Something fishy at the Ross School of Business

A zebrafish attended class recently in the Stephen M. Ross School of Business as a guest of corporate strategy Professor Bill Hall. This wasn't a take on Dr. Seuss, but on the intersection of business and biology.

As Hall explained, zebrafish share much of the same genetic material with humans, thus their genes are stand-ins for ours when science explores questions about human health and disease.

Students in the new graduate level course, Personalized Medicine and the Business of Biology (BA518), at the School of Business are exploring ideas central to business when mixed with biology, which is big business these days.

"We all know that the health care and life science industry is very complex, and this class provides students invaluable insight into the industry," says Neela Moorty, who is in her final year earning a combined masters in business and public health. "No other course on campus gives students the breadth of knowledge presented in this class."

About 60 students from areas including business, biomedical engineering and law are enrolled in the course, one of the first of its kind. They explore the future of health care by examining three drivers of change: life sciences research, information technology and biomedical engineering.

The course was developed by B. Joseph White, research professor at the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) and Wilbur K. Pierpont Collegiate Professor, and Liz Barry, managing director of LSI, who are co-teaching with a lineup of guest speakers.

"This is a unique class that looks at different perspectives and integrates a lot of learning from different schools," says David Zawrotny, a second-year MBA student. "Liz and Joe tag-team teach with great guest speakers. They bring in entrepreneurs, industry leaders and great faculty."

He adds that Hall is the best professor he's ever had. On the day Hall was a guest lecturer, his topic was "Competition and Strategy in the Biopharmaceutical Industry." He explained that it is a reality today that for-profit startups are able to market products based on the now-mapped human genome. He offered a student a vial of "life-prolonging elixir" developed especially for the student to consume, if he dared.

After some laughter, the discussion led to Hall's points as he discussed genetic-based products and testing. Are they valuable? Should they be approved by the Food and Drug Administration? Are they safe to use? Will they really work?

"This is the world of the future," says MBA student Sanjeeb Das. "There will be hundreds of genetic tests in the future."

"I'm excited about the prospect of health care and want to be prepared for it. Personalized medicine is not here yet, but this class links together all the elements," MBA student Kiran Singh says.

At the end of the class, the fish made it back safely to its tank, and the student didn't risk drinking the untested elixir.

Personalized Medicine and the Business of Biology will be offered again in Fall 2005.

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