On 9 January 2024, we were delighted to host the interesting and entertaining seminar by Dr Milena Hornburg (former PhD student of our PI Zuzana and external mentor of one of our PhD students, now Principal Scientist Bioinformatics at Genentech, San Francisco, USA) and Dr. Daniel Hornburg (former PhD student at the MPI of Biochemistry in Martinsried, now Vice President Biomarkers & Precision Medicine at Bruker, San Francisco, USA). During the online seminar entitled “From Academic Research to Startups, Big Pharma and Biotech: Working and Living in Silicon Valley”, they gave insights into their personal career paths and everyday working life and provided valuable tips for the career planning of our doctoral students. We would like to thank Milena and Daniel and wish them all the best for their personal and professional future.