Advanced Graduate Certificate in Life Sciences Innovation- LiSIE AGC Program
From the lab to leadership What will you do with your hard-earned degree?
For biotechnology and other science based enterprises to flourish, they need trained
professionals with rigorous training in science. They also need people who understand
the business of commercializing a technology into a product. The Life Sciences Innovation
and Entrepreneurship (LiSIE) Program combines both to help build the biotechnology
workforce of tomorrow. It gives you the option of using your skills at the lab bench
or helping to lead a company.
You will earn an Advanced Graduate Certificate (AGC) by completing four out of five courses: 3 form a mini-MBA core, and 2 are electives
aligned with your science background. For core courses, BME 509 is required but you
have the option of doing either BUS 510 or BME 511. Though not required, most students
opt to do all three. For elective courses, there are nearly 50 electives to choose
from in (i.) Biomedical Sciences, (ii.) Data Science & Computational Biology, (iii.)
Ecological and Marine Sciences, (iv.) Engineering, (v.) Healthcare, and (vi.) Management. Many
graduate students are already halfway along to gaining the AGC.
Core Courses [Complete BME 509 and choose either BME 511 or BUS 510 for a total of 6 credits]
A broad introduction to the bioscience business environment by examining through project-based
learning the commercialization process of how an idea becomes a product. Student groups
are given actual intellectual property disclosures to learn the process of due diligence
for analyzing opportunities/challenges of technologies. They then create a hypothetical
company and present their analyses in an investor-like pitch session at the end of
the term. Recommended to be taken after BUS 510 and/or concurrently with BME 511.
[Spring]
Startups and early stage enterprises are not smaller versions of large companies.
Rather, they are teams turning a business plan into a viable company. In this course,
students learn about the financial and human capital needed for growing successful
science based technology companies, with a focus on biotech. Traditional valuations
don’t apply to capital-intense technology, therefore the specific methods for this
sector are explored. No matter how good a technology may be, an enterprise cannot
scale without the right people, thus the course explores factors CXOs consider in
forming the best teams and what the need to do at different stages of an enterprise.
Course materials include a textbook, supplementary readings, and case studies. No
prerequisite. [Fall]
This course introduces students to the commercialization process – how an idea becomes
a product – by focusing on how a technology fits into a commercial market. This includes
intellectual property, evolving business models, product development cycles, regulatory
issues, and more. It focuses on critical analysis of the technology (e.g., evaluating
the problem it solves, underlying science, innovation, ownership, product development,
feasibility) and the markets it will compete in (market pain, market size, barriers
to entry, competition). No prerequisite. [Spring]
Electives Choose 2 courses for 6 credits, under advisement from the certificate Director, from
the following areas:
• BGE 510: Graduate Genetics • BGE 657: Principles of Development • BNB 561: Introduction to Neuroscience 1 • BNB 562: Introduction to Neuroscience 2 • BNB/HBH 655: Neuropharmacology • HBH 501: Principles of Pharmacology • HBH 550: Statistics in Life Sciences • HBH 631: Graduate Pharmacology I • HBH 632: Graduate Pharmacology II • HBM/MCB 503: Molecular Genetics • HBM 522: Biology of Cancer • HBP 533: Immunology • HBY 501: Physiology • HBY 530: Cellular Physiology and Biophysics • HBY 554: Principles of Neuroscience • MCB 520: Graduate Biochemistry • MCB 656: Cell Biology • NEU 534: Principles of Neurobiology • NEU 536: Introduction to Computational Neuroscience
• BMI 501: Introduction to Biomedical Informatics • BMI 511: Translational Bioinformatics • BSB 512: Clinical Informatics • CHE/AMS 535: Introduction to Computational Structural Biology and Drug Design • CHE/AMS 536: Molecular Modeling of Biological Molecules • CSE/AMS 549: Computational Biology
• BEE 520: Advanced Human Genetics • BEE 521: Genomics Lab • BEE 562: Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology • MAR 502: Biological Oceanography • MAR 507: Marine Conservation
• BME 501: Engineering Principles in Cell Biology • BME 502: Advanced Numerical & Computation Analysis Applied to Biological Systems • BME 510: Biomechanics • BME 670: Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering • CHE 541: Biomolecular Structure and Analysis • CHE 542: Chemical Biology • CHE 543: Chemical Approaches to Biology • CHE 559: Biological Dynamics and Networks • CIV 526: Environmental Biotechnology
• HBH 505: Pharmacology to Pharmacy: Practical Clinical Aspects for Non-Clinicians • HBP 511: Pathobiology for Graduate Health Care Practitioners • HHA 500: Health Care Delivery Systems • HHA 502: Health Information Systems and HIT Essentials • HPA 527: Health Economics and Policy • HPA 585: Introduction to Biostatistics & Epidemiology
• EST 519: Systems Engineering Management • EST 600: Technology, Policy, and Innovation: Theory and Practice • BUS 567: Intellectual Property Strategy • MBA 506: Leadership, Team Effectiveness and Communications • MBA 511: Technological Innovations • MBA 512: Business Strategy • MBA 570: Entrepreneurship • MCR 630: Technology Transfer • COM 565: Foundations of Science Communication
Enrollment Information
To enroll in the LiSIE AGC program you will need to be a current SBU student with
Graduate Student standing. Typically, this means you have already been accepted a
PhD program, a Masters program, or an accelerated Bachelor’s/Masters program. You
should first contact the LiSIE program director, Prof. Louis Peña ( louis.pena@stonybrook.edu ), to review your current course of study, determine which courses can be applied
to your specific case, and how to proceed.
Some information and descriptions in SBU’s Graduate Bulletin/SOLAR may be outdated;
the current operational information is described here. The LiSIE program is a collaboration
between the SBU Center for Biotechnology, the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences, and the College of Business.
