I recently gave a talk on educating the next generation of biotechnology managers and founders at a biotechnology education workshop. My sense is that the traditional education paths are not ideal ways to prepare individuals to manage or start biotechnology companies, and I describe cases from Best Practices in Biotechnology Education and courses I have been involved with to illustrate how educational programs can better prepare students for these roles.

I’ve attached a copy of my presentation below.

Drug Patent Expirations in March 2010

*Drugs may be covered by multiple patents

This information is also available in an email newsletter: Subscribe to the DrugPatentWatch Patent Expiration Bulletin.Courtesy of DrugPatentWatch.com

The judging is underway for the Biotech Humanitarian Award. The pool of nominees was divided between the judges, so I’ve only seen some of them, but I’ve made my selections. One of the elements I’ve been looking for is evidence of going beyond one’s job description — how much has an individual done to drive the application of activities they’re involved with?

Here are the finalists I’m recommending:

Dr. Alain Fischer
I admire Dr. Fisher’s relentless pursuit of a promising technology that others have lost faith in — this hard-fought path is how many innovations occur.

Dr. Aristides Patrinos
Dr. Patrinos’ leadership in advancing key science and policy initiatives (like the Human Genome Project) is worthy of recognition. He has also gone on to start a company to develop genomics advances.

Dr. Brent R. Stockwell
I am impressed by Dr. Stockwell’s dedication to driving research, and going beyond the lab to push the application of his discoveries.

James Allen Heywood
Mr. Heywood has a strong record of bringing innovations into practice — in areas with rewards well beyond simple monetary compensation.

The recipient of the Humanitarian Award will be named at the BIO international convention in Chicago, IL, May 3-6, 2010.

I will be giving a talk on Educating the Next Generation of Biotechnology Founders and Managers at Pittcon in Orlando on March 1st.

The talk will be based on my observations in writing  Building Biotechnology and editing Best Practices in Biotechnology Education, in addition to the teaching I’ve done on the topic. I’ll be posting my slides after the event, but for a preview you can see my recent editorial on continuing education in biotechnology in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology.

Hope to meet some readers while I’m down there…

Drug Patent Expirations in February 2010

*Drugs may be covered by multiple patents

This information is also available in an email newsletter: Subscribe to the DrugPatentWatch Patent Expiration Bulletin.Courtesy of DrugPatentWatch.com

Are you a leader in the biotechnology industry? Do you have specialized expertise and a strong network?

I am looking for a few new members to join the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology’s editorial board. Board member responsibilities include authoring papers, soliciting papers, and reviewing papers. Please check out the journal’s homepage and sample papers for a sense of scope, and the current editorial board for a sense of existing capacities. If you think you can bring something new to the journal, please contact me.

I’m giving a talk at Pittcon on biotechnology training this spring. As many readers know, I have been very active in biotechnology education through my books and the classes I teach. So, I’ve got a strong sense of the supply-side of biotechnology education and training, and the academic side of biotechnology education, but would like some more perspective on the industry side of biotechnology education and training.

So, I’d like to post an open question:

How do you train your new biotechnology employees?

I want to learn more about the training systems used to bring new hires, with either scientific or business backgrounds, up to speed on the business of biotechnology. What are the methods and tools you use? You may post your response in the comments below, or if you’d rather be off the record, feel free to contact me directly.

Moira Gunn’s Tech Nation interview of Jeremy Abbate and I on the Scientific American worldView project is now available at IT Conversations. For more details, you can also see our video interview and the worldView website.