The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better science

TLP #15 : Enjoy the journey - André Choulika

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Episode notes

In this episode, we speak with André Choulika about his exciting journey from a bench scientist to a biotech entrepreneur taking genomic engineering to the clinic

  • André shares his fascination about the logic of biological systems and his admiration for experimentalists
  • “You can always do something else if it fails” insists André
  • André stresses that the boss has to take responsibilities for decisions
  • “You don’t hire people to tell them what to do, but they should tell you what needs to be done”
  • “Cash is more important than your mother”(we hope Andre’s mother isn’t listening)
  • “Success has thousands of fathers but failure is lonely” (lonelier than a pipette!)
  • André is modest about success; “None of us are VIPs” and he insists that the people who wash the dishes are as important as the CEO of the company
  • He describes the collective contributions and the shared success that characterize the biotech industry 
  • For André “Leadership is more important than management”
  • He insists that a successful meeting is one than lasts less time than allocated

He mentioned these labs, scientists, institutions and companies


To find out more about André visit his website and his companies :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Choulika
https://www.linkedin.com/in/choulika/
Cellectis : https://cellectis.com/en
Calyxt : https://calyxt.com/

To find out more about Renaud :

To find out more about Jonathan :

To learn more about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler
https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/
https://twitter.com/amariamusique