The power of being a ‘life-long philomath,’ with Atim Enyenihi
Atim Enyenihi is a RAPS member who currently works as a senior scientist in analytical chemistry for Recursion, a biotech company in Salt Lake City, UT. We spoke with Atim at RAPS Convergence 2023 about her career trajectory, how soft skills are harder to master than people think, and the importance of human connection in regulatory affairs.
What is your current role?
My current role is a senior scientist in analytical chemistry. My role as an analytical chemist is to do analytical development. So, that's analytical method development, and that involves using instrumentation such as liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. It's not a strict regulatory affairs position, but I do have to abide by regulatory guidelines. I do analytical method development in compliance with regulatory guidelines.
What do you enjoy about your job?
Someone mentioned at the plenary session at RAPS Convergence that you should start broad in your career. I started very deep, you know. Well, more narrow. It was LC-MS from the start. And it’s been that way for the last 13 years.
And at this point in my career, I'm like, what else is out there? I was at a conference last year and ended up at an RAQA session where the world of regulatory came onto my radar. I spent the last year digging deeper, trying to learn more about what regulatory entails and trying to find my regulatory self. What’s it for me? What's in it for me? Is it for me? And how do I figure out what section? So, that's why I'm at RAPS Convergence this year.
What specifically drew you to regulatory affairs?
I think one of my strengths is that I’m a philomath. I love learning. After 13 years in the same field, I felt like I know way too much about way too little. I have this opportunity mindset, so that means being open to whatever else is out there. With regulatory, I love the diversity in the jobs, the job functions, from clinical, preclinical, all of the aspects of drug discovery, the regulatory scientists and affairs professionals that are involved in all of these stages.
So, I think the diversity of the role, the function, interacting with FDA, interacting with other professionals by influencing and using my critical thinking skills. These are all things that I find exciting about regulatory.
What skills are important to succeeding in the regulatory affairs profession?
Critical thinking is one of them, because you need to read the guidances, and they need to be interpreted in a way that's relevant to the product. That's what I'm really wanting to do, because in most other jobs it's more straightforward. In regulatory there is some liberty, some room to maneuver when it comes to interpreting. And I find that exciting to figure out what strategy to move on with.
We also need people skills and communication skills. These are often called soft skills, which in reality they’re hard skills. It can be difficult as not everyone is born a naturally good speaker. All of these are necessary in regulatory. That's part of what attracted me to regulatory because I think in this field, I get the chance to put to use more than one quality of myself, right? I have analytical and critical thinking skills, and I also must be a communicator, a people person. I think in this respect regulatory is a good fit for me.
What do you get out of your RAPS membership?
I get a lot out of my membership. All the email newsletters are very, very informative. I go through them, and I can hear what the latest development is. I heard that FDA is possibly going to regulate lab developed tests as medical devices. As someone who has worked in the LDT space. I'm like, “Wow, it's finally going to happen.” And I found that through one of the RAPS newsletters.
There are lots of webinars and lots of certifications. I'm currently involved in the dual medical device and the drugs certification course, and I plan to study for my RAC. There are all these resources when you go to the website and there’s a lot of options to explore.
What has been one of your RAPS Convergence highlights?
I've been so excited to be here. There is just so much going on, but it's orderly. I love that the apps are clear, it’s easy to follow what's going on. I also like that it was gradual. I got here on Saturday. I took the course on Monday and then on Tuesday things started at 2:30 pm. So, I had a chance to explore the city before jumping in. I love the gradual progression of the events.
I think the most exciting thing, and what I find very different at this conference compared to all the others, is that the networking is built into the programs. You are expected to talk with people, and regulatory professionals understand the importance of human connection. I just love that. I love that it's okay and welcome here.
What is one thing you have learned at RAPS Convergence?
I mentioned earlier the importance of starting broad, and I would suggest that to the upcoming generation, because that wasn’t my experience, but I've learned a lot. For example, from the plenary session, one of the panelists mentioned instead of just going after drugs for treatment of diseases, how about lifestyle? How can we influence lifestyle so that we prevent people from getting diseases in the first place? That's something that stuck with me. I will be thinking about how to do this so that I'm not in the field of treating diseases, but in the field of preventing disease.