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| ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2008 | Volume
: 1
| Issue : 4 | Page : 6 |
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Work Experience at Pfizer pharmaceuticals
Jack Lawrence-Jones
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| Date of Web Publication | 17-Nov-2008 |
Correspondence Address:
Jack Lawrence-Jones
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 Work experience at Pfizer, Summer 07 | |  |
So there I was, first day of two weeks work experience at the Pfizer's Sandwich site, the largest of its kind in the UK, waiting to be picked up by my assigned mentor who would work with me for the next two weeks. My first impression of Pfizer was simply how huge it is - there are special coaches to take employees between different departments. It is like a self-contained mini city - there's a huge canteen, social centre, sports centre - Pfizer even has its own factory on site, for small scale manufacturing for drugs trials etc.
I was assigned to a biological research scientist from the anti-invectives department, in Discovery (this is a huge building in which all the drugs made by Pfizer originate - it is where the creativity happens, where ideas are come up with for new drugs or assays). My project, to complete during my two weeks at Pfizer, involved creating a special kind of protein to help research ways of combating the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Hepatitis C is the only virus of the 3 main types of HV's without immunisation available, and affects over 170 million people worldwide. Current treatments cannot cure the virus and can have some serious side effects including being teratogenic (harms unborn children) and causing haemolytic anaemia (reduces the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen). These factors make it a very promising area of research for Pfizer, as there is great need for a better treatment.
Before I began my project, I had to sign various documents to ensure I understood the safety risks involved in working in the laboratory. I was performing all practical work in a class 1 laboratory - this means I had no contact with the actual virus. A class 2 laboratory can contain deactivated HCV (which has been genetically modified to render it harmless, however a risk is still presented in the form of possible mutations back to a harmful strain), and in a class 3 lab one can handle live virus, requiring full biohazard suits and airlocks in and out. I also had to sign a secrecy document ensuring that I didn't sell anything I heard or saw during my 2 weeks to a rival company. However as my task was fairly minor, I can give you an outline of what I had to do. Having said this, it hadn't been done before, and an internal document has now been published inside Pfizer with my name on it.
The HCV's genome encodes for a single polyprotein of about 3000 amino acids. It is co- and post-translationally processed by both cellular and viral proteases to produce at least 10 polypeptides. One of these is NS4B (Non Structural 4B), a protein involved in viral RNA replication. It also binds with and hydrolyses ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and GTP (guanidine triphosphate). Disabling NS4B would therefore possibly prevent HCV replication, halting the virus' life cycle. However not much is known about the protein and how it moves about the virus (where it localises etc). Therefore my project involved synthesising a GFP-NS4B Fusion Protein, enabling its progress to be tracked in real time inside cells. GFP (green fluorescent protein) acts as a fluorescent tag that enables the fusion protein to be monitored. This can then be used to find out more about the role of NS4B in the viral life cycle.
The work involved using a number of techniques essential to lab based research, such as PCR (polymerase chain reaction), restriction digestion, gel electrophoresis, gel extraction and ligation. These will almost definitely be required at university, and of course for a career in research. I also learned a lot of theory behind some of these common but conceptually complex techniques.
Right, that's all the science over and done with. I would thoroughly recommend work experience at Pfizer to anyone considering a degree in biology, chemistry or biochemistry. However as it is such a large company it can cater for a wide range of work experience students including those studying management, computer programming, economics and website design. If nothing else it gave me a taste into what it would be like to work in such a large company, and also into the world of scientific research as a career. I enjoyed it immensely as it allowed me to use techniques I had learned about on the AS syllabus which would never be possible at school, and use equipment way beyond the school science budget. For example, I used specially designed enzymes that cost in excess of £700 for less than half a ml, and a NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) spectrometer worth £2 million.
There is one thing I'd also say- if choosing between whether to work in the biology or chemistry department, biology is definitely the one to go for. A friend of mine did experience in chemistry whilst I did mine in biology, and whereas I had my own unique project that no one had done before, he ended up mainly watching his mentor do all the work for two weeks. I'd also like to thank my mentor, who did a great job of explaining the complex procedures that I used, and was generally good to work with.
If you are interested in having work experience at Pfizer's, then to find out more information go to http://www.pfizerlearninglab.co.uk/sp.aspx?id=17, or download an application form at http://www.pfizerlearninglab.co.uk/resources/WES38%20A%20LEVEL.DOC.
Jack Lawrence-Jones is currently in year 13 at the King's School Canterbury. He is studying Further Maths, Chemistry and Biology, and wants to read Natural Sciences at Cambridge.
How to cite this article:
Lawrence-Jones J. Work Experience at Pfizer pharmaceuticals. Young Scientists J 2008;1:6 |
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