Visit our Career Flowchart to get more information on some of these career paths.

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1 Visit our Career Flowchart to get more information on some of these career paths. Academic Research Faculty: This career path consists of university or college professors who conduct research. They select research projects, raise funds, conduct the research, and communicate it to the public. Academic research faculty members often also teach students and run labs. Department Chair Program Director Non-profit, reference, and/or academic lab director Clinical Medical Genetics This is the practice of clinical medicine specifically focused on hereditary disorders. People in this field learn to make diagnostic evaluations and counsel patients with genetic disorders and their families. Lab Director Clinic Director Clinical Research Translation This career path requires people to translate medical information to patients by language and cultural context. Some of the documents that are typically translated include case report forms, drug registration documents, and package inserts/labels. Clinical translator Independent researcher Medical translator Diagnostics This career path generally consists of diagnosing patients, monitoring diseases, and sometimes treating diseases. In general, working in diagnostics requires one to document a person s health each day at a specific point in time. Lab Associate Director Medical laboratory technicians

2 Epidemiology This career path is broad and includes many jobs in areas including public, private, education, and nonprofit. Simply, those who work in public health promote and protect the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work and play, according to APHA. Scientific Coordinator Health department administration Nurse ELSI (Ethical, Legal and Social Implications) This research program, which was set up as part of NIH s Human Genome Project, works to foster basic and applied research on the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic and genomic research for individuals, families and communities, according to the NIH website. Associate Investigator Senior Advisor Genetic Counseling This career path consists of professionals who have specialized education in genetics and counseling to provide personalized help patients may need as they make decisions about their genetic health, according to the National Society of Genetic Counselors. They act as the link between doctors and patients. Genetic counselor Grant Administration This career path requires many different skills and tasks. Being well-connected is preferable, as organizations are more likely to give projects to someone who is known and trusted. Tasks may include managing research projects, developing scientific reports, and supervising employees. Employers may include universities, non-profits, and government. Sequencing director

3 Industry, Bioinformatics Analysts In this career, work combines both biology and computer science. People in this field may conduct research in labs but focus on the use algorithms to interpret databases or to understand the relationships between members in a data set. Responsibilities can include designing informatics algorithms, as well as manipulating and presenting genomic data. Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly, and more. Information Specialist Research Scientist Senior Health Data Analyst/Scientist Forensic DNA Scientist Industry, Bioinformatics Databases This career path focuses on the building of the databases used in bioinformatics analyst positions. It relies on the building databases of genomic database that then must be kept organized and up-to-date. This position may rely on the use of developer tools such as R, Shiny, and Python to help design, generate, and validate data reports, tables, listings, and graphs. Developer Informatics Research Associate Research Support Specialist Industry, Pharmaceuticals Careers in pharmaceuticals help to discover, develop, produce, and market drugs for use as medication. With the specifics to genomic studies in pharmaceuticals, pharmacogenomics is the researching of the role of the genome in drug response. This involves analysis of the genetic makeup of individuals and how it affects an individual s response to a drug. Responsibilities can include development of drug therapy, research in genetic engineering, or more specific things such as improving proof of principle for efficacy trials. R&D Scientist Sr. Quality Control Scientist Clinical Pharmacogenomics Content Specialist Health Scientist Administrator

4 Industry R&D (research and development) This career path allows people to conduct research for a specific team project, communicate the findings to the rest of the team and the public, and recommend what to do with the findings. Director of Genetics Cytogenetics Associate Product Manager Industry, Other This career path consists of for-profit companies, including pharmaceutical companies (such as Illumina) and biotech companies. This line of work asks for someone who wants to apply research to a medical problem in a collaborative environment. Chief Business Officer Cytogenetics Laboratory Director Product Marketing Manager Software Product Manager Science and Law This career path is the process of transferring scientific findings from one organization to another for further development and commercialization, according to Association of University Technology Managers. This process includes identifying new technologies, understanding and using patents and copyrights, and developing marketing plans for the findings. University/college technology often considered university administrators Licensing Contracting Patenting Science Policy This career path blends science/medicine and public policy. People in this field normally either infuse public policy with the most current scientific knowledge or they develop policy to guide scientific enterprise, according to ASHG. Director of Science Policy at an organization Staffer for congressperson Director of government agency

5 Science Writing/Editing This career path allows writers to communicate the latest stories in science. Science writers can work for established publications, such as newspapers and journals, or they can write for their own blog. Senior Editor Freelance science writer Author/journalist Scientific Consulting This career path involves a person or group to be hired for a period to complete a project. These projects can be fast-paced and require broad, quick thinking. Consultants are expected to review a task, provide their advice, and complete the task to the client s satisfaction. Almost any type of job falls under the types of tasks a consultant can be asked to complete. They often specialize based on their interests and skill set. Consultant Start-up/Entrepreneur This career path involves the coordination, development, management, analysis, and evaluation of programs and initiatives to launch a new business. This can mean involvement in a program such as Doctorpreneur, a program to help doctors find healthcare-related startups in need of investments, or developing new products and services. Scientific Program Analyst Advisor Development Specialist Undergraduate Teaching Faculty This career path is a teaching-focused path (rather than research-focused) at universities and colleges. While larger universities often employ researchers, who are also on the faculty, teaching-focused faculty often end up at smaller, liberal arts institutions.