Overview
Penn Is a Vibrant Center of Both Education and Research, with All Its Schools Ranking Among the Very Best
Its 174 research centers and institutes make University of Pennsylvania research a substantial enterprise. The research community has more than 4,200 faculty and 870 postdoctoral fellows, nearly 3,800 graduate students, and 5,400 academic support staff and graduate assistants. Its FY2009 research budget topped $730 million. The scale and interdisciplinary character of its research activities make Penn a nationally ranked research university. It is also well designed for the dual tasks of education and research, as its beautiful and efficient campus houses all of Penn's activities, from student life, academics, and athletics to scholarship, research, and cultural life. With all of Penn's twelve schools within walking distance of each other, a sort of geographical unity is achieved. Unique among Ivy League schools, and rare among any, this unity engenders and supports Penn's multi- and inter-disciplinary approach to research, scholarship, education, and service.
Philadelphia, a Perfect Home for a Biotechnology Program, Also Offers Cultural Balance and Recreational Timeouts
The biotechnology program's location in Philadelphia affords easy access to the region's many biotechnology resources, as well as to varied cultural and recreational opportunities. Philadelphia is among the top three or four "biotech hubs" and "entrepreneurial corridors" in the nation. Within a 50-mile radius of Penn's campus, one can find more than seventy biotechnology startup firms working in every specialty area. The area is also the longtime home to an assortment of the world's biggest, most successful, and most productive pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth Labs, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck.
Philadelphia has long been known as a vibrant center for arts and culture. The city's diverse cultural landscape, tremendous array of cultural assets, and wealth of historical landmarks make it a popular destination for visitors. When it is time for a play, an R&B concert, a museum exhibit, or a historical tour, Philadelphia has any number of offerings to fill the bill. From theaters on the Avenue of the Arts and art galleries in Old City to NFL football and NBA basketball, there is always something happening to suit everyone's tastes.
Five Biotechnology Programs Prepare Graduates for Leadership in the Vibrant Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industries
The Master of Biotechnology (M.B.) graduate program is a joint offering. The innovative professional master's program is strongly interdisciplinary with a flexible curriculum, and draws its esteemed faculty, research community, and curriculum from both the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science. The program prepares both full- and part-time students for leadership in the increasingly important, vibrant, and dynamic biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industries. Penn is located in the heart of the nation's most productive pharmaceutical/biotechnology region, and its world-class biomedical research centers and top-ranked science departments keep this program at the vanguard of biotechnology education and on the leading edge of research.
The four parallel curriculum tracks - molecular biotechnology, biopharmaceutical/engineering biotechnology, computational biology/bioinformatics, and biomedical technologies - offer the program's students the flexibility to tailor their degrees to their aptitudes, interests, and present or future career objectives. Combined with core courses, the track concentrations ensure that students get both a deep, intensive grounding in their specialty as well as uniquely broad, cross-disciplinary exposure to the whole biotechnology field.
In addition to the choices offered in the master's curriculum tracks, participation with the Wharton School has recently added a dual-degree Wharton M.B.A./Master of Biotechnology degree option. With Philadelphia's location in both a "biotech hub" and an "entrepreneurial corridor," the program has much to offer its students.
The Growing Field of Biotechnology Beckons the New Innovators and Creative Thinkers that Penn Produces
Whether students' backgrounds are in biology, computers, or engineering, the dual-degree program provides in-depth, state-of-the-art training in recombinant DNA technology; bioinformatics, with a grounding in management; or biopharmaceutical/medical devices. The program offers special courses in pharmaceutical manufacturing, genomics, biomolecular engineering, drug discovery and development, and biotechnology entrepreneurship. Further, a specialized biotechnology seminar allows students to meet biotechnology entrepreneurs, representatives from pharmaceutical companies and financial institutions, and experts from venture capital firms.
More than $40 billion is invested in biomedical R&D every year in the U.S., and global sales of pharmaceuticals exceed $300 billion annually. Clearly, the need for experts in biotechnology management is critical. That is why UPenn proudly provides one of the deepest "educational immersion experiences" in the interrelated fields of biotechnology and business.
New discoveries continue to push the envelope in multiple areas, from the evaluation of patents and the parameters of licensing to strategic partnerships and emergent trends. New, complex, and daunting opportunities arise from progress in such areas as DNA microarrays, pharmacogenomics, and new proteomic methodologies. Time to market, from discovery to distribution, is often less than a year, and just as often more than a decade, while premium tools and techniques can become commodities in a few short years. With Penn's dual-degree program in management and biotechnology, individuals are prepared to meet all these challenges - and take advantage of every new opportunity.
