Drew Olaharski (Ph.D., 2004) sent the following letters and photos (one above and one below).Life during the last 12 months has been incredibly hectic. This was precipitated by the announcement last July that Roche was going to buy all of the outstanding shares of Genentech that it didn t already own, and as a consequence of this, the company would close down the Roche Palo Alto site. These were quite uncertain times, but I learned something very quickly, out of uncertainty comes opportunity! One can either take the initiative, and be proactive in determining one s own fate, or be passive. I interviewed at several companies as recently as last December and can state, definitively, that there are opportunities out there for toxicologists. At the end of the process, Roche made me an offer to move to Nutley, NJ (about 8 miles west of NYC) as well as spend a 6-month assignment in Basel Switzerland. There are many many factors that go into a decision of this nature, but without going into all of the details, it was obvious to me that staying with Roche was the right thing to do. I left California in February, drove cross country with my two dogs (hitting 4 national parks along the way), and made my way to New Jersey. The company then sent me to Switzerland on April 1st, where I will be until the beginning of September, when I return back to New Jersey.
The roller coaster of uncertainty aside, work has been going extremely well. I continue with the Discovery and Investigative Safety group, where we assist early project teams identify and avoid possible toxicities, study the mechanisms of existing issues of developmental compounds, and investigate manners for improving in silico and in vitro approaches to better predict toxicities (with a particular emphasis on kinases and stem cells). It has been nothing short of a wild and exciting ride which, fortunately, has yet to feel like trudgery (despite the nights and weekends I often work).
On a personal note, I will be buying a home in Hoboken NJ upon my return from Switzerland and am greatly looking forward to be married in March to my lovely fiancé, Lisa Wu (whom I affectionately refer to as WuSki) (photo above).
It has been an eventful year.
Drew
