{"id":61383,"date":"2019-11-14T09:49:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T14:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=61383"},"modified":"2025-09-30T10:33:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:33:04","slug":"biotech-internship-challenge","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/biotech-internship-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real World: Biotech Internship Challenges Carleton Students"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n The Real World: Biotech Internship Challenges Carleton Students\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

For the second year, the National Research Council<\/a> (NRC), the Government of Canada\u2019s largest research organization, welcomed 25 undergraduate science students from Carleton University (CU) to its active Ottawa research facility during October\u2019s fall break to expose them to how scientists work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NRC researchers Sue Twine and Kelly Fulton from the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre<\/a> teamed up with Bill Willmore and Martha Mullally from Carleton University to offer students a unique experiential learning program that provides opportunities to meet entrepreneurs, business developers and top scientists in the biotechnology field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prof.
Prof. Bill Willmore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Biochemistry Prof. Bill Willmore<\/a> says students in biotechnology, biochemistry and biology programs applied for the NRC-CU Biotech Internship<\/a> and spent the week learning about business development, intellectual property management, entrepreneurship, career management, marketing, bio-manufacturing, drug design and cancer therapeutic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students worked in small teams to launch hypothetical cancer biotech startup companies, choosing company names and assigning themselves roles. They were challenged to devise a new cancer therapy, as well as scientific and business strategies to develop that therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"anashe<\/figure>\n\n\n

Gaining Real-World Biotech Experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe most important element that students gain from participating in the NRC-CU Internship is the experience of working on real-world problems with helpful advice from a panel of experts at the NRC and affiliated companies\/institutes,\u201d says Willmore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents have the opportunity to network with leaders and scientists at the NRC in the field of therapeutic development. This is the type of experiential learning that they cannot get in the classroom alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vivian
Vivian Chu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vivian Chu is a second-year biology and biotechnology student. Having previously studied biomedical and electrical engineering, Chu wants to build a career with a heavier focus on biology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to get a better understanding of the application of bioinformatics since I am interested in pursuing graduate studies in this field,\u201d says Chu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nicole
Nicole Adebar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nicole Adebar is a fourth-year biochemistry student originally from Vancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to participate in the internship in order to be able to talk to some of the leading professionals in their field, to find potential novel career options, to meet like-minded people, and to use the knowledge I have gained during my undergraduate studies and apply it in real-world situations,\u201d says Adebar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Panashe
Panashe Kupakuwana poses on a marble staircase in the NRC building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Panashe Kupakuwana is a second-year honours student majoring in biochemistry and minoring in biology. His interest in applying for the internship was sparked by NRC representatives who came to one of his biotechnology courses to talk about what students could experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe idea of running the internship during reading week made it unattractive at first,\u201d admits Kupakuwana. \u201cHowever, I feel like it is a worthwhile sacrifice because, as a student, you gain unimaginable career guidance and information about the field of biotechnology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Stephanie
Stephanie Dobbs poses on a marble staircase\u00a0in the NRC building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stephanie Dobbs is in her third year of honours science, majoring in biochemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would love to work at the NRC or somewhere similar after graduation, so I jumped at the chance to spend a week there,\u2019\u2019 says Dobbs. “We (were) able to hear from people first-hand what it\u2019s like to work at all different levels of the NRC, what they love about their jobs, how they ended up in the job they\u2019re currently in, and what kind of advice they have for students.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highlight of the week was pitching cancer treatment ideas to find investors. The teams had a grand total of five minutes to pitch their company to 10 investors who were a mix of professors and NRC scientists. The expert panel asked questions after each pitch to challenge their understanding, which helped show students which part of their concepts worked and which areas needed improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite the fact that they had very little time in order to develop a company and put together a pitch to sell it, all of the students did outstandingly well, coming up with innovative and creative ideas to `sell\u2019 their respective cancer therapeutics,\u201d says Willmore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chu and Kupakuwana were on the same team, pushing their therapy treatment for esophageal cancer. Their company was called ESOGEN and Chu\u2019s position within the was head of bioanalysis while Kupakuwana was the head of biomanufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is an opportunity that most students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) majors don’t have access to,\u201d says Chu.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Panashe<\/figure>\n\n\n

Looking at Scientific Problems Through a Business Lens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dobbs\u2019 team selected the company name of NERVARIA, which was looking for funds to tackle high-risk neuroblastoma. Her team had the winning pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe company pitch portion has forced us as students to think about all aspects that go into presenting a successful pitch for a fledgling biotech start-up,\u2019\u2019 says Dobbs. “As students in the life sciences, we aren\u2019t always accustomed to looking at scientific needs and problems through a business or marketing lens, but it is likely that many of us will need to develop these skills to be successful in our chosen career paths.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sue
Adjunct Prof. Sue Twine speaks to students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sue Twine, an adjunct professor in Biology at Carleton who is the NRC\u2019s Section Head of Advanced Analytics within the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre, started the internship, along with co-founder Kelly Fulton, to give students off-campus experiences\u2014the sort of experiences she wishes she could have had as an undergraduate student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have worked with Carleton for many years, and we\u2019ve always been impressed by how open the faculty is to providing students with many different opportunities to experience the real world of biotech,\u201d says Twine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis year, another 25 students attended the internship during reading week and threw themselves enthusiastically into the challenge. This clearly showed up in the excitement and quality of the team pitches.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Nicole<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the second year, the National Research Council (NRC), the Government of Canada\u2019s largest research organization, welcomed 25 undergraduate science students from Carleton University (CU) to its active Ottawa research facility during October\u2019s fall break to expose them to how scientists work. NRC researchers Sue Twine and Kelly Fulton from the Human Health Therapeutics Research […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":61433,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[25,19],"cu_story_tag":[1919],"class_list":["post-61383","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-student-experience","cu_story_type-technology-innovation","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-science"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/61383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/61383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97384,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/61383\/revisions\/97384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=61383"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=61383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}