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Senior scientist, biology vs medical science liaison

The differences between senior scientists, biology and medical science liaisons can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a senior scientist, biology and a medical science liaison. Additionally, a medical science liaison has an average salary of $145,718, which is higher than the $88,965 average annual salary of a senior scientist, biology.

The top three skills for a senior scientist, biology include data analysis, cell biology and next-generation sequencing. The most important skills for a medical science liaison are patients, medical affairs, and MSL.

Senior scientist, biology vs medical science liaison overview

Senior Scientist, BiologyMedical Science Liaison
Yearly salary$88,965$145,718
Hourly rate$42.77$70.06
Growth rate17%17%
Number of jobs50,06157,208
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 57%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Average age4141
Years of experience44

What does a senior scientist, biology do?

A senior biology scientist is responsible for studying how living organisms relate to the environment. Duties and responsibilities include supporting and participating in project management and research and development meetings, conducting tissue culture and cell line generation, and performing binding assays to examine the biological activities of protein therapeutics. In addition, you will be participating in the organic synthesis of nucleotide drug and perform reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction procedure for gene expression and amplification.

What does a medical science liaison do?

A medical science liaison (MSL) is a scientific professional who facilitates a working relationship between healthcare companies and leading physicians, researchers, and clinicians. Also referred to as key opinion leaders (KOL), medical science liaisons represent their company to the decision-makers in the medical community as well as to investors and government regulatory agencies. They analyze clinical trends and monitor the scientific literature for new developments in the medical community. Medical science liaisons also prepare medical samples and data to investigate the causes of chronic diseases, pathogens, and toxicity.

Senior scientist, biology vs medical science liaison salary

Senior scientists, biology and medical science liaisons have different pay scales, as shown below.

Senior Scientist, BiologyMedical Science Liaison
Average salary$88,965$145,718
Salary rangeBetween $56,000 And $139,000Between $59,000 And $359,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CAJackson, TN
Highest paying stateCaliforniaTennessee
Best paying companyTheranosSaint Luke's Health System
Best paying industryPharmaceuticalManufacturing

Differences between senior scientist, biology and medical science liaison education

There are a few differences between a senior scientist, biology and a medical science liaison in terms of educational background:

Senior Scientist, BiologyMedical Science Liaison
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 57%Bachelor's Degree, 52%
Most common majorBiologyNursing
Most common collegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Southern California

Senior scientist, biology vs medical science liaison demographics

Here are the differences between senior scientists, biology' and medical science liaisons' demographics:

Senior Scientist, BiologyMedical Science Liaison
Average age4141
Gender ratioMale, 49.7% Female, 50.3%Male, 41.6% Female, 58.4%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 6.4% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.7% Asian, 26.3% White, 53.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%Black or African American, 6.3% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% Asian, 23.4% White, 56.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%
LGBT Percentage8%8%

Differences between senior scientist, biology and medical science liaison duties and responsibilities

Senior scientist, biology example responsibilities.

  • Manage study protocols and study conduct, intimately involve in the toxicology and pharmacokinetic study protocol development process.
  • Contribute to a cancer cell line profiling effort.
  • Review documentation, write research reports and authore FDA submissions.
  • Cloned and express zebrafish DNA repair genes by PCR; design PCR primers.
  • Supervise transfer of methodology from GLP to GMP environment and between partner/CRO sites.
  • Investigate plant-microbe interactions using protein profiling experiments.
  • Show more

Medical science liaison example responsibilities.

  • Supervise and analyze medical necessity review of manage care appeals.
  • Develop and manage KOLs resulting in presentations to regional, national and international meetings.
  • Utilize extensive knowledge of medical terminology, ICD-9, HCPCS and CPT coding along with analysis and processing of Medicare claims.
  • Provide pre-launch field support for a novel diabetes compound.
  • Provide drug information to medical professionals and sales force within FDA guidelines.
  • Join Clementine as a trainee BMS and successfully complete training and registration.
  • Show more

Senior scientist, biology vs medical science liaison skills

Common senior scientist, biology skills
  • Data Analysis, 9%
  • Cell Biology, 9%
  • Next-Generation Sequencing, 6%
  • Cell-Based Assays, 5%
  • RNA, 5%
  • CMC, 4%
Common medical science liaison skills
  • Patients, 11%
  • Medical Affairs, 9%
  • MSL, 7%
  • Medical Science, 6%
  • Pharmaceutical Industry, 5%
  • Internal Stakeholders, 4%

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