Biotech Courses

Join this week-long, virtual, hands-on course to help you transition to a job in biotech, medtech, or pharma. Discover the business side of science, network, and learn interdisciplinary skills through a team project. 75% of attendees now have jobs in industry, regulatory affairs, or tech transfer.

Included in this course:

 

• Hear from and network with our keynote speaker Dr. Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT. Dr. Langer works at the interface of biotechnology and materials science, with a major focus on the development of polymers to deliver drugs, particularly genetically engineered proteins. Dr. Langer has been awarded the U.S. National Medal of Science, the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the Charles Stark Draper Prize, the Millennium Prize, the Priestley Medal, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and the Kyoto Prize.
• Commercialization in Biotech, from Dr. Steven Casper, the Henry Higgs Professor of Management at Keck Graduate Institute. Dr. Casper is a leading expert on the ‘business of science’ and has studied the success and failure of bioscience hubs around the world.
• Interface of Academics & Industry, from Dr. Nathaniel Hafer, UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Dr. Hafer specializes in connecting researchers to other colleagues and research resources and linking biotech companies to researchers and resources at UMass.
• Bioentrepreneurship Boot Camp, from Dr. Denise Dunlap of the Manning School of Business at University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Dr. Steven Casper, Keck Graduate Institute. In this boot camp, teams will work together to develop a project proposal and present their project as part of a pitch competition.
• Networking, Entrepreneurship & Innovation from Dr. Denise Dunlap, UMASS Lowell. Dr. Denise Dunlap is the lead organizer of the annual biotech summer program and is recognized as an expert in the commercialization of breakthrough technologies in biotechnology and MedTech.
• Professional development session on how to find, get, and succeed in the job you want, with insights from Judy Heyboer, executive coach and principal at JAH Consulting.
• Biotech-specific Professional Development Workshop on how to get a job in the biotech industry, including help developing your CV for biotech job opportunities, led by Randall Ribaudo and Larry Petcovic Co-Founders of SciPhD, an organization that provides training programs for scientists who want to transition from academia to non-academic careers.
• Alumni Insights: Transformative Experiences and Professional Growth will feature two individuals who have already made the transition to biotech careers—Dr. Tariful Islam, Postdoctoral Fellow, Emory University, School of Medicine, and Kyrie Wilson, PhD Candidate, Medical University of South Carolina.
• Certificate of Completion from ASCB at the conclusion of the course.

Course Objectives:

• Gain an understanding of how science is conducted and commercialized in industry through case study analysis and group problem-solving exercises. Topics will include commercializing science, business models, market assessment, innovation management, and building networks and entrepreneurship.
• Learn about career paths for scientists in industry, and how to leverage your analytical PhD skill set for a professional career
• Make connections with industry guests and like-minded course participants
• Learn interdisciplinary teamwork through a team project
• Get advice on building a resume, dissecting job postings, and landing job interviews

Speaker Bios:

Dr. Robert Langer is one of 8 Institute Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); being an Institute Professor is the highest honor that can be awarded to a faculty member. He has written over 1,500 articles, which have been cited over 415,000 times; his h-index of 321 is the highest of any engineer in history and the 3^rd highest of any individual in any field. His patents have licensed or sublicensed to over 400 companies; he is a cofounder of a number of companies including Moderna. Dr Langer served as Chairman of the FDA’s Science Board (its highest advisory board) from 1999-2002. His over 220 awards include both the United States National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation (he is one of 3 living individuals to have received both these honors), the Charles Stark Draper Prize (often called the Engineering Nobel Prize), Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Albany Medical Center Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Kyoto Prize, Wolf Prize for Chemistry, Millennium Technology Prize, Priestley Medal (highest award of the American Chemical Society), Gairdner Prize, Hoover Medal, Dreyfus Prize in Chemical Sciences, BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biomedicine, Balzan Prize, and the Dr. Paul Janssen Award. He holds 42 honorary doctorates, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Northwestern, and has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors.

 

Dr. Steven Casper joined KGI in July 2003 and is a leading expert on the business of science. Dr. Casper has studied the success and failures of bioscience hubs around the world. He is widely published in the fields of economic sociology, international business, public policy and is the author of a book on the development of science-based industry in Europe (Creating Silicon Valley in Europe: Public Policy Towards New Technology Industries, Oxford University Press).

Dr. Nate Hafer serves as the Director of Operations for the University of Massachusetts Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS). In this role he is responsible for the overall financial and administrative activities of the UMCCTS. This includes acting as a liaison to extramural resources (industry, NIH), linking investigators to one another and to research resources, aiding in the development of projects, and directing all UMCCTS pilot funding programs.  He also serves as one of the Co-Directors of the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2), which serves as a lifeline for smaller medical device and biotech companies, offering inventors and executives easy, affordable, and coordinated access to researchers and resources at the Lowell and Worcester campuses of UMass. He is a multi-Principal Investigator for the Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT), a NIH-funded center designed to accelerate the commercialization of point of care technologies to treat, manage, and diagnose heart, lung, blood, and sleep diseases. He is an Assistant Professor in the Program in Molecular Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School (UMass Chan) and leads the UMass Chan I-Corps program.

Dr. Denise Dunlap is an Associate Professor in the Manning School of Business at UMASS Lowell. She is most well-known for her research on breakthrough innovations and those that improve universal health. She is on the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Medical Development Center and is currently serving as the business PI for two NIH grants: the Center of Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT) and Center for Accelerating Practices to End Suicide (CAPES).  She served as the business co-PI on the NIH funded Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative for Covid-19. Her work has been published in both business and scientific journals including the Journal of International Business Studies, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Research Policy, among others.

Judy Heyboer is an Executive Coach and Human Resources Consultant, formerly serving as Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Genentech, Inc. Prior to Genentech, Heyboer spent 13 years at Acuson Corporation as Senior Vice President, after having begun her career at Spectra-Physics, Inc.  She participates as a board member for many businesses, academic institutions, and non-profit groups. She earned her MBA from Santa Clara University and holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Michigan. She is an inductee into the San Mateo County Women’s Hall of Fame and a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum.

 

Randall Ribaudo, Ph.D. and Larry Petcovic, Co-Founders of SciPhD, will help attendees combine their scientific, business, and social skills to be business-ready and competitive for a professional career. In addition, they will provide advice on building a resume, dissecting job postings, and landing job interviews. SciPhD provides training for scientists who want to transition from academia to non-academic careers and offers resources and hands-on training to identify and develop skills in communication, leadership, negotiation, team building, networking, and project management.

 

Dr. Tarif Islam, an alumnus of Biotech East, currently serves as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at Emory University. His current research focuses on investigating the role of a small anti-stress peptide in the prevention of obesity. His research findings have been disseminated through multiple research and review papers in peer-reviewed journals such as Advances in Nutrition, Molecular Nutrition and Food Research, and the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. His outstanding contributions have earned him nominations for student leader awards from both the Department of Nutritional Sciences and the graduate school of TTU. Notably, the American Society of Nutrition (ASN) acknowledged Dr. Islam as one of the top 10% of emerging leaders in the field of nutrition and metabolism, following his poster presentation at the Nutrition 2019 conference. Before his academic pursuits, Dr. Islam cultivated his research interests through roles in pharmaceutical companies, focusing on the research and development of biosimilars, including insulin, interferon, and filgrastim.

Kyrie Wilson is a 5th year PhD Candidate at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), pursuing a degree in Biomedical Sciences. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which mitochondrial (mt) DNA damage spreads during aging and age-related diseases, and on developing broadly applicable gene therapies to fix the damaged mtDNA. This project was awarded the inaugural MUSC Blue Sky Grant Award for its innovation and potential, and a patent application for the technology has been filed. Kyrie’s professional goals are to research, develop, and clinically apply curative therapies—those that address the molecular mechanisms driving diseases, rather than addressing the symptoms while damage continues to accumulate.