<p>Sweet scorp. I know JHU has excellent BME, but I never knew it was the #1. I’ll definitely keep an eye on it. I love it that they offer a minor in NanoBio. Not that I don’t trust you, is there a link or anything (regarding the #1 thing).</p>
<p>Most of that work is still academic science being touted as biotech which is sad. </p>
<p>What they don’t teach you in school is how industry works. Great science and great ideas does not mean a truly marketable product. </p>
<p>The best thing to do is to go to a school that is surrounded by a biotech hub. Wisconsin is still no where near the level of what SF, San Diego and Boston in terms of biotech. </p>
<p>JHU, is an excellent school but the biotech community around it is not that great. To be honest, if your goal is to work in industry then I would even say it would be better to even go to SDSU or SJSU because you can get internships with companies around it. Unless you are working at a start up, the research focus in industry is not that innovative as you think.</p>
<p>There’s a really interesting presentation done by the head of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) housed at UCSF, UC Berkeley and Santa Cruz, saying that as yet no one has succeeded in fully translating the ever-growing knowledge of biology into a practical set of methodologies and engineering disciplines and techniques useful to biotech the way that has been done, for instance, with physics and electrical engineering. I am not certain I’ve articulated his argument well, but the conclusion I would draw is don’t go into undergrad expecting to come out with a degree that is extremely useful to a biotech company. I know that there are community colleges in California that give biotech certificates to people coming out of top 20 programs who know all the science really well but not necessarily some of the basic skills useful to getting a job out of undergrad with a biotech company. Take the basics: Biology, Genetics, Engineering Courses, maybe a smattering of Bioengineering. But get rooted in the basic science. Therefore, the schools mentioned here and all the other usual suspects:</p>
<p>Berkeley
UCLA
UT
Georgia Tech
UWashington
Basically any school that’s good in the areas mentioned which would include a whole lot</p>
<p>No the market in Madison is not as large but it is far more connected directly with the university and not overrun with students from a number of large schools seeking internships. Your profs will all have direct connections with the firms and there are more than enough to choose from to get some good experience without having to drive across a major city every day.</p>
<p>Well I’m looking for the best Academic and Research experience (at the Uni) rather than Interning at Companies. I understand what you guys are saying and definitely will keep in mind while applying to colleges.</p>
<p>No, most professors you come in contact are not that well connected. If they are connected, it as a name on the scientific advisory board where they advised on the scientific direction and give credibility in the eyes of investors. Madison is also a very large university far bigger than those have been mentioned and the biotech community is far smaller. The biggest employers of students are the larger firms who have the resources to train and guide students like Pfizer here in San Diego. The smaller firms employ maybe one or two students as interns or as lab assistants. Many smaller firms are still in beginning series funding and against the clock and dime to show a proof of concept in their milestones to justify another round of funding. This leads them to hire very experienced people for research positions and not a newly grad no matter how great their experience seems. Larger firms do hire newly grads but in R&D the competition is harder than in manufacturing. R&D usually requires decent experience and often times you are doing a monkey’s job. What do I mean by that, it means that since the company is very streamlined as a larger company likely is, you tend to do a very narrow skill set and pass your work on to the next group. In academics, you are very independent and project oriented. </p>
<p>As for drive wise, UCSD and MIT are next door to their biotech community.</p>
<p>Berkeley has a biotech community closeby, though not as close as Cambridge’s to MIT’s. Here is a biotech internship for undergrads. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.qb3.org/intern.htm[/url]”>http://www.qb3.org/intern.htm</a></p>
<p>The largest concentration of biotech firms in the nation is in the Bay Area, so that might be one thing to consider – ie, Berkeley, Stanford, etc.</p>
<p>San Diego, Boston, Seattle, North Carolina, I believe are the other centers.</p>
<p>The best graduate program that is well connected to industry is the Keck Graduate Institute (<a href=“http://www.kgi.edu%5B/url%5D”>www.kgi.edu</a>) which part of the Claremont McKenna Colleges. Their faculty came from industry and have companies like Amgen throwing money at them to develop courses with an industry focus.</p>
<p>You don’t know what you are talking about. Many of the research profs have a direct stake in the companies and spend part of their time at both. The UW has one of the best bio patent offices in the UW with WARF–it is so busy that they have an office in San Diego to handle working with firms out there using UW patents. UW is not much larger than Berkeley, similar to Washington and probably has a similar number of biosciences majors to them and UCSD. It matter little that they have 1300 business majors or 2000 people majoring in education. The biosciences area is a small subset of the university.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=488002[/url]”>http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=488002</a></p>
<p>
[quote]
There’s a really interesting presentation done by the head of the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) housed at UCSF, UC Berkeley and Santa Cruz, saying that as yet no one has succeeded in fully translating the ever-growing knowledge of biology into a practical set of methodologies and engineering disciplines and techniques useful to biotech the way that has been done, for instance, with physics and electrical engineering. I am not certain I’ve articulated his argument well, but the conclusion I would draw is don’t go into undergrad expecting to come out with a degree that is extremely useful to a biotech company. I know that there are community colleges in California that give biotech certificates to people coming out of top 20 programs who know all the science really well but not necessarily some of the basic skills useful to getting a job out of undergrad with a biotech company. Take the basics: Biology, Genetics, Engineering Courses, maybe a smattering of Bioengineering. But get rooted in the basic science. Therefore, the schools mentioned here and all the other usual suspects: [/quote}</p>
<p>As with CC that give certificates, companies like Genentech sponsor a program in San Diego at Mira Costa Community College because for their entry level Bioprocess Technician they found that 2 year degree were just as good as 4 year degree Bachelors but often stayed with the company longer. Most BS/BA kids have no idea what GMP, quality/regulatory issues are and hence have to be trained in it. The job is very mundane and most BS/BA kids want to cure cancer and leave after a year of experience. This is very costly because to train people takes a significant amount of time and needs to be documented for the FDA(in case of audits) to ensure that the product is being made correctly and the employees have proper training. There are things like endotoxin testing and fermenter design that just are taught at the university because it isn’t the type of R&D that gets published aka where NIH, NSF funding comes from.</p>
<p>I have no idea what I am talking about, says the student who isn’t working in industry.</p>
<p>Uh, Barrons, I am going to have to give NextMikeSays credibility points, which would be a petty thing for me to do if you hadn’t lashed out with “you don’t know what you are talking about.”</p>
<p>Anyway, everybody knows University of Wisconsin is a good school, but I had thought that the biotech close to there was focused on the plant, not animal or human, variety. Correct me if I am wrong.</p>
<p>We are not discussing the biotech industry here–this is about universities and which ones are most active in biotech. Nor am I a student.</p>
<p>I don’t believe the work in stem cells, vitamins, the Discovery Institute are plant focused.</p>
<p><a href=“Discovery Building | Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation”>Discovery Building | Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation;
<p><a href=“http://www.news.wisc.edu/12412.html[/url]”>http://www.news.wisc.edu/12412.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.bio.wisc.edu/resources.html[/url]”>http://www.bio.wisc.edu/resources.html</a></p>
<p>I’m not saying UW isn’t a great science school and or even has a small biotech hub around them. </p>
<p>The main point is that an academic degree in biotech is pointless. </p>
<p>Industry and academic research is far different. </p>
<p>Yes, stem cell research and tissue engineering is sexy but so far isn’t a feasible yet because it is extremely risky. Many VC were burned in the dot com bust as well and as you have seen Pfizer and many companies flop because they run out of money. They don’t just give you money and just hope all goes well. </p>
<p>The best way to get a job in industry as a life science major is to make sure you have good transferable lab skills and go to decent university. Even better, go to a school with a biotech hub because industry experience is weighted differently than academic experience.</p>
<p>The context of biotech you are speaking of is very vague. Biotech can have many different sub diciplines and since the goal of the student is to work in industry, my goal is educate them on the best ways to get their foot in the door.</p>
<p>The whole center of biotechnology even at UPenn and Northwestern are still academic minded. There is the problem is that unless it is sponsored by professional corporations who are active on the board and program, then I would not feel it is legitimate as an “industry” program.</p>
<p>Compare that to KGI which has direct industry connections:</p>
<p><a href=“http://kgi.edu/x3668.xml[/url]”>http://kgi.edu/x3668.xml</a></p>
<p>They work directly with companies.</p>
<p>Several of the UCs are strong in biotech:</p>
<p><a href=“UC Davis Biotechnology Program”>UC Davis Biotechnology Program;
<a href=“http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/milkinbiotech06.asp[/url]”>http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/milkinbiotech06.asp</a>
<a href=“http://www.msi.ucsb.edu/msilinks/MBC/MBCtexts/mbc.htm[/url]”>http://www.msi.ucsb.edu/msilinks/MBC/MBCtexts/mbc.htm</a>
<a href=“http://www.chemeng.ucla.edu/BTBSEP/BTBSEP.html[/url]”>http://www.chemeng.ucla.edu/BTBSEP/BTBSEP.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks coureur. Which UCs are considered the best ?</p>
<p>An “industry” company founded by academics. (going public any day)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.tomotherapy.com/company/overview/[/url]”>http://www.tomotherapy.com/company/overview/</a></p>
<p>There are dozens of examples in Madison.</p>
<p>Wow thanks again barrons.</p>
<p>Also I just found this</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?8/80336[/url]”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?8/80336</a></p>
<p>Is it still fairly accurate ?</p>