Young Scholars at a Young Company: Meet our Interns

Our relationship with the University of Oxford starts with our founders who met there while completing their doctorates, and includes the background of many of our team. Now we are thrilled to support the University’s Crankstart Internship programme. The programme benefits young scholars as they gain professional work experience relevant to their academic degrees and envisioned careers.

We are happy to offer Crankstart Scholars a taste of the biotech startup life! Through this programme, we have met some incredibly passionate and talented students who have fuelled our young company with their ideas and energy. Given their enthusiasm, we are not surprised that they wanted to contribute to our blog. So here it is, our interns’ experience in their own words. Meet JP Ay and Kate Adams!

JP Ay

I was also lucky enough to visit Arctoris’ automated lab and meet the senior scientists who are so passionate about their project and were eager to share their experiences with me (and show me some awesome automated experiments). Their goal is to allow scientists like me to spend less time performing experiments, which can be automated, and more time thinking and developing new scientific approaches to existing problems. Even though the pandemic has prevented the majority of in-person interactions, I have always been encouraged to reach out and ask for additional material to help with my role or to further my understanding of the drug discovery industry, marketing approaches and Arctoris’ vision for the future.

Kate Adams

As summer 2020 approached, I found out about the Business Development Intern position being offered at Arctoris through the Careers Service at the University of Oxford, where I am currently in my third year studying Mathematics. Despite knowing very little about the biotech industry, I decided to apply, as the industry and Arctoris’ use of robotics excited me.

I spent seven weeks over the summer working remotely on Business Development projects with various members of the team, as well as other interns. Over these seven weeks I began to understand the structure of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies; I learnt about various marketing strategies from fellow interns and the Arctoris team and I had plenty of opportunity to present and receive feedback on what I had been working on. After a couple of months focusing on my university exams, I returned to a part-time role with Arctoris, now alongside my degree studies, and have enjoyed being able to follow projects in the longer term.

Despite working remotely, I have felt exceedingly well connected with the team at Arctoris while enjoying some of the comforts working from home brings. Every week I am learning something new about business, strategy and the biotech industry, and I am excited for this learning curve to continue!

About JP & Kate

Kate Adams is a 3rd-year Mathematics undergraduate student at the University of Oxford. At Arctoris, she works as a Business Development Intern which enables her to gain practical business experience to complement her theoretical degree studies. In her free time, Kate enjoys rowing, running, and relaxing.

JP Ay is a 4th-year Biochemistry undergraduate student at the University of Oxford and started his internship with Arctoris in Summer 2020. Originally from London, JP is the author of the self-published book ‘What’s the Point of School?’. In this free time, JP enjoys playing video games and is a huge fan of the MCU. He is also currently volunteering in the NHS supporting nurses and HCAs in the adult critical care wards in hospitals in London.

About Arctoris Ltd

Arctoris Ltd is an Oxford-based research company that is revolutionising drug discovery for virtual and traditional biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical corporations and academia. Arctoris has established the world’s first fully automated drug discovery platform, offering pre-optimised and fully validated processes for its partners and customers globally. Accessible remotely, the platform provides on-demand access to a wide range of biochemical, cell biology and molecular biology assays conducted by robotics, enabling rapid, informed decision-making in basic biology, target validation, toxicology and phenotypic screening. These assay capabilities are accessed using a powerful online portal that streamlines experiment planning, ordering, tracking and data analysis. Thanks to the Arctoris platform, customers can rapidly, accurately and cost-effectively perform their research and advance their drug discovery programmes.

For more information, please visit www.arctoris.com. For media enquiries, contact media@arctoris.com.