Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program
About BEP
Creighton's award-winning, National Science Foundation-funded Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program began in spring, 2008 as a partnership between Creighton's schools of law, business, arts and sciences, and health sciences. It was the first in the country to offer both graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to work together in interdisciplinary teams to commercialize technologies in the biosciences. In addition to the original year-long certificate program for undergraduate and graduate students, we now offer both a business major and non-business minor for undergraduate students. Admission to the BEP program is restricted to 16 students each year, and the deadline for applying for the fall, 2012 cohort is March 16, 2012. Please follow this link to the application form: BEP 2012 Program Fall Application.
Our Curriculum
If you are interested in the intersection between business and the biosciences, one of our three bioscience entrepreneurship program options should be a good fit. Each option requires the completion of a two course 500 level core: ENT 518 (Technology Commercialization) and ENT 520 (Bioscience Entrepreneurship). Please follow the course links for sample syllabi; however, because BEP is changing to a fall start, one academic year program, please note that Technology Commercialization is now offered in fall and Bioscience Entrepreneurship in spring.
The certificate option (core plus approved experiential component) is especially attractive to undergraduate non-business majors who are planning to apply to medical or dental school and to graduate students in business, law and the health sciences, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, physical and occupational therapy. However, for undergraduates wanting more, we also offer a six-course bioscience entrepreneurship major and minor.
The BEP core is offered once each year. These courses are offered over the MBA 11-week schedule, with fall semester running from the last week in August until mid-November and spring semester running from mid-February through the first week in May one night per week from 6-9:30 p.m. Tuition for Creighton medical and dental students is waived. Students must be able to attend at least 10 of the 11 required sessions each semester in order to remain in good standing.
The year-long core culminates in the annual BioVenture competition and cocktail party in which student teams present the business plans they have developed for local bioscience ventures to area investors, entrepreneurs and Creighton alumni judges.
Our Students
Our students come from a variety of disciplines across the Creighton campus, including medicine, law, pharmacy, business, biochemistry, physics, occupational and physical therapy, dentistry, exercise physiology, psychology, biology, and health policy. Following the program, they have gone on to graduate school in biomedical engineering, law, medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy and to careers with a variety of health science and technology providers, including Cerner health information systems and firms that specialize in intellectual property law. Please follow this link for some summary statistics of BEP demographics.
Our Faculty
Dr. Anne York is founder and director of the BEP program. She was joined by Dr. Peter Gallo in 2009.
BEP program faculty expertise is greatly enhanced by guest speakers and mentors from their respective fields of expertise and practice. Some of these include.....
Our Partners
Creighton has been fortunate to have attracted a wide variety of community partners over its four-year existence. Some of these include
National Science Foundation
Nebraska Medical Center
UNMC UNeMed
UNL NUTek Ventures
Halo Incubator
Omaha Chamber of Commerce
Compression Dynamics
Nebraska EPSCOR
Nebraska Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Cerner Corporation
Stinson, Morrison, Hecker
LI-COR Biosciences
bioNebraska
Alegent Health
Our Research
York, Anne and Ahn, Mark. (forthcoming, 2012). University Technology Transfer Office Success Factors: A Comparative Case STudy. International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation.
Dunham, Lee, Ahn, Mark, and York, Anne. (forthcoming, 2012). Building a Bioeconomy in the Heartland. Journal of Enterprising Communities.
Ahn, Mark, Payam, Benyamini, Sohn, S. and York, Anne. (2011). Biotechnology Innovation: A Legitimacy-Based View. International Journal of Technology Transfer and Innovation.
York, Anne, Ahn, Mark, and Dunham, Lee. (2011). Vertical vs. Horizontal Strategies in the BioPharma Industry: The Link between Acquisition Type and Stock Market Performance. In Advances in Mergers and Acquisitions, volume 11, ed. Cary Cooper and Syd Finkelstein, Elsevier, Amsterdam.
McCarthy, Kim and York, Anne. (2011). Patient, Staff, and Physician Satisfaction: A New Model, Instrument and Implications. International Journal of Health Care Quality and Assurance.
Ahn, Mark, Alvarez, Michael, Meyers, Arlen, and York, Anne. Co-editors. (2010). Making the Case for Biotechnology. Logos Press, Washington, D.C.Includes four original cases written for the book (Guru, iKaryos, Genentech, Compression Dynamics) and a co-authored chapter on teaching bioscience and business cases.
Ahn, Mark, York, Anne and Rizova, Polly. (2010). Pathways to Biomedical Tipping Points: Vertical, Horizontal or Other? Journal of Commercial Biotechnology.
Ahn, Mark, Ackerley, David, Bednarek, Rebecca, Davenport, Sally, and York, Anne. (2010). From Novel Biotechnology Platform to Globally Competitive Cancer Company: ProActa, Inc. International Journal of Case Studies in Management.
Ahn, M. and York, A. (2010). A Resource-based Approach to Identifying Priorities and Capabilities for Developing Industries: The Case of the Malaysian Bioeconomy. Asia Pacific Journal of Management.
York, Anne, McCarthy, Kim, and Darnold, Todd. (2009). Interdisciplinary Teaming in Bioscience Commercialization: Personality Does Matter. Journal of Commercial Biotechnology.
York, Anne, McCarthy, Kim, and Darnold, Todd (2009). Teaming in Biotechnology Commercialization: The Diversity-Performance Connection and how University Programs Can Make a Difference. Journal of Commercial Biotechnology.
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