Dilshan Rajan is not your typical pre-med student. Between 15 years of preparing for medical school (he knew he wanted to be a doctor since he was three), a Bakken Medical Device Center internship, several years of research in two University labs, and a personal interest in 3D-printing and engineering, Rajan feels he has the science and technical know-how to embark on a career in biomedical engineering.
His next big career move? Applying to the M.D./Ph.D. program with a focus in neuro-engineering at the University of Minnesota Medical School. But until then, the University junior is focusing his efforts on getting two original medical devices – an “intraosseous” needle for emergency medical interventions and a smart inhaler – patented and on the market.
After taking the College of Biological Sciences’ (CBS) newest biotech start-up course offering, called “What do you need to start a biotech company?,” Rajan feels he’s been equipped with enough business skills to take his next step to commercialize his inventions.
“We don't really think about the commercialization side too much when my team is working on a device,” says Rajan, who took the biotech start-up course to get exposed to business strategy and network with others scoping out the biotechnology industry. “So the course really got us thinking about all the other parts that are critical to actually get this out there.”
Rajan is not alone in his reasons for pursuing education around the business side of biotechnology. This fall’s cohort included a wide range of students – undergrads, Ph.D. candidates, postdoctoral associates, and others looking for insight from the business side of the biotech industry. The course provides unique biotechnology industry insight to those with scientific backgrounds who aren’t often exposed to business strategy.
“Many of the students already have their own ideas [for a biotech start-up],” says Mary MacCarthy, “But not all. The students who didn’t have an idea partnered with other students to pitch their business on the last day of class. That experience pitching is so valuable!” MacCarthy wasa program manager at the University of Minnesota’s Venture Center and is currently a chief operating officer of a medical device startup and coaches high tech startups. She co-taught the course with Perry Hackett, a longtime member of the College's Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development whose own Sleeping Beauty Transposon gene-transfer platform was licensed to pharmaceutical company Ziopharm for around $33 million.
They both believe the class could be a good platform for students to explore if the biotechnology industry is a good fit for them, and could potentially provide the skills needed to launch their start-ups right here in Minnesota. “One of the roles of the University of Minnesota is actually to help the Minnesota economy,” says Hackett. “You know, not only provide workers, but to provide new businesses.” Looping business into the science research sector could bolster that idea.
“The class is designed to teach them enough to know what they’re getting into, like pitching their idea, understanding equity and stock and options, how to divide equity, and all the basics that you need to either launch your own startup or to be really valuable to a startup that’s out there,” says MacCarthy.
The class provides a multitude of resources to help students chart a course. But it also provides ample opportunities for in-class connection. For Chastity Healy, another student in the class who is the manager for Tim O’Connell’s lab in the Medical School that is interested in pursuing a drug development start-up, these kinds of interactions are invaluable. “Much of the success of a biotech start-up is built upon a foundation of networking with the right people,” she says. “I feel the course not only offered additional insight into the nuances of a biotech start-up, it also provided a wonderful network of new (to me) individuals in the biotech ecosystem.”
With the help of course material and in-class networking, Rajan’s start-up team received a $3,000 Minimum Viable Product (MVP) award from the University of Minnesota to jumpstart funding for a new medical device. The team hopes to use additional funds to create professionally manufactured prototypes and potentially test the product on human cadavers, all in an effort to get the product approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“When we talked to visiting commercialization experts, they recommended technologies be FDA-approved before reaching out to interested companies and for funding opportunities,” says Rajan. He’s referring to part of the course outline in which a rotation of expert panelists visited on a weekly basis to share insight, offering advice from personal experience on topics like business shares, grant-writing, economics, and advancing to new markets.
As the course continues, Hackett and MacCarthy are hopeful it snowballs into a newly reformed biotech startup ecosystem within the science community at the university level. “CBS is the very first college within the whole University to ever have a class like this on how to launch a startup,” says MacCarthy. “There's such a growing portfolio of intellectual property coming out of the research labs in CBS, so it's sort of the right project at the right time for the right reasons, with the right support. We’re just excited to see where it goes next.” – Adara Taylor