Spring Break
Hop Biotech Network gains popularity
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If you're a highly motivated and ambitious Hopkins student interested in medicine, engineering or biotechnology, you probably don't need another reason to be at Johns Hopkins. Nevertheless, we found one.
The Hopkins Biotech Network is a student-run organization that promotes education, career development and networking in the field of technology. Founded in January by Dr. Adityaa Polsani and Joshua Groman, the Hopkins Biotech Network (HBN) is one of the fastest growing student organizations on campus. In six months, the organization has attracted over 850 members across chapters at the Homewood, Montgomery County and East Baltimore campuses.
"We saw an unmet need," said Polsani, HBN's co-founder and president. "Johns Hopkins is the number one institution for biomedical research. There are similar organizations at MIT, Stanford and Yale, but ours is completely different."
The Hopkins Biotech Network serves Hopkins undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, post doctorate fellows, staff and faculty, Hopkins alumni and non-affiliates of Hopkins. Membership in HBN is completely free, and experience with biotechnology is not required.
"Because I don't have a background in biotechnology doesn't mean that I'm not interested in it for the future," said Sakar Pudasaini, HBN's Director of Technology and Information Services. "I'm a computer science student at Hopkins and I saw that the field of bioinformatics was really taking off. Even though I have no background in biology, I thought it sounded like a really exciting field. I sort of jumped in and got really involved. [Biotechnology] is a very broad area -- it covers several divisions of Hopkins."
Polsani says he wasn't surprised by the group's success and stresses the "very dedicated and motivated group of people" who have made HBN a reality. "We were very confident that we'd be successful, but not without the support of the alumni, the administration and our advisory board members," he said.
The organization's main goal is to facilitate communication and build relationships between its members and the biotech industry, and do so a variety of ways.
"Eighty-four percent of members receive our Daily Biotech News," Polsani said. Members have access to career information and job posting via the organization's Web site, http://www.hopkinsbiotechnetwork.org. "We have message boards so that members in different chapters can communicate, and we encourage members to submit abstracts to the Hopkins Biotech Journal. Our most widely appreciated initiative has been our seminars," he continued.
In the past five months, HBN has sponsored a series of nine seminars. Speakers have included Hopkins professor Dr. John Gearhart, the pioneer of stem cell research who regularly briefs Congress; biotechnology attorney John Saxe, a 1960 Hopkins alumnus who came forward to act as a mentor for those interested in legal careers in biotechnology; and most recently Hopkins President William Brody. Brody's speech, "Confessions of a Reformed Entrepreneur: Ten Steps to the Cure," was held Tuesday night.
"President Brody is a co-founder of three biotech companies," Dr. Polsani said. "We wanted our members to know how he transitioned so successfully from the business side of biotechnology to the academic world, and to see the avenues available for potential entrepreneurs at Hopkins."
The final seminar will be given by Dr. David Stump, Senior Vice President of Human Genome Sciences, on "Drug Development: the Right Target for the Right Patient."
All of the seminar speakers volunteered their time completely free of charge. "These are some of the most eminent people in the biotechnology field, both inside and outside the university setting," Polsani explained. "We wanted to know how they have utilized their degrees from Hopkins, and what experiences and skill sets have helped them to become so successful."
"We promote education, career development and networking -- we need to build more programs that are focused on delivering those three things to our membership," Pudasaini said. "It's important for us to focus a lot on our members and what they need."
HBN plans to add several more services for its members, including one-on-one alumni interviews and profiles of new technologies emerging from the Hopkins community. A new and expanded Web site will premiere Nov. 30. The Hopkins Biotech Network wants to offer a wider perspective on biotechnology because the field demands aspects of venture capital, management consulting and investment banking in addition to medical and scientific research.
Polsani encourages anyone interested in biotechnology to become a member of HBN, regardless of whether or not they have any experience in the field.