Capstone

Each student develops a capstone project in their second year of studies that challenges them to perform an in-depth structured scientific and business analysis of a biotechnology opportunity. The capstone requires students to combine lessons from their MBA and MS coursework. Students will receive guidance on their work from faculty mentors and present their work to their classmates and joint-degree program faculty at the conclusion of the course.

As in the real world, conversations take surprising directions.

The presentations are wide-ranging discussions. Like in the case method classroom, the presenter, advisors, and fellow students share their opinions and experiences. It’s a collegial conversation, a debate stage, a celebration of hard work, and a showcase of two years of building the foundation to lead transformative organizations that will advance new drug discoveries and therapeutics with those equally passionate about changing the business of healthcare for the better.

The practicalities of business decisions meet the practicalities of hard science.

Students become adept at delving into startup fundraising strategies and at parsing the complexities of medical research. The capstone lets students demonstrate to their advisors (and to themselves) that they have the foundation to successfully enter any new field of scientific interest – not only as researchers, or only as executives, but as both.

Global experts provide guidance across all student interests.

While Capstone advisors often include leading experts in their fields, students have the ability to choose capstones across any medical and biotechnology specialty. Recent capstone topics have included bioelectricity, brain-computer interfaces, genetic medicine, microbiomes, opioid use disorder, organoid systems for drug development, oncology, psychedelics, women’s health, and many more.

Recent Capstone Projects

iPSC-Derived NK Cells – Changing Cancer’s Fate

Richard Nixon declared a war on cancer in 1971, but oncology treatment still has a long way to go. Genetic engineering is one particularly promising type of therapy, in which patients’ own immune cells are altered to specifically target the cancer. This project described a next-generation approach to make this therapy more efficacious and affordable by genetically engineering a new type of immune cell (natural killer cells), rather than the previously used type (T cells).

Circular RNA – Shifting the Paradigm or Reinventing the Wheel?

The genetic information inside our cells is contained within DNA, and that information is made into proteins (which do lots of things) through an RNA intermediary. The role of RNA has recently been more widely appreciated, and millions are the recipients of a RNA vaccine from Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech for Covid-19. This project described the potential for circular RNA therapeutics, which could greatly stabilize the therapeutic and increase its versatility into applications for other diseases.

TBG – A Promising Non-Hallucinogenic Psychedelic Molecule for Treating Opioid Use Disorder

Some recreational drugs like LSD and PCP are psychedelics that alter the user’s perception of reality. These drugs act on the brain by interfering with normal cellular signaling. Recently, it has been appreciated that these drugs can provide benefits to patients with severe mental health disorders including depression and addiction. This project described an approach to modify these psychedelic compounds to (in some cases) remove their hallucinogenic properties but keep the therapeutic benefit.

Using TREES as an Innovative Approach to Restore Hearing Loss

Hearing loss can arise from a variety of different causes, some genetic and others environmental. Devices like hearing aids or cochlear implants are able to help in some cases, but not others. This project investigated potential genetic technologies like Tissue Regeneration Enhancer Elements (TREEs), which may enable the replacement of damaged or dead sound-sensing inner ear hair cells.

Redefining Female Reproductive Health

Women’s health as a field is only recently beginning to catch up on centuries of de-prioritization. For example, regulations barred women of reproductive age from clinical trials until the 1990s. Organoid systems, which recreate human physiology, make it possible to conduct scientific investigation far more efficiently than in vitro work. This project investigated the potential of a fully human ovarian organoid system for use in toxicology screening studies as well as in further phases of drug development.