BioPh Curriculum ♙

Course Description:
As a companion course to BTC1710H, this laboratory course is intended to provide students with hands-on experience with some concepts in protein and materials chemistry. The experience will focus on the use of advanced equipment and techniques and will include experiments involving protein PEGylation, nano­particles in drug delivery, and biodiesel synthesis, as well as bioinformatics. This is an intensive four-week course, operating five days a week. Students will complete these projects and experiments in teams. A significant component of this course involves a science-intensive, business assessment in which the students have an opportunity to apply what they have learned.

Course Description:
Biotechnology & Drug Manu­facturing is a half-credit course that introduces students to some of the key aspects of the biopharma­ceutical process, with special emphasis on the biotech sector. The course focuses on the fundamental role played by corporate entities in the development of new therapeutic drugs in a highly regulated business environment. Topics covered include biopharma­ceutical manu­facturing, regulatory approval for drug products and medical devices, setting regulatory standards, quality-by-design, cGMP compliance, risk manage­ment and root cause analysis.

 

Course Description:
This course introduces students to the basic skills and concepts needed to become an effective member of an organis­ation. It focuses on (1) team working skills, (2) funda­mental managerial skills, and (3) career manage­ment skills. The course is participative in its design and requires students to apply the material in the course. It provides the first opportunity for a team approach to problem solving and will provide a realistic preview of the work place.

This course will be used to define and organise groups of students who will work in teams to complete the subsequent laboratory modules.

Course Description:
This course will introduce students to the development of a wide range of product categories. While the focus will be on drugs, the course will also touch upon medical devices, digital health, big data in health, medical apps, biomarkers, medical marketing, treatment guidelines, screening tools and diagnostics. Understanding clinical trial design and the regulatory pathway through the US FDA is a major focus of the course. Reimbursement is introduced for both drugs and medical devices. Each year, this course is usually able to negotiate some major project opportunities from teaching hospitals students can tackle, to expose them to the clinical world, an important target customer environment of pharmaceutical companies.

Course Description:
This course will focus on the exploration and understanding of biotech­nology as applied to agri­culture, natural products, biocontrols and associated industrial biotech­nology. Students will work in teams and each team will present their assigned topics as oral presentations and written assignments. A number of written individual assignments plus an exam will also be evaluated. In the agriculture area, lecture topics include modern approaches to plant breeding, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the controversy surrounding them; genomics and its importance in agri­biotech­nology; nutraceuticals; the use of natural and engineered products for pest and herbicide control; and the use of plants as bioreactors. In the natural products/­​biocontrols/­​industrial biotech­nology areas, topics include the use of natural plant products for medicinal purposes; bioremediation of contaminated soils and the applications of biocatalysts as part of the green chemistry movement.

 

Course Description:
This foundational course introduces students to a broad range of the critical managerial concepts that are required to operate success­fully in today’s biotech­nologically focused organisations. Topics covered include forms of business ownership, an introduction to financial statements, auditor reports, financial statement analysis, ratio analysis, time value of money, net present value, internal rate of return, projected statements, marketing math, market segmentation, product positioning, the marketing mix, pricing decisions, channel strategies, customer value propositions, competitive strategies, marketing in the age of artificial intelligence, as well as some aspects of strategic manage­ment and organis­ational alignment. Theory and application are combined through the use of readings, case studies, in-class discussions and presentations, as well as a team project.

Course Description:
The ‘Biopartner­ing’ seminar series is a program require­ment for all MBiotech students — in both the BioPh and DHT streams. BTC1600H and BTC1610H are held in conjunction with one another, meaning all students (regardless of year or program stream) attend the seminar on the same date and time. The seminar is held once per week during the Fall semester, on Tuesday evenings for approximately two hours. It is comprised of both presentations by select speakers from industry as well as student presentations. The course challenges students to provide insights into industry issues that would be seen as a valuable contribution by experts in the area. Each student will participate in a formal group presentation, in their first year, and will complete other academic requirements such as critiques, team mentoring and an individual report in their senior year. The topics presented in this course will range from scientific (latest technologies and research, analysis of pre-clinical and clinical data) to business-oriented issues (e.g., market strategies for pharma and biotechnology products, government regulations, intellectual property, finance, ethics, etc.)

› Jump to the Biopartnering Seminar page.

Course Description:
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of economics and strategic manage­ment. Throughout the course, we will attempt to answer a funda­mental question posed by manage­ment scholars: how is it that some firms are able to repeatedly and consistently achieve great results, while others fail and crash out of the market? In search of an answer, we’ll explore a variety of decisions firms make, including pricing, product variety and scope, motivation of employees, and interaction with competitors. The course features a combination of lecture and case discussion; course readings include textbook excerpts, business press, and academic articles.

Course Description:
This series of centre­piece courses is designed to grant our students a more in-depth appreciation and understanding of the biotech­nology and biopharma­ceutical industry in a corporate and/or industrial setting, and to apply their knowledge and skills in a real-world context. Students are required to complete two 4-month full-time Work Term placements that are arranged by the course coordinator to ensure that the role, responsibilities and activities are at a graduate level. Credit-granting responsibilities reside with the course instructor, based on assignments and feedback from students’ Work Term supervisors.

Required preparatory exercises and assignments must be completed in the Summer and Fall sessions, leading up to the start of the placement in Winter/Spring, in order for students to qualify for Work Term I. These preparatory requirements can involve résumé work­shops, one-on-one meetings with members of the MBiotech team, attendance at the annual Career Day, and more.

Students in Work Term II may continue with the same employer from Work Term I, or alternatively with a new employer or department. Students’ performance and their work experiences is evaluated in a manner similar to that for Work Term I.

Note: BTC1920Y, Work Term III is an optional elective course that extends the placement experience to a full 12 months’ duration. Students taking Work Term III share their experiences by means of a mandatory Networking Night component in late November.

Students receive credit/no credit grades for all three courses.

Course Description:
In this course, we will define techno­logical innovation as the process of leveraging new ideas to create economic value and deliver this value to share­holders, employees, consumers, and our society at large. This process involves critical strategic choices that are common to most organisations, from small startups to large established companies: What is the best way to bring an idea to the market, and to arrange production and distribution? How should we redesign our internal organisation, as well as the system of partnerships and relationships with external players? Should we redefine our vertical and horizontal boundaries, for example by outsourcing some activities or entering new geographical markets? Throughout the course, we will refine our ability to approach and find the best answer to these (and many other) questions. Using an applied and discussion-based method, we will learn how to effectively convert a creative idea into a valuable innovation.

Since this Year 2 course runs concurrently with Work Terms, special remote learning provision is made available to those students who are out-of-province during the term, pending the Directors’ approval.