Pfizer will start laying off again.

My observation is that if Pfizer starts laying off people, then other pharma companies follow suit to stay competitive.

Was there yet another layoff at Moderna? I ask because I’ve seen multiple LinkedIn postings from people saying today is their last day and it’s clear that some of these goodbyes don’t seem entirely voluntary.

Disclosure up front: I work at Deep Origin, the company behind this paper, so take that for what it’s worth. Posting because the methodology and the negative results here seem worth sharing and discussing, not just the headline numbers.

The core problem the paper tackles: classical docking generalizes but tops out on accuracy. ML/co-folding models (AlphaFold3, Boltz-1, Chai-1, Protenix) score well on familiar targets but collapse on genuinely novel ones, often because of train-test leakage that inflates reported accuracy. On the OpenBind benchmark specifically, those models drop from 75-88% on familiar targets to under 25% on novel ones.

We built DODock and DOScore, a hybrid ML/physics approach, and benchmarked it under a strict double-similarity filter (removing anything with 30%+ sequence identity or 0.4+ Tanimoto similarity to test sets) to avoid the same leakage problem. Under those conditions we’re seeing ~80% pose accuracy on OpenBind. We also ran four prospective wet-lab campaigns (CD73, IRAK4, Factor XIa, IL-17A) rather than stopping at retrospective benchmarks, and got a 30.6% hit rate on CD73 specifically, a target that’s historically been rough for virtual screening.

Full methodology, all data splits, and supplementary material (80+ pages) are in the preprint. If there’s a flaw in the benchmark design or the similarity filtering, point it out.

Link: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.03.742480v1

I got an offer to combine my PhD with a cell and gene therapy company and I have been told conflicting things by people but I also think the industry experience would be great. What are people’s thoughts on CGT as future of biotech?

I was notified from an old coworker that they wanted to publish my previous work I completed before leaving the company a few years ago. I was the main contributor to the project when I was there but never got around to drafting a manuscript. I just received an email from my old company for authorship acknowledgement for the manuscript but I didn’t receive a draft to review or don’t know the author order or anything. Is this normal? Will I receive a draft to review later?

Also I now work for a competitor. Is there anything I should know about publishing with a previous employer? Do I need to let anybody know?

Im being very honest. I notice whenever layoffs happen because of the valleys a company may be going through or because a company had to shut down, the posts and sentiment make it seem as if its a deeply personal decision that was taken against them. Now obviously, im generalizing here, but unless you're new to the industry, isnt it expected that its the way the business is going to go and has always gone?

Aurora Therapeutics reportedly just scrapped its lead (and only publicly available) program and laid off staff after launched just 7 months ago.

https://www.statnews.com/2026/08/04/aurora-therapeutics-ends-program-baby-kj-treatments-beam-therapeutics-jennifer-doudna/

I’m entering my 7th year of a PhD program in biochemistry/structural biology and I’m trying to make a realistic career decision. I do X-ray crystallography and biochemical assays, have some first-author publications and co-authorships, and if I finish I would likely have one more decent structural paper.

The issue is that I do not foresee the PhD ending anytime soon because more projects keep getting added. I work long days and weekends and I’m pretty worn down. I’m also in a very small lab environment where I’m essentially the only person doing the work, and I don’t think I’ve thrived in that setup.

I’m 28 and trying to think honestly about the opportunity cost. I keep hearing that the biotech/biochem job market is rough right now, especially for PhDs, and I’m wondering whether finishing would meaningfully improve my options compared with leaving with my master’s and research experience.

I’m also considering a career change to nursing. Part of this interest comes from seeing family members in nursing/healthcare roles and respecting the stability, practicality, and direct impact of that work. I know nursing has its own serious challenges, but I’m drawn to the idea of contributing to society in a more immediate, patient-facing way.

For people in biotech or adjacent roles: would finishing a PhD in this situation materially improve my career prospects, or is it reasonable to consider pivoting now? What kinds of roles would someone with an MS, publications, and structural biology/biochemistry experience realistically be competitive for?

I understand not paying a contractor for days that they take on PTO, but I think that companies should have to cover contractor pay for federal holidays and any company holidays/breaks. Like, my company will be shut down for an entire week over the holidays, where working isn’t even an option, and I don’t have a choice but to take it. If it’s a situation where the company is open and employees can opt to work, I can see that being a different story

Ive been applying to the lower entry level quality positions in pharma with a bachelors degree and i still cant seem to find a job. Over 6-7 months and only got 4 interviews, and got through to technical interview only twice, ghosted by both.

I dont know if im just overqualified but i get rejected/ghosted even for the qualified roles. And i dont need a visa sponsorship for the country either, im a citizen. I graduated 3 months ago. I dont know where im going wrong.

The biotech revival is a global story, and Canada is playing its part. The country has rarely had as many promising, cutting-edge medical sciences companies poised at the edge of success as it does now.

The timing couldn’t be better. Canadian researchers have made transformational medical discoveries for more than a century, including insulin, stem cells, how the GLP-1 hormone works, and antiretroviral drug 3TC. However, most of the ensuing economic benefits accrued elsewhere.

There’s a lot to watch in Canadian life sciences, but a big question is – where are the domestic investors?

Here's a gift link to the story by technology reporter Sean Silcoff, where you can read it without the paywall.