After completing his PhD at Umeå University, Bastian Schiffthaler now works with bioinformatics at AstraZeneca (photo: Björn Schiffthaler).
As a PhD student at UPSC, Bastian Schiffthaler was given a high degree of independence and responsibility early on. Today, he works as an Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca, analysing large-scale biological data in complex research projects with the potential to improve patients’ lives. Looking back, he describes his time at UPSC as a formative period that shaped how he approaches problem-solving and decision-making in his current role.
- What inspired you to transition from academia to industry, and when did that decision take shape?
For me, this decision was multifaceted. One big motivator was job stability. In academia, you’re always in this cycle of grant writing and justifying your position, and that constant “publish or perish” pressure was something I was hesitant about.
The other big motivator was impact. What I do in the pharmaceutical industry is more directly improving people’s lives. Even though it takes many years to develop a drug, you still know that your work can directly help patients. We sometimes get feedback from patients saying how much a treatment has improved their quality of life, and that is incredibly rewarding. In plant science, the impact always felt more abstract and several steps removed from societal applications for me.
There was no specific turning point during my PhD. Biomedical research was always in the back of my mind. I originally wanted to study medicine, but after working as a paramedic for a year I realized I was not a patient-facing person. Still, contributing to medicine in some way was always something I considered.
- How well did your PhD training at UPSC and Umeå University prepare you for industry?
It prepared me spectacularly well. During my PhD, nothing worked out of the box. Whether it was wet lab issues or computational problems, there were always obstacles that forced me to think differently. With trees especially, standard methods often do not exist, so I had to come up with my own solutions.
That kind of problem-solving is exactly what I do now. My current work is very bespoke. People come to us with very specific problems, and often there are no existing computational workflows to analyse the data. We do a lot of methods development to figure out how something could be done.
Another big factor was how the supervisors worked. My supervisors, Nathaniel Street, Nicolas Delhomme, and Martin Rosvall, were quite hands-off. That gave me a lot of freedom, which was great - but it also forced me to learn how to manage my time, prioritise, and take responsibility. That kind of self-management is extremely valuable in industry.
- Were there aspects of the UPSC research environment that were important for your development?
UPSC, and especially our group, was very collaborative. Even though my PhD project was largely my own, there was a lot of discussion and problem-solving together. People would come to each other and say, “I want to do this, but I don’t know how.”
That kind of environment taught me how to exchange ideas, talk to different audiences, and present my work in a way that others can understand. Those skills are very transferable. In industry, I am now constantly explaining my work to people from different backgrounds.
- What advice would you give to PhD students considering industry or academia?
I would strongly recommend developing data science skills, even if you are not formally working in bioinformatics. Pure lab jobs are becoming fewer, and data skills are increasingly important.
For industry roles, it is crucial to have something to show. Public code, GitHub projects, bioinformatics workflows built using public data - anything that demonstrates your skills can help. When I see applicants who do not have any visible code or projects, that is a clear disadvantage. Publications are good, but it is often hard to see what an applicant actually contributed unless the code is available.
AI tools are fine and very useful, but you still need to understand what you are doing. If you cannot write the code yourself, you will not be able to debug it when something goes wrong.
- What role will bioinformaticians play in future technological developments?
AI can already do many things that junior scientists used to do, which makes entry-level roles harder. But AI is still not good at discovering new biology or understanding complex experimental limitations.
The cutting edge - finding new pathways, developing new methods, understanding confounding factors - still requires human expertise. Bioinformaticians will be needed to understand data deeply, recognise its limitations, and design analyses that are scientifically sound.
- Do you miss something from academia?
Flexibility. Not time flexibility, but intellectual flexibility. In academia, you can spend time exploring something just because it is interesting. In industry, everything needs a business justification.
I also miss being responsible mainly for my own work. Now, my work affects dozens of other people. That comes with more pressure and less room for curiosity-driven exploration.
- Is there a moment or experience from UPSC that has stayed with you?
What really stayed with me was the trust I was given from the very beginning by my supervisors. I was entrusted with important data and a lot of responsibility, and that built confidence. That confidence still helps me today, especially when I need to voice concerns or challenge decisions in front of senior people.
I also remember the strong sense of community - the campus bubble, social events, and the feeling that you knew people everywhere. UPSC felt like a small village. That atmosphere, combined with good supervision, made it a very formative experience for me.
Bastian Schiffthaler did his PhD in Nathaniel Street’s research group at UPSC, in collaboration with Martin Rosvall from the Integrated Science Lab. After finishing his PhD in 2020, he worked as a Bioinformatics Analyst at the UPSC Bioinformatics Facility before starting as Senior Research Scientist in Bioinformatics at AstraZeneca. In 2025, he was promoted to Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca.
For more information, please contact:
Bastian Schiffthaler
Associate Principal Scientist at AstraZeneca
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LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bschiffthaler