Symposium in Biotechnology
For the inaugural BTP Annual Symposium in Biotechnology, we partnered with the UMass Institute of Applied Life Science to organize our symposium and speed dating event in conjunction with the IALS Launch Event Oct. 21, 2016. Representatives of state and local government joined 50 industrial visitors and over 200 UMass students, and faculty, including all of the BTP students at the ribbon cutting event in advance of the symposium. The symposium featured talks from UMass faculty including BTP Faculty member Thai Thayumanavan who discussed the founding of Cyta Therapuetics, and UMass alumni on their translational activities. The keynote address by Harvey Lodish chronicled his work on glucocerebrosidase in Gaucher disease, which lead to the development of Cerezyme and founding of Genzyme, one of the earliest and most successful Biotech companies on the planet. BTP students participated in two poster sessions and a networking lunch followed by a panel provided advice and insights on translating academic work to products.
Biotechnology Speed Dating Event
Kerianne Dobosz receives feedback on her project from Harvey Lodish at the Biotech Speed Dating Event Fall 2016.
The Biotech Speed Dating Event was a special part of the BTP Symposium in Biotechnology that was open only to BTP students and was the capstone activity of the day. In the month leading up to the symposium each BTP student identified and invited one industrial visitor as a special guest at the launch event. Students reached out to scientists in Biotech and Pharma with similar research interests. This allowed the students to interact with their invitee and engage in special mentoring interactions throughout the day. During the speed dating event, each student had 5 minutes to present a one-page research summary and received feedback from each of the industrial visitors. Industrial visitors representing companies including Takeda, Anika, GE Global research and Cyta Therapeutics provided individualized feedback to the students and provided insights into industrial internship opportunities at their companies or with other organizations.
Emulate, Inc Visit
Back Row L to R: Aritra Kundu, Ruptanu Banerjee, and Danielle Archambault
Front Row L to R: Agnes Cheong, Darya Tourzani, Nidhi Jadon, Ana Clara Negreiros Parente C S Viana, KJ Jang (Emulate, VP of Tech Implementation and Field Science), Deeksha Mohan, Irina Sagarbarria, Stephanie Le, Khushboo Singh, and Neha Gupta
Stemming from our Fall 2019 Symposium, graduate students self-organized to visit Emulate Inc., a biotech company that commercialized the organs-on-chips technology at South Boston, on February 28, 2020. It was a great opportunity to meet with the field scientists, engineers, and coordinators within the company and learn about their day-to-day and the culture of Emulate. More importantly, the team shared with the students their passion and experience working in this industry. Students also had the chance to take a closer look at the organs-on-chips and learn how this technology is making a big difference in improving the health and welfare of humanity. A huge thanks to Dr. KJ Jang and the team from Emulate for this wonderful opportunity.