The goal of many biotech companies is to develop and market pharmaceuticals. As a result, many people in biotechnology work in fields closely allied to medicine and in some cases considered becoming doctors themselves. But it’s hard, especially at the beginning of a career, to gather the information you need to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of an M.D. vs a Ph.D. or the time and effort required to get both. Dan Yarosh of AGI describes how, as a student, he dismissed the idea of going to medical school.
Dan Yarosh, interviewed on May 23, 2023
Place: Rare Books Room, Carnegie Library, CSHL
Interviewer: Antoinette Sutto
“I had a different mindset then. I didn’t want to be a doctor. I didn’t want to deal with people. I wanted to think great thoughts and do big experiments. Being a doctor seemed like going to a room and people come in all day and tell you their problems. That wasn’t my mental outlook. I wish I would’ve had better advice because someone could have said, “Dan, once you get your MD degree, you can do anything you want.” Nobody told me that. My impression of being a doctor didn’t fit.”