RECAP of CABS 2023 CAN (Career Advisory Network) Program Kickoff Meeting

Date: April 22, 2023 @ 8:00 am – @ 11:59 pm
Location: 1633 Old Bayshore Hwy STE 280, Burlingame, CA 94010

Since being established in 2010, the Career Advisory Network (CAN) Program has become one of the major annual events of CABS. CAN is a mentoring program hosted by the Business and Career Development (BCD) committee of CABS. It is a direct one-to-one pairing mentorship program to guide mentees in their career paths including business development, entrepreneurship, and scientific career paths in both academia and industry. The kickoff meeting of the 2023 CABS CAN program took place on April 22, 2023, at Hanhai Silicon Valley Center. Fourteen mentors and 31 mentees attended the event.

Danielle Liu, advisor of the CAN program, emceed the kickoff meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Yuying (Kate) You, the 2023 CABS president, gave a brief introduction of CABS.

Subsequently Kay Tong, co-chair of BCD outlined the logistics of the program, the expectations for mentors and mentees. Kay also shared her thoughts on the importance of mentorship and how the CAN program can make a positive impact on both mentors and mentees. Her insights inspired attendees and set the stage for the rest of the meeting.

Dr. Shichang Miao, a successful entrepreneur and mentor, shared his career story and mentoring experience, and provided invaluable advices, such as whether and when to join a big or a small company.

Drs. Yuwei Yang and Hesong Sun, two former mentees, also shared their experiences and offered valuable advices, such as being open-minded, asking for clarification and providing timely feedback to mentors.

After the sharing session, mentors and mentees mingled together, strengthened old connections and established new ones.

Overall, the kickoff meeting was an excellent start for this exciting CAN program, and attendees left feeling empowered and motivated to achieve success. Special thanks to Jack Zhu and Dr. Xiaojie Chen, the coordinators of 2023 CAN program. 

For any questions, please contact the chairs of the CAN Program Xiaojie Chen (xchenselleck@gmail.com) or Jack Zhu (jackningzhu@gmail.com)

Finally, we sincerely thank the exclusive sponsorship from Porton Advanced Solution, a cell and gene therapy CDMO company.

Porton Advanced Solutions is a leading end-to-end gene and cell therapy CDMO, committed to accelerating the development and manufacturing of advanced therapies to deliver life-changing medicines to patients. With over 220,000sqft of GMP facilities, we offer end-to-end services that cover process development, analytical development, and cGMP manufacturing of viral vectors, plasmid, mRNA, and cell products.