Life Science Innovation (LSI) Course

Wistar’s Life Science Innovation Course provides students with experience in biotechnology entrepreneurship and leveraging intellectual property (IP) developed in Wistar labs.

Teams of students select from an offering of IP/technology that Wistar is pursuing both in the laboratory and as prospective commercial opportunities. The students familiarize themselves with the underlying science/technology by interacting with the inventor scientists, identifying key research hypotheses, and carefully analyzing available data. The remainder of the course introduces critical commercialization issues and brings in industry veterans with expertise in entrepreneurship, intellectual property, regulatory issues, and marketing to facilitate the development of a commercialization strategy and business pitch.

Teams investigate the potential clinical utility of the technology and define its value proposition; characterize and quantify potential adopters (physicians and other medical professionals) and end-users (patients); ascertain the incidence and prevalence of disease target; define individual and societal impact, value, costs, and limitations of the new product; and generate a compelling development and commercial strategy to achieve market penetration in the face of competitive offerings.

At the end of the semester each team delivers a business pitch to a panel of judges, including angel and institutional investors, the objective of which is to convince the panel of the merits of investing in the technology opportunity.