Sybil WongSay the word research, and what do most people think of?  Well, teenagers, at least, and many, many older people who should know better think of Google, of course – or maybe Wikipedia.  But if your idea of research is a key word search online and a tap of the return key, then you probably think cooking is heating soup from a can.  No offense intended to Campbell’s or to Google, but that’s not going to get you into the Le Cordon Bleu or qualify you for a doctoral degree.

Research – honest to God white coats and test tubes research – is what London-based Sybil Wong does. She joined Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable as VP Business Development after submitting her thesis on a protein regulator of miRNA-mediated gene silencing as a PhD student jointly affiliated to the University of Nottingham and Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary, University of London.

In a discussion with CCC’s Chris Kenneally, Wong addressed how scholarly collaboration platforms – once considered as “Facebook for scientists” – are changing research, and what may be the implications for STM publishing and copyright best practices.

“It’s all about how does this make my life easier in the lab?” she said. “If this can connect me with other people, I would love that, because [researchers] don’t get enough interaction within the lab and also with people outside.”

In her free time, Sybil Wong volunteers in North & East London to encourage hard-to-reach students to expand their horizons through studying science, complementing OBR’s mission to facilitate young innovators to pursue their own ideas. She obtained her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and Economics at the University of Hong Kong.

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