Biostatistics – CA Work Experience Program

Day 8 – The Presentation Before the Presentation

Today was my final day at Bavarian Nordic. I parked my car and walked up to the big glass frosted doors which seemed so intimidating the first day and rang the doorbell. Through the crack in the door, I could see Brenda hustle to open it for me. Brenda always greeted me with a big smile on her face. Every morning my key fob was sitting on my desk. She was always so nice to me! I will definitely miss her a lot. After I sat down at my desk, Erika came over to greet me. She told Kaitlin and me that we would be having some time to work on our presentation while she attended a meeting. Turns out I accidentally coded for the wrong variable, so I was able to fix that. However, I had to go back into the Brachury raw data and find all the really long labels- that part was a pain! Overall, it was a quick fix. During that time I also planned out what I would say for each slide.

After Erika got out of her meeting, we headed to the conference room to practice and get some last minute tips. After I gave mine, I changed a couple headers and added another variable to one of my data tables. I also got a chance to look at Kaitlin’s. Her PowerPoint was very good! Unfortunately, Tricia went home sick today so she could not talk to us about Regulatory Affairs. This branch of clinical trials works closely with the FDA to ensure everything is running in according to the rules and regulations. I was a little upset because I was looking forward to hearing about this career path. However, we got to spend more time with Erika and learn more about some statistics and Bavarian Nordic products, which is always a good thing!

Next, it was time for lunch. It was rather sad having my last lunch here. I will miss the little talks I have with Kaitlin and the other people in the office. After I finished my chicken, it was time to head back to work. I put my finishing touches on the PowerPoint while waiting for Chris, the Chief Medical Officer at Bavarian Nordic. However, he was in a meeting so Erika took me and Kaitlin to Starbucks while he was finishing up. It was so nice of Erika to do that! Throughout these two weeks, Erika has done all these nice gestures for us- she is so thoughtful! I couldn’t have asked for a better person to work with!

Once I finished my iced caramel macchiato, we met Chris in the conference room. He went to medical school and then worked for the National Cancer Institute. His job seems very interesting! It seems to involve a little bit of everything! He is also very good at explaining complex subjects. I hear he is a big help to everyone in the office. After we finished speaking with him, it was time for our big presentation!

Kaitlin and I set up in the other conference room while everyone grabbed cookies (that Erika brought). Kaitlin and I decided that I would go first. Then, I walked through each of my slides and the data visuals I made. Afterwards, I watched Kaitlin present. The, we entertained any questions they had. Most of the office was there- I was rather nervous! However, I think it went very well.

After that was all over, I was coming to my final moments at Bavarian Nordic. I chatted with Erika, Kaitlin, Ms. Handelsman, and Chris for a little while in the breakroom about various things. Then, it was time to say goodbye. Brenda made me promise to stay in touch – which I will definitely do! Kaitlin and I were trailblazers. There had never been any interns at Bavarian Nordic before. Brenda and DeShara noted that the future interns would have some big shoes to fill!

As I packed up my desk, it really hit me how much I would miss this place. I would miss Kaitlin and our random talks, Erika and all her sweet gestures, Ms. Handelsman and her wise life advice (although I’ll still be seeing her around CA), Brenda and her cheerful personality, Janelle and her infectious passion for her job, and my hilarious cubicle neighbor DeShara. When I got home my dad told me something that really made me think: sometimes it’s not always the job you do, but the people that make the whole experience worthwhile. As I pondered this over, I realized that if I end up working in a place with the kind of people I met at Bavarian Nordic, I would be extremely blessed.

Day 5 – Finally, Some Data!!

Today was not the most eventful day. When I arrived this morning, I found Kaitlin sitting at her desk. Then, I asked her what we were doing this morning. She wasn’t so sure either, so we went to find Erika. Erika explained to us that Kit, the IT guy at Bavarian Nordic, came back from his vacation today so we would finally be able to install the software we needed to view the Brachyury data. We had been trying to get this software since last week! However, she told us Kit was currently in a meeting so he wouldn’t get to us for another hour. In that time, Kaitlin and I looked through the study details, which were hard to understand. We did this for about two hours when we realized Kit hadn’t helped us yet. Unfortunately, someone else needed his help and that was more pressing. Therefore, we kept reading for a while longer.

When Kit was finally able to help, he was able to get the software up and running in about 10 minutes. By that time, we were ready for lunch. After Kaitlin and I ate our meals, we were finally able to view the Brachyury data and manipulate it using the SAS programming skills we learned last week. We were supposed to meet with Dorian to talk about pharmacovigilance, but there was a death in a study that required her immediate attention. Instead of meeting with Dorian, Kaitlin and I met with Erika to get started making graphs and tables. This time was extremely helpful because all the raw data was really overwhelming.

Once we were all set up, Kaitlin and I sat in the conference room working on making sense of some of the data. It was really hard to figure out what data to compare and find out whether the graphs we were creating would be helpful. Kaitlin and I worked until 4. At that time, Erika had said we deserved to go home. After those few hours, I finally have a better understanding of SAS programming in the real world. I also got a better look at Erika’s job and what it entails. Tomorrow, we will look at the visuals that Kaitlin and I made to see what we can glean from them!

Day 1 – Clinical Trials!!

Today was my first day at Bavarian Nordic! Bavarian Nordic is a biotechnology company that specializes in vaccines. I will be spending the next two weeks in their clinical trials department learning about biostatistics and clinical trial managing. After struggling to find the right building, I finally found the “Bavarian Nordic” sign in front of some extremely intimidating frosted glass doors. I was rather early, so I waited outside until I saw another girl looking at the directory. I had a feeling she was the other intern from NC State. I think she had a feeling I was the high school intern too because she introduced herself. Kaitlin is very nice and passionate about statistics! We tried pushing and pulling the door for an embarrassing minute. Turns out we needed to be buzzed in. Once the lady at the front desk let us inside, we were greeted by Erika. Erika works in biostatistics and put together our whole agenda. After introducing us to everyone, she led us to the break room.

In the break room, she had set up a whole breakfast buffet to welcome us! It was very nice of her! Once we had finished eating and mingling, Erika set us up with desks and computers. However, there were some technical difficulties with sharing folders with me and Kaitlin because the IT guy is out. After we got all situated at our desks, we headed towards the conference room where we would spend the next couple hours. Ms. Handelsman started off by giving us a brief history of Bavarian Nordic and all the products it produces. Bavarian Nordic is widely known for its production of Imvamune, a vaccine for smallpox. The US stockpiles this vaccine in case smallpox gets weaponized. Bavarian Nordic also has many other vaccines still in the trial phase. The one I will be focusing on is Brachyury.

For lunch, we stopped at some food trucks because the power went out and there was no way to heat up our food. Once we ate, we went straight back to the conference room to meet with Janelle. Janelle is one of the leaders of the Brachyury project. She gave us some background on why it is being studied. Brachyury is a protein that is expressed by many types of tumors. Too much of it can make it hard to treat a tumor. Bavarian Nordic’s potential vaccine could increase survival rates in cancer because its goal is to cause a Brachyury-specific response by the immune system. I will continue to be researching and looking at data from the ongoing clinical trial in my next 2 weeks.

After a long day in the conference room, I was tasked with completing an online training for Clinical Research by the NIH. After a lot of reading, I finally passed and got my certificate. My certificate signaled the end of my very rewarding day. I am very excited to see what the rest of the week holds!