🧬 The Dark Side of Postdoc Culture Nobody Talks About | Nicole Paulk (Part 2/4)
April 2, 2026
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we continue founder, CEO, and president of Siren Biotechnology, Nicole Paulk's journey from small-town farm kid to pioneering gene therapy scientist. Nicole recounts how a Craigslist ad landed her in the lab of one of the most celebrated stem cell scientists in the country, Markus Grompe — blissfully unaware of his fame, she spent months calling him "Marky Mark," planting whoopee cushions under his chair, and filling donut holes with Sriracha, only to discover he was the stem cell adviser to the President of the United States. She reflects on her PhD years as the "golden, pure, best days" of her scientific life, then contrasts that with the culture shock of Stanford's relentless postdoc hustle, a world of constant CV-optimization and pressure to pursue academia at all costs. Nicole shares how landing a coveted K01 grant gave her the credentials to walk through any university door she wanted, eventually bringing her to UCSF just nine months before COVID would turn everything upside down.
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"Your life doesn't have to be scripted. Really cool things can happen in an unscripted life if you're open to opportunity and willing to take risks and do cool stuff."
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, we continue founder, CEO, and president of Siren Biotechnology, Nicole Paulk's journey from small-town farm kid to pioneering gene therapy scientist. Nicole recounts how a Craigslist ad landed her in the lab of one of the most celebrated stem cell scientists in the country, Markus Grompe — blissfully unaware of his fame, she spent months calling him "Marky Mark," planting whoopee cushions under his chair, and filling donut holes with Sriracha, only to discover he was the stem cell adviser to the President of the United States. She reflects on her PhD years as the "golden, pure, best days" of her scientific life, then contrasts that with the culture shock of Stanford's relentless postdoc hustle, a world of constant CV-optimization and pressure to pursue academia at all costs. Nicole shares how landing a coveted K01 grant gave her the credentials to walk through any university door she wanted, eventually bringing her to UCSF just nine months before COVID would turn everything upside down.
Key topics covered:
- The Craigslist Lab Discovery: How one unscripted career move led Nicole to one of the most celebrated stem cell labs in the country
- Working With Markus Grompe: Pranks, camaraderie, and world-class science in a lab that had culture before culture was a thing
- PhD vs. Postdoc: Free-spirited curiosity versus the relentless CV-optimization grind of Stanford
- Academic Pressure & Identity: Why postdoc culture pushes trainees toward academia at all costs — and why that needs to change
- From Stanford to UCSF: A K01 grant, a bold leap to UCSF, and then COVID hits
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Find our guest, Nicole Paulk at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolepaulk/
Website: https://sirenbiotechnology.com/
Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee
Learn more about Excedr:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Website: https://www.excedr.com
Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:
Website: https://flow.page/kyojin
Resources & Articles:
AAV (Adeno-Associated Virus) Gene Therapy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adeno-associated_virus
Stem Cell Research in the 2000s: https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/stem-cell-research-2000s
The Oregon Stem Cell Center at OHSU: https://www.ohsu.edu/stem-cell-center
NIH K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-24-176.html
PhD vs. Postdoc: Mental Health & Pressure in Academia: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11693439/
COVID-19's Impact on Academic Research Labs: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00663-2
Companies, Universities, & People mentioned:
OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University): https://www.ohsu.edu
Stanford University: https://www.stanford.edu
UCSF (University of California, San Francisco): https://www.ucsf.edu
Markus Grompe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markus-grompe-m-d-66211273/
Mark A. Kay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-kay-md-phd-41a7313/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:21 Finding a Lab Job on Craigslist and Landing at OHSU
05:31 Discovering Markus Grompe Was Famous (All Along)
07:01 Whoopee Cushions, Sriracha Donuts, and "Marky Mark"
10:01 Joining Grompe's Lab and the Golden Days of the PhD
13:06 Life Advice: You Don't Have to Script Your Journey
15:46 Transitioning from PhD to Postdoc at Stanford
19:11 Stanford's Hustle Culture: Loved It and Hated It
21:21 The Pressure of the Postdoc: Finding a Real Plan
22:31 Academia's "Professor or Failure" Mentality
24:26 Earning the K01 Grant and Moving to UCSF
25:51 COVID Shuts Down the Lab — and Sparks the Founding of Siren
26:12 Outro
The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.