Beginning this fall, the University of Minnesota will offer a new course teaching students how to start a biotech company.
Called “What do you need to start a biotech company?” the course will be taught by lead Instructor Perry Hackett, a professor in the College of Biological Sciences (CBS) Genetics, Cell Biology and Development department and co-founder of three biotech companies. The course is a special topics seminar that teaches students about the business side of science and pathways to finance companies around new scientific discoveries.
Hackett has more than 50 years of academic and biotech experience in molecular genetics, genome engineering and human gene therapy, according to the course announcement.
Hackett also received the University’s Impact Award in 2017 for his invention and development of the Sleeping Beauty Transposon System, a basis for cancer-fighting immunotherapies sold to a major pharmaceutical company for $1 billion.
“I know what I’m talking about because I’ve walked the walk,” Hackett said. “I’m not teaching something that I’ve read about. I teach what I have done.”
Hackett will co-direct the course with Mary MacCarthy and Anne Cohen. According to the announcement, MacCarthy launched two start-ups of her own and Cohen, a recent retiree from the University’s Carlson School of Management, taught courses on strategy, leadership and entrepreneurship.
Though all three instructors have very different experiences, MacCarthy said their skill sets are complementary and will help students understand what it takes to launch a biotech startup.
The purpose of the course is to introduce students to fundamental aspects of starting a new biotech company (NewCo), Hackett said. He added he hopes his students will learn by giving business pitches and building plans for a NewCo in teams over the semester.
While the University has many students who are or may be interested in biotech careers, Hackett said it lacked an introductory course.
“The reason why businesses fail is that business is every bit as complicated as science is,” Hackett said.
Classes early in the semester will focus on teaching the basic aspects of starting a successful business, according to the announcement. From there, the material expands to more detailed aspects of building a successful NewCo while teams work together outside of class. At the end of the semester, teams present their work for discussion and evaluation.
MacCarthy said the class will host guest speakers throughout the semester who are entrepreneurs, CFOs, market researchers and experts in various fields.
The ultimate goal of the course is to prepare students to present their NewCos for funding from the National Science Foundation, the Innovation, Collaboration and Entrepreneurship grant program through CBS and Walleye Tank, Minnesota’s life science pitch competition.
“The way these things get started is grad students or postdocs are working on a project, and it turns out with a little bit of research and development, you might actually have a product,” Hackett said.
Though the course is primarily designed for graduate and postdoc students, it is open to undergraduates upon approval, which Hackett said will be automatic.
Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Laurie Parker said as a topics course, the class is similar to a pilot, meaning it is not a permanent course yet. CBS will gauge student input from the fall 2024 semester to further develop the course and hopefully implement it permanently.
If permanently implemented, the course will be included as an elective option for CBS’ biotechnology minor, Parker said.
“I wish I was still a student so I could take it,” Parker said.
MacCarthy said she hopes with the information from this course, students will be excited about scientific opportunities outside of academia, particularly as the biotech industry continues to grow in Minnesota.
“You can make a lot of money,” MacCarthy said. “You can have a fulfilling career. You can develop solutions for enormous problems in healthcare and the environment and all the other places where biotech can be applied.”