Four years ago Kamna Lahoti was working as a microbiologist at a small company, performing quality control by doing endless microbial counts in a laboratory that prepared injections for Indian generic pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories. The young scientist, who had just completed her master's degree in microbiology at University of Mumbai, quickly tired of the work and felt she needed something new. "It was very monotonous," she says. In 2004, Lahoti got a job with Quintiles Transnational, a global contract research organization (CRO), with facilities in India. She started as a clinical research assistant (CRA), crafting clinical trial management plans and setting study timelines, monitoring clinical study sites throughout India, and liaising with trial coordinators at hospitals and universities. She quickly advanced through the ranks at Quintiles, and she now works at Quintiles' Houston, Texas, facility as a senior CRA. Lahoti says that aside from the occasional flight delay and ...
Life in a Rent-a-Lab
Is working at a contract research organization right for you?
Written byBob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer.
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Meet the Author
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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