Can Anyone Join the Biotech Industry?
Host, NPR’s BioTech Nation
Program Director, Information Systems
University of San Francisco

Just about everyone knows that I wrote a whole book about how a journalist like me, who knew next to nothing about life science, managed to jump right in the middle of the biotech vortex and not only survive, but thrive. That still doesn’t answer a bigger and more common question: Can anyone with a decent “normal” career in Northern California make a similar leap? Translate their well-honed non-biotech skills into an actual paying job in the biotechnology industry?

Why you should even consider this is absolutely clear. The innovation of biotech is now driving one-third of the world’s economy – pharmaceuticals, agriculture, energy, industrial processes, etc. And then there’s that age-old adage which is usually applied to real estate, but serves us all well here: “There are only three things you need to know: location, location and location.” When it comes to location, you’re definitely in the right place: California. It’s home to fully thirty-five percent of the global life sciences industry.

And that’s not all. Despite the fact that journalists seem to only report on scientists- -turned-CEO’s, venture capitalists and intellectual property attorneys, biotech has become a general employer! Statewide, the industry has been creating 12,000 new jobs each year, and in the San Francisco Bay Area alone, nearly 6,000 jobs were created in the past six months. This expanding industry is home to 1,377 companies employing some 90,000 employees.

To me, the best bet for converting traditional job skills into gainful employment is to watch for biotech’s special needs. Here’s one example: In the BayBio Impact 2008 Industry Report, David Martin, the Chairman of BayBio, and Matt Gardner, BayBSIO’s President and CEO, speak plainly: “The employment positions demanded by industry growth are no longer limited to those with Ph.D.’s…..The increasing volume of data the industry develops requires increased computing and data management skills.”

That’s right: Information Systems. And now we’re talking about something I know about.

You don’t have to think about it too long or too hard to realize that biotech is creating mountains of information. Scientific research requires massive data files, while those that make it out of the lab require huge collections of data to reach market. Each successive phase of clinical studies brings together geographically disparate data, which must not only be collected, it must be organized, analyzed and stored, following HIPAA rules all the way. The emerging genetic testing area starts with shorter tests from the likes of 23andMe.com and Navigenics, and moves up to full genomes – 6 gigabytes per human just for starters. And what does all that DNA data tell us? Just weeks ago, Congress passed GINA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. We have to be careful with the information, before we even look at it. And have you heard about GoogleHealth, inviting us all to move our medical records to cyberspace? And did you know that every major software manufacturer has a Health Sciences suite? That every major hardware manufacturer is focusing on networking, storage devices, and niftier-than-ever chips to support it all?

James Gosling, Vice president of Sun Microsystems, sums it up this way: “Quite simply, there is so much data that it has to be processed by computers; therefore, bioinformatics will be at the core of virtually every discovery…..Over the last ten years, we’ve seen the emergence of a whole new industry, employment of hundreds of thousand of people worldwide, new approaches to discovery, new academic programs to drive creative thinking, hundreds of therapeutics in pipelines, and an insatiable demand for better technology.”

If this sounds more like data than science, then you’ve figured out the point. Without Information Systems, the wheels of biotech will grind to a halt.

I should explain at this point, that when I’m not being a journalist, I’m the Program Director for Information Systems Programs at the University of San Francisco. In our program, we only educate working adults – in this case, a masters degree in Information Systems. We know you work, and we know you have a life. So, for 35 weeks out of the 52-week year, you go to class one night a week. In a little over two years, you come out with a masters degree from USF, that fine Jesuit institution which is part of the largest global network of universities in the world. (We also know the price of gas – our campuses are all over Northern California: San Francisco, Cupertino, San Ramon, Sacramento and Santa Rosa.)

Germane to this conversation, we noticed a few years back that in addition to the exploding information scene everywhere, certain industries needed our attention. And so we created concentrations, in we’ve just created a new one: BIOTECHNOLOGY.

In addition to the core curriculum, which includes such courses as systems design and analysis, global information systems, and information security, we have added an optional concentration in biotech. What do you need to get in? Work experience. And a bachelors degree. (If you don’t have one, we can help you out here, as well.)

In addition to information systems, we take you into three primary areas:

• Local, National and Global Biotech (the business of biotech and its nomenclature)
• Bioinformatics (the where, why, what, how, and who of the data)
• Legal, Social & Ethical Implications of Biotechnology (HIPAA, GINA, the regulatory environment, the social impact, and the ethical challenges)

The most important point is that we link the general field of Information Systems to the business of biotech.

Two years from now, you could have a degree in hand, and be ready to be a part of this vital, innovative, growing, industry – one that you may never have thought you could be a part of.

Dr. Moira Gunn is the author of “Welcome to BioTech Nation: My Unexpected Odyssey into the Land of Small Molecules, Lean Genes, and Big Ideas.” More information on the USF Master of Science in Information Systems with its emphasis in Biotechnology, is available on the web at www.cps.usfca.edu/prospective/msis