Communication and Teamwork

For one of our assignments in the MMB program, we were tasked to individually choose an article about current events happening in the Biotechnology industry. I chose an article that discussed a new digital library for peer reviewed research journals that made it easier and more affordable for smaller companies to have access to research papers. I presented this presentation to my class of about 30 students. The PowerPoint that was created and used for this presentation is shown below.

Alura Practicum Project

For my first ever full semester practicum project in the MMB program, my team and I worked with a company named Alura. Alura had a process of more efficiently extracting an ingredient that they wanted to use in canine food, treats, and supplements. My team and I performed a market analysis on the canine food treat and supple market, reached out to key opinion leaders in the industry, and developed a strategy that we believed would be the best way for Alura to enter the market with their product. This project required weekly meetings and communication for questions and making sure everything was getting done. We then presented our findings and recommendations to Alura and the PowerPoint for that presentation can be found below. 

Catalyze Commercialization Conference

For this event, a couple of my classmates and I worked on a project for a Ph.D. student at NC State working on developing a laser manufacturing technique for barbed surgical sutures. Compared to traditional mechanical manufacturing of these sutures, laser fabrication provides the ability to customize the barbs in these sutures to better fit the patient and tissue the suture is being used for. Our role as a team was to develop a business model to commercialize this method which included creating a value proposition, cost projection, market analysis, and proving the technical feasibility of the idea. 

NCSU ORC Chronic Itch Project

For this project, my team and I worked with a researcher at NC State to gather information on a cure he was working on for chronic itch. This researcher found a link between chronic itch and a compound that he was investigating as the treatment for chronic itch. Our goal was to identify current treatments for chronic itch, what the other uses for the researcher's compound were, if the compound was FDA approved, and also identify companies that may be interested in this treatment.