Entry Level: BioTech
Designing Digital Infrastructure For A Start-Up
Simulation vetted by professionals from start-ups in the Greater St. Louis Region
Simulation Objective:
Research and support a biotech startup’s scientific and operational needs
Associated Simulation Library:
Background
Biotechnology companies start generating important information long before they have a product to sell. Early-stage biotechnology companies create many different types of information. On the science side, there’s research plans, protocols, raw data, images, analyses, and scientific literature. And the business side creates legal records, financial documents, investor presentations, employment records, and vendor information. As a company grows, these documents become difficult to find, share, and protect if there is no shared organizational system.
The digital infrastructure is the organizational system that comprises the tools, naming standards, access rules, and work practices that allow a company to create, organize, share, and protect information. A shared drive is one part of that infrastructure, but the folders should be created after the company’s needs are understood.
Before designing a structure, an operations professional must learn how both sides of the company works. Scientific knowledge helps the professional understand how research plans, protocols, raw data, analyses, reports, and intellectual property relate to one another. Business knowledge helps identify who uses the information, what outside audiences may need, what must remain confidential, and how the company expects to grow.
Scientists and internal team members need detailed, working-level access to research information. Investors and outside advisors need selected information to evaluate the company, but should never receive unrestricted access to internal files. Because of this, biotechnology startups commonly need separate internal and external information environments. The internal environment supports employees and contains day-to-day scientific, operational, legal, and business information. The external environment is designed for approved public audiences such as investors, consultants, or collaborators. These environments may contain related information, but they serve different users and require different access controls.
A strong digital infrastructure should make it easy for a new employee to answer two questions: Where can I find the information I need? Where should I save a new document? Clear folder names, numbered categories, consistent dates, and version conventions help users answer those questions. The exact structure should reflect the company’s science, projects, team, and goals.
The Process
Understand the company. - its products, its processes, stage it has reached, and outcomes it expects to achieve.
2. Identify users and audiences. Categorize between internal and external.
3. Identify information types. List the scientific, operational, legal, financial, administrative, investor, and company materials the organization creates.
4. Research tools and practices. Review shared-drive platforms, permissions, version control, investor virtual data rooms (VDRs), electronic lab notebooks, naming standards, and common biotechnology documentation.
5. Separate internal and external needs. Determine what should remain inside the company and what may be placed in a controlled external environment.
6. Design the hierarchy. Create top-level categories and subfolders that reflect the company’s workflows and can expand as the company grows.
7. Develop naming and navigation standards. Create consistent numbering, folder names, file names, dates, and version conventions.
8. Test the structure. Assign representative company documents to folders and revise areas that are unclear.
9. 10. Send the proposal to leadership. Leadership reviews the work, requests edits, and decides which approach the company will adopt.
Resources
Standard curves
NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy – how research organizations plan for responsible data access and preservation.
FDA: Data Integrity and Compliance With Drug CGMP – why accurate, attributable, and reliable records matter in regulated science.
Google Workspace Admin Help: Shared drives – how shared, organization-owned drives differ from personal file storage.
How to organize a Virtual Data Room (VDR) (Angel Investor Network)
Sites that sell VDR products list important factors to consider (SheetVenture, DocSend, others)
The Exercise
For the purposes of this job sim, Company X is developing a novel therapeutic platform and has a small founding team. Files are currently scattered across personal drives, email attachments, and inconsistently named folders. Leadership is leaning toward Google Workspace because of its collaboration tools, accessibility, security, version control, and folder-level permissions — but they have asked you to verify that it's actually the right fit before anything is built.
Your Role
You are an entry-level Lab Operations & Research Intern at an early stage biotechnology startup. You report to the company's leadership. You are trusted to research the problem, design a thoughtful proposal, and present a workable option and your reasoning — leadership will review, revise, and approve the structure that actually gets implemented.
Company Profile
Company X is developing a therapeutic candidate while continuing broader platform and discovery research.
The current team includes two co-founders and a few scientific consultants; the company plans to hire lab and operations staff within the year.
Company X works with outside contract research organizations (CROs) and vendors who return protocols, reports, raw data, and invoices.
Near-term needs include an electronic lab notebook, protocol and SOP storage, equipment records, reference literature, and a future internal wiki.
Company X is preparing to raise a pre-seed round; investors will need tiered, revocable access to selected scientific, legal, financial, and team documents.
Proprietary research information and privileged legal analysis must stay separate from anything shared outside the company.
Task 1 - Understand Company X’s Data Uses
Start by reading the Company X Profile (above). Figure out and list:
How the science creates information — experimental plans, notebook entries, raw data, analysis, and reports.
What Company X does operationally, and what its current and future employees will need day to day.
Which information may represent confidential intellectual property and must stay protected? And what information could eventually be shared outside the company?
What are the current projects, milestones, funding goals, collaborations, and hiring plans?
Who creates and uses information inside the company?
Which outside audiences may eventually need approved access?
Task 2 - Research Digital Infrastructure Practices
Research and compare shared-drive platforms that are relevant to Company X. Take notes on the features and design principles that appear most useful. A platform should be evaluated based on company needs rather than selected only because it is familiar. Also ask about how the team likes to use and share information.
Digital collaboration platforms, including shared drives, folder-level permissions, and version history.
The difference between an internal workspace and an external, investor-facing data room.
Consider SOP and quality-document organization, and how scientific records are typically organized. Ask if the team uses electronic lab notebooks.
Suggest and request - naming conventions, numbering systems, and version control — and consider how they would scale. Ask the leaders for their preferences before building a structure.
Task 3 (optional): Research External Virtual Data Rooms
[If you want to learn more about the business side, do this task.]
Research secure virtual data room (VDR) product (i.e. due-diligence platform used for investor document sharing) and compare its access, revocation, and activity-tracking features with an ordinary shared folder.
Task 4: Design One Complete Digital Infrastructure
Your proposal must include two intentionally separate environments:
Internal: Internal — supports day-to-day research: experimental records, protocols and SOPs, reference literature, raw data, analysis and reports, equipment and vendor records, and operational, legal, finance, and HR materials.
External: External — supports approved outside audiences such as investors, advisors, consultants, and due-diligence reviewers. This is not the public website; it's a controlled data room built from summaries or selected copies of internal materials.
As you design each environment, consider:
Permissions - who can view each part of the structure, and who can edit it.
Access - What information should stay internal, and what could be shared externally as a summary or selected copy.
Owner - Who will grant and revoke access as people join and leave
You can organize the structure by scientific workflow, by therapeutic program, by business function, by department, or by a hybrid of these approaches — there are many options.
Naming and Numbering Standards
Build your naming and numbering approach in from the start, rather than adding it later. A clear, logical numbering system, consistent naming convention, date format, and versioning method help employees and approved external viewers understand the folder order, know where new documents belong, and navigate the structure without needing you to explain it. A good system should also be able to grow as Company X adds new programs and team members without becoming chaotic.
Task 5: Validate The Suggested Structure
Place the sample company documents into the folders you created. The goal is to test the architecture. Revise the design if a document has no logical home, an important category is missing, a document cannot be easily found, or the internal and external access is unclear.
• Does each document have one obvious authoritative location?
• Could a new employee predict where to save it?
• Should an approved summary or controlled copy appear externally?
• Would the structure still work if the company added employees, experiments, or therapeutic programs?
Deliverables
You might share a table of your categories and naming conventions and locations and permissions (external/internal).
sample >
Additional Tasks
A lab operations and research Intern or entry-level operations employee may also perform these tasks:
• Support cell culture and other laboratory procedures
• Prepare media, buffers, or reagents
• Maintain laboratory supplies and equipment records
• Organize electronic lab notebook records and assist with SOPs
• Create educational content, website updates, or scientific social media
• Assist with data analysis and project tracking
Skills Used to Perform this Task
High attention to detail and organization
Researching and evaluating collaboration and document-management platforms
Information architecture: designing a folder hierarchy that reflects how a company operates
Naming and numbering conventions, and basic version control
Clear written communication, including summarizing a recommendation for leadership
Comparing benefits and tradeoffs between different approaches
Skills Used In These Types of Roles
Project management within a fast-changing, early-stage environment.
Document and records management and data governance
Familiarity with electronic lab notebooks and controlled documents
Cross-functional communication — translating between scientific, financial, and operational priorities.
Career Progression
Lab technician I > Lab technician II > Research Scientist
Sample Job Postings
Typical Pay Range $18-22/hr
Research/Laboratory Technician I - Biology
Washington University in St. Louis | Pay rate: $16.21-21.69/hr
Research Laboratory Technician II
Washington University in St. Louis | Pay rate: $16.59-24.00
Laboratory Technician (Full time)
Danforth Plant Science Center | Pay rate: $17.00-19.23
Laboratory Technician (Part-Time)
Danforth Plant Science Center | Pay rate” $17.00-21.94
Sample Job Posting: Laboratory Technician
Seeking a Research Technician to conduct research projects and assist with research activities of Dr. Jennifer’s lab at Washington University in St. Louis. The lab is interested in understanding the cell biological mechanisms underlying the formation of centrosomes and cilia in mammalian cells, using high-resolution microscopy, biochemistry, and genome engineering.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
• Assists with research studies, experiments, and assays; including the collection of data, preparation of solutions, and the set-up/maintenance of equipment.
• Ensures lab conditions and equipment are properly cleaned and maintained in accordance with established procedures.
• Orders lab supplies and maintains cell cultures.
• Performs with compliance standards and established safety procedures.
• Maintains required documentation on laboratory conditions.
• Performs other duties as assigned.
Working Conditions
This position works in a laboratory environment with potential exposure to biological and chemical hazards. The individual must be physically able to wear protective equipment and to provide standard care to research animals.
Preferred Qualifications
• Experience in recombinant DNA methods, mammalian cell culture, recombinant protein expression, or microscopy is strongly preferred.
• Experience in the care and use of general biological lab equipment is strongly preferred.
• Excellent oral communication skills and ability to work well with others.
• High attention to detail and can follow directions and protocols.
• Ability to multi-task effectively.
Required Qualifications
High school diploma or equivalent high school certification.