Somewhere during my bachelor studies, I discovered my passion for programming and data science and therefore decided to enroll for a Master’s programme in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the university ETH Zurich. As part of my studies I had the opportunity to partake in a pharmaceutical industry internship. Being Swiss and having grown up in this beautiful country, Roche was definitely a name which already rang a bell. I had heard many positive comments from various people about the company's innovation prowess and especially its outstanding work culture. However, I could not really imagine what day to day work would look like in such a giant company. Therefore, I was really excited to start a data science internship in the Sciences Section of the formulation and process development department at the Roche main site in Basel for a total of nine months.
Already from the very beginning I was handed a lot of responsibility. I worked on multiple projects in parallel implementing a variety of digital solutions to facilitate development of robust formulations, new manufacturing and drug delivery technologies for commercial production. I could take the lead in developing implementable, customized tools by working closely together with project partners from various groups in my department. Thereby, I could directly see the value of the tools to my colleagues, which I found especially encouraging.