Bioscience Experts Come to Central NJ

Two recent talks by leaders in biotechnology entrepreneurship and biobusiness were made possible through the efforts of Designer Genes, the Rutgers Biotechnology student and industry networking group.  Students and other Bio-1 members gained tremendous insights at Dr. Yali Friedman’s seminar: Forget Everything You Thought You Knew about Biotechnology Entrepreneurship and at Dr. Gurinder Shahi’s seminar: Global BioBusiness.

Dr. Friedman’s seminar on February 29th was a huge success with 96 people attending.  Participants learned that there is no one clear path to successful entrepreneurship, but there are many approaches, including strategic partnerships and having the flexibility (through preparation up front) to strike when the right opportunity becomes available.  The clear message was to know your market, and also make sure you’re watching your back!

Dr. Gurinder Shahi’s thought provoking seminar on March 14th was also quite well attended by 45 people on the day before spring break.  Dr. Shahi provided a spectrum for the innovation and commercialization pipeline, and showed that you can use your approach to market to help determine your approach to product development.  He also provided insight into the drivers of technology innovation and the biobusiness innovation landscape.  The landscape includes several types of opportunities for product development, and Dr. Shahi acknowledged the opportunities to focus on that would sustain a high value proposition.  He then shared his critical success factors, which included having teams comprised of individuals who think differently, and having smart people (not just knowledge smart, but people who can translate ideas well), smart ideas, smart money, and smart alliances.

There will be more talks coming up next month, so please visit the Bio-1 website: www.bio-one.org for details.

Please visit the Designer Genes website:  http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~dgenes/index.html for more information about the group, additional events, and to view photos of some of their events.