Microphiles at Work:
Christy Hebner
Christy is the Head of Microbiology for Vir
Biotechnology, a company that creates and develops
cures for infectious diseases. Created in 2016, Vir is
What’s your educational
background?
I received a BS in Microbiology from Michigan State
University. My PhD was in Microbiology-Immunology,
studying Human Papillomavirus in the lab of Laimonis
Laimins at Northwestern University Feinberg School of
Medicine. I did a brief post-doc—6 months—at UCSF,
before starting my career in industry.
How did you end up working as
the Head of Microbiology for Vir?
I thought about working in industry from a young age. My
uncle was a chemist at Parke-Davis (now Pfizer) and took
me to work with him for a day when I was 16 years old. I
was so inspired by the people I met, and the things that I
saw, that I was totally hooked on the idea of making
medicines for a career.
During my senior year of my undergrad, Abbott
Laboratories interviewed on my campus. Even though I
had always planned to go to graduate school straight out
of undergrad, I applied. I got the job and spent two years
in industry before attending graduate school. I considered
staying in academia during my post-doc, but received an
offer to interview at Gilead Sciences 6 months in and took
the job.
I spent 6 years at Gilead where I worked in both HCV
Drug Discovery and Clinical Development. I was
fortunate to be part of the team that brought the drug
Sovaldi to the market to cure HCV. I then took a job with
a former Gilead boss leading a larger team in Antiviral
Drug Discovery at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical
Research. This lasted for several years, and afterwards I
moved on to a small anti-bacterial company called
based out of San Francisco.
Achaogen, where I again worked in Clinical Development
and helped bring another drug to the market (Zemdri).
Many of my former Gilead, Novartis and Achaogen
colleagues work at Vir and they were all key to me
interviewing for my current position.
Can you tell us a bit about Vir?
Vir integrates diverse innovations in science, technology
and medicine to transform the care of people with serious
infectious disease. Vir’s initial focus in in three areas of
significant unmet need: chronic infectious diseases
(including HBV, TB, HIV); respiratory diseases
(including influenza, RSV and metapneumovirus); and
health-care acquired infections.
What is a regular work day like?
There is no such thing as a typical day for me (which I
love!). I spend much of my day in meetings discussing
scientific and regulatory strategies on different programs.
I also spend a lot of my day talking with junior scientists
about their projects and experiments. I am currently
planning to go into the lab to teach younger scientists an
old-school technique that we need for an upcoming
program. I have fought hard in my career to stay in the lab
because I love lab work, but in the past 2 years it has been
hard to make this happen.

What is your favorite part of the
job?
My favorite part of my job is interacting with junior
scientists. Younger scientists know all the newest
techniques (I always think “if only I had that in grad
school!”) and I learn so much from them. At the same
time, knowing how to do drug discovery and development
is a specialized way of thinking that can’t be learned in a
textbook—only by doing—and I love the collaboration of
these two worlds that are necessary to truly drive
innovative medicines forward.
What advice would you give to
students who are interested in
seeking industry jobs with a
microbiology degree? How can
microbiology graduates be
competitive applicants?
There are two things that really matter for getting a job in
industry. The first is outstanding communication skills.
Verbal and written communication are paramount in an
industrial setting. So much of what industrial scientists do
is about conveying ideas to others and making the
scientific case for a program decision. This takes a certain
level of “EQ”. In addition, networking matters. With the
exception of my job at Gilead, I got every other job I’ve
had by networking with others. There are a million great
scientists out there. What really stands out in industry are
these soft skills. Working in industry is a team effort and
it’s ultimately what we look for when hiring.
[Date]
Do you have a
favorite microbe?
I’ve had a lot of favorites over the years (there are so
many interesting ones!!). Currently I’m obsessed with
HBV. There is evidence that HBV has been with humans
over at least the last 4500 years which makes me wonder
if there was some sort of survival advantage for infection
in early humans. It’s incredibly insidious the way it
establishes itself in both an episomal and integrated form
in the hepatocyte. This is also my current favorite
because I believe that technologically we’ve reached a
point where we really could cure infected patients in the
near term. I have twice been fortunate enough to be on
teams that brought life-saving medicines to the market
and to see that be a possibility for the hundreds of
millions of people infected with chronic HBV is what
makes me eager to get up and go to work every morning.
A diagrammatic representation of the hepatitis B
virion and the surface antigen components.

How do you maintain work-life Source: “Hepatitis B Virus”. 11 February 2019,

balance? Virology of University of Cape Town,
It’s really hard, and I think that’s true for anybody who http://www.virology.uct.ac.za/vir/teaching/linda-
works in this day and age. I have a spouse and a 7-year- stannard/hepatitis-b-virus
old child who I adore. I also love my job—it’s always a
give-and-take to find the right balance for everything. If
you have a significant other, having a true partnership
really matters. I’m fortunate to have a partner (also in the
pharmaceutical industry) who is in a true 50/50
relationship when it comes to needs at home.

Microbiologists at Work is a newsletter by the Microphiles at UW featuring a professional who uses

microbiology in their line of work. Intended to highlight the opportunities available in industry, we’re
always open to suggestions on who to interview next. Email us at microphiles@uw.edu or
ritao@uw.edu!