biology at the intersection of functional genomics and cancer.
Congratulations to the class of ‘24 apprentices and their mentors for this incredible past year!