What is BioCON?

BioCON (Biology Career Opportunities Networking) at Brown University is a graduate student-led initiative that provides a seminar series to learn about diverse STEM-related career paths outside of academia from speakers with higher degrees in the life sciences. The BioCON board consists of master's, doctoral, and medical students dedicated to helping students learn about non-academic trajectories throughout the life sciences. BioCON is supported through multiple Brown University sources that span the Office of Graduate Studies (OGS), the Division of Biology and Medicine (BioMed), and many graduate life-sciences programs. Our BioCON executive committee includes graduate students from Biotechnology, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, Pathobiology, Therapeutic Sciences, and The Warren Alpert Medical School. Together, we aim to provide graduate students with seminars from leaders across the life sciences industry space and other non-academia careers. This series is open to graduate and medical students. Join us during our monthly in-person and virtual seminars for these conversations and network with our wonderful speakers. Food and drinks are provided for all events!

BioCON Series: Angel Investors: What Role Can They Play in Your Startup?

Angel Investors: What Role Can They Play in Your Startup?

Friday, March 7, 2025 | 10am - 12pm

Petteruti Lounge, Campus Center Room 201

75 Waterman Street, Providence, RI 02912

The third BioCON event of 2025 will feature a panel discussion with three entrepreneurs and angel investors. The panel will discuss funding considerations for new academic startups.

Moderator:

David Hemenway: David is the founder and host of The Angel Nest Podcast, which focuses on how entrepreneurs partner with investors to build great companies. He is also an investor (member New York Angels), entrepreneur, board level advisor and sales and marketing consultant with extensive experience building brands, creating and implementing sales and marketing strategies.

Panelists:

Vijay Aggarwal, Ph.D.: Vijay has over thirty years of experience in both pharmaceutical services and clinical diagnostics. In addition to serving as Managing Partner of The Channel Group, Vijay provides strategic advisory services to companies with operations or investments in the clinical diagnostics, molecular diagnostic and anatomic pathology sectors. He is also active with several investment banks and angel investment groups in the healthcare market.

Ian Levine: Ian is a Managing Director at Launchpad Venture Group. He has been at the ground floor of several SaaS start-ups, including founding, scaling and exiting several of his own ideas. He has been an active Angel investor for over 15 years, and has personally syndicated numerous equity raises. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of several Boston based start-ups including: AI Lean, Latitude Beverage Company and Zipper Agent.

Faculty Entrepreneur Connect is brought to you by Brown Technology Innovations, Advance RI-CTR, The Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, and Brown Biology Career Opportunities Networking (BioCON). Please contact karen_bulock@brown.edu or melissa_j_simon@brown.edu with any questions.

BioCON Seminar Series: BioCON Science Writing and Communication Panel

We are very excited to host 4 Brown Alumni that are currently working as a scientific writer and communicator in various industries! Join us to learn about what a career in science writing/communication is, what their day-to-day look like, and how to transition from graduate school to scientific writing.

Panelists include:

Eboni Chambers, PhD, MPA - Regional Medical Director at Amgen

Kaylee Mathews, PhD - Scientific Technical Writer at Nabsys

Scott Herrick, PhD - Manager and Science Writer at Takeda

Christina Nixon, PhD - Senior Director of Medical and Scientific Services at Alphanumeric Systems

When: Monday, March 3, 5-6:30pm

Where: 222 Richmond Street, Room 160

RSVP HERE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc096qhccjDoVNEJZVpQ_NKGvz8f17q5Zk6_QoZfBrY_1t-zw/viewform

BioCON Seminar Series: A Conversation With Industry CEO Dr. David Platt!

Join BioCON in a discussion with the current CEO of Bioxytran Dr. David Platt who is an expert in carbohydrate chemistry who has founded five companies, creating nearly $1B for investors. He has raised $150M directly in public markets in the U.S. and has led development of two drug candidates from concept through phase II clinical trials.

When: Thursday, February 27th, 5-6 pm

Where: BMC 202

RSVP HERE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScbYGf2aGDi5v1WZVWhOt4LH2uVbdgUseMhnETj1n_q3UNttg/viewform

Event Catered By Flatbreads!

Welcome back everyone to the spring 2025 semester!

Join us for our fist event of the new year!

RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1vsSkJHhbf95vYjrudZuFW23JZKRGgSaWMHsx9ko2qgvQQQ/viewform

Photos from our fall 2024! BioCON seminars and events!

Co-Op & Internships @ Moderna

Our speaker Dr. Coll De Peña from Moderna has shared some resources and opportunities for internships and Co-Ops. Please find attached the intern and co-op flyers including the general timelines for those programs.

Intern Flyer.pdf

Co-Op Flyer.pdf

BioCON Calendar

See all the BioCON events here!

Click to View BioCON Calendar

Want to join the BioCON listserv?

Stay up to date with us! If you want to join our emailing list, please click on the link below!

Join BioCON Listserv

Contact Us

Feel Free to email us @ biocon@brown.edu with any questions. If you have an idea for a speaker for our seminar series fill out our speaker interest form below!

BioCON Speaker Form

2024-2025 BioCON Executive Board

Lily Cordner

(Ph.D. Candidate Biomedical Engineering)

Lily is a Ph.D. candidate in the Wong Lab where she uses engineered biomaterials and transcriptomic analysis to investigate breast cancer metastasis.

Dominique Barnes

(Ph.D. Candidate Biomedical Engineering)

Dominique is a Ph.D. candidate in the Fleming Lab where she uses machine learning to develop algorithms to analyze the healing progression of the ACL after surgery through medical imagining.

Alex Del Toro

(Ph.D. Candidate Neuroscience)

Alex is a Ph.D. candidate in the Hoffman-Kim Lab where he focuses on studying the interaction between the brain and immune system across diverse perturbations in microglia cells.

Joe Inger

(M.D. Candidate)

Joe is a Medical Student from Maine. Before medical school, he spent two years at Vanderbilt University working to develop novel small-molecules with potential therapeutic effects for central nervous system disorders.

AJ Lonski

(Master's Biotechnology)

AJ is a 2nd year Masters student working jointly between the Larschan & O'Connor-Giles Labs. His research seeks to identify and characterize differentially expressed synaptic genes and splicing isoforms implicated in aging and neurodegeneration using algorithmic and machine learning implementations.

Adrianna Hohil

(Master's Biotechnology)

Adrianna is a 2nd year Masters student in the Jones Lab where she's investigating EEG biomarkers as potential disease indications for Schizophrenia and Fragile X disorder. If successful, the indications will be used in the lab's technology commercialization effort, Human Neocortical Neurosolver.

Michelle Shub

(Ph.D. Candidate Therapeutic Sciences)

Michelle is a second year Ph.D. student in the Lawler Lab, studying Glioblastoma (GBM) and the biological mechanisms behind its progression. Her research interests lie in immuno-oncology, therapeutics, and in vitro model development to better recapitulate GBM.

Jean J. Jerome

(Ph.D. Candidate Therapeutic Sciences)

Jean is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Desai Lab, where he studies the use of micro- and nanotherapeutics to modulate the immune system. Beyond his current work, he is interested in developing therapeutics to treat osteopathic diseases and injuries.

Devin Bemis

(Ph.D. Candidate Pathobiology)

Devin is a Ph.D. student in the Belenky Lab, where he studies the gut microbiota's response to antibiotics. Previously, he worked on the microbiology team at Seres Therapeutics.

Julia Kiselka

(Master's Biotechnology)

Julia is a 2nd-year Master's student in the Mani Lab, where she studies the effects of intermediate filament interactions on triple-negative breast cancer metastasis.

Want to join bioCON? Email us at biocon@brown.edu

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