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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

S.O1-51

()mer%deck k1

MEMORANDUM

To: ?

Senate ?

Tu..Loi

From: ?

Allan MacKinnon, Chair

Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies

Subject: ?

New Joint Major Program with Business Administration

Faculty of Science

Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

(SCUS Reference 01 - 12b)

Date: ?

June 21, 2001

Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies at its meeting of June 19,

2001 gives rise to the following motion:

MOTION

'That Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board of Governors the Joint Major in

effective Biology and Biochemistry and Business Administration, as set forth in S. 01 -51

effective 2002-3."

For Information

Acting under delegated authority, SCUS approved the following curriculum revisions:

new courses:

MBB

432 - Advanced Molecular Biology Techniques

MBB 300 - Special Topics in Biotechnology and Business

ii.

changes to course number, title. prerequisite, credit hour.

description and vector for the following:

from MBB31 1-2 to MBB 308-3 - Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Laboratory I

and,

from MBB 312-2 to MBB 309-3 - Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Laboratory II

new co-op courses:

MBB 151 - Practicum I

MBB 251 - Practicum H

MBB 351 - Practicum ifi

MBB

451 -

Practicum

MBB

452 -

Practicum V

Any Senator wishing to consult the full report of curriculum revisions should contact

Bobbie Grant, Senate Assistant at 291-3168 or email bgrant@sfu.ca

•

Proposal:

. ?

Joint Major in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and Business

Administration.

The Joint Major in MBB and Business Administration:

This will be a joint major program between the Department of Molecular Biology and

Biochemistry and the Faculty of Business Administration (FBA) at SFU. The program is

designed to offer undergraduate students in-depth combined training in Molecular Biology and

Biochemistry (MBB) and in the basic areas of Business Administration pertinent to development

and administration in emergent biotechnology enterprises. Molecular biology and biochemistry

form the scientific and technological underpinnings of today's burgeoning biotechnology field

while business administration enables the student in the fundamentals of economics,

management, marketing, investment, and business law. Students will take most of the required

coursework for BSc degrees in both MBB and the BBA. The Program requires 70 credits in

MBB-related courses and

credits in Business-related ones; hence there is little flexibility in

curriculum scheduling. Moreover, students are strongly encouraged to participate in the CO-OP

program in which practical rotations in MBB and FBA will be available.

Students who complete the Program will graduate with a

BSc with a joint major in MEB

and Business Administration.

Upon completion of the degree a diversity of career paths will

be open to the students. We expect that many graduates will enter the workforce directly.

Examples of such employment opportunities are:

• Pharmaceutical development companies

• ?

• Companies that offer products for molecular biology and biochemistry research (e.g., in

marketing)

• Companies that do research and product development using molecular and cell biology and

biochemical research techniques (e.g., in business development, product development,

marketing, etc.)

• University-industry liaison offices and other technology-transfer firms

• Brokerage investment research

• Patent law research

• Venture capital firms

• Biotechnology consulting firms

• Publishing firms for biotech and science journals

MBBIBusiness graduates would also have opportunities to proceed to advanced graduate

study in business (e.g., MBA program), law (e.g., biotechnology-patent law), medicine and allied

health fields, public health (e.g., hospital administration), or science.

Rationale.

Biotechnology is an industry whose products and services depend upon discoveries and

inventions made mainly by scientists trained in the areas of

MBB.

Biotechnology is a rapidly

growing industry that has contributed greatly to the economic expansion of the US, particularly

in states like California, and, to a lesser extent in Canada, particularly in the provinces of Ontario

and Quebec. In recent years, biotechnology in British Columbia has expanded rapidly, and could

potentially serve to compensate for the economic losses that will occur from declines in our

natural-resource-based industries such as mining, forestry and the fisheries. With the

development of Genome B.C., the Genome Sequencing Centre, and other major

molecular

biological and biochemical research initiatives in B.C., the potential for business spin off is

increasing exponentially.

In Canada, progress in Biotechnology has been impeded by the lack of a critical mass of

people who are knowledgeable in the areas of MBB and business. There has been a dearth of

people who can, for example, evaluate intellectual property content of MBB research for venture

capitalists, who can understand the market for a given biotechnology research product, or who

can help negotiate licensing agreements concerning biotechnological intellectual property, who

can effectively manage the operation of emergent biotechnological businesses. This lack of

expertise has contributed materially to the slow growth of the industry relative to growth in the

US.

To our knowledge, there are no programs in Canada that address this need for in-depth

cross-training in business/economics and biotechnology. Yet Canadian universities, with their

strength in scientific and business training, are in an excellent position to offer a huge

contribution to the future workforce in biotechnology in Canada. There is a Business Admin

minor for any Science major at the University of Alberta that requires only 24 to 36 total units of

business website: http://www.ualberta.caJSCIENCE/degprogsfbusminor.html

. Brock University

and Carleton University offer programs in applied science that completely lack business

components:http://www.brocku.ca/registrar/ 1 999/undergrad/faculties/biotec.html,

httD://www.admissions.carleton.calcuuc/programs/Biotechnology.html. Finally there are lab

technology based proposed programs in Biotechnology at UBC and BCIT.

Simon Fraser University is uniquely qualified to take a leadership role in offering a

program that prepares students for a future in Biotechnology. SFU has outstanding programs in

both MBB and Business Administration, and many students who are able to excel under the

pressures of a rigorous academic schedule. Moreover, unlike many Canadian Universities,

SPU's medium size and history of administrative innovation and interdisciplinary approaches

facilitate the cross-Faculty cooperation necessary to quickly mount high-impact novel programs

such as this. Moreover, the MBBfBusiness degree will be easy to implement since it is based on

existing courses and expertise. Since this is essentially a joint-major proposal only approvals

internal to SFU would have to be obtained.

Initial queries by a few of the Department of MBB faculty of the students in their upper-

level courses, as to whether they would welcome a MBBfBusiness degree program, were met

with a positive response. For example, over half of the -40 students in Dr. Scott's

MBB

426

(Immunology) course indicated that, had they had the opportunity, they would have been

interested in a joint program.

Reciuirements to mount a MBBfBusiness Joint Degree at SFU.

• Establishment of the undergrad coordinating committee between Business Administration

and the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. Committee membership would

consist of the Director of the Undergraduate Program in Business Administration and a

designate from that Faculty plus the Chair of the Departmental Undergraduate Curriculum

Committee and designate from the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

• Determination of entrance requirements for this program. Students will be accepted directly

into the Joint Majors program from high school. The Coordinating Committee will screen

applicants and set the level and number of admissions per year. Initially, the number of

students admitted will be limited to 25 per year. Requests for transfer to the Joint Major

whether from SFU students or from students from other colleges/universities will be subject

to the recommendation of the Coordinating Committee.

. Innovation of one new service course MBB 3XX (1-1-0). Introduction to Business and

Biotechnology. This course will be comprised of a series of presentations by guest speakers

with expertise in keystone areas of business applicable to the emergence of biotech

companies. Subjects to be covered would include:

patents in Biotechnology (how to read claims, parts of a patent, continuations,

abandonment, etc.)

contracts in Biotechnology (what goes into a contract, how to read one and how to

negotiate one)

intellectual property (what is I?, and when does one decide when an invention or

discovery constitutes IP)

the steps involved in putting a patent in place, and timeline

how Biotechnology IF is evaluated

how Biotechnology is financed

the role of the venture capitalist

how a Biotechnology start-up company is created (business plan, financing, marketing,

etc.).

Lower Division Requirements for Joint Major in MBB and Business

Administration

Lower Division - MBB

Lower Division - Business

232-3 Econ & Bus Statistics

222-3 ?

Molec. Biol. & Biochem.

BUS

251-3 Financial Accounting I

254-3 Manag. Acctg. I

BISC

101-4 ?

Intro Biology I

272-3 Behavior in Organizations

121-4 General Chem & Lab I

122-2 General Chem II

ENGL

One 3-credit courses

126-2 General Lab il

281-4 Organic Chem & Lab I

282-2 Organic Chem II

Upper Division Requirements for Joint Major in MBB and Business

Administration

Upper Division -Science

MBB 308-3 Molec. Biol Biochem.. Lab I

309-3 Molec. Biol Biochem. Lab U

321-3 Intermediate Metabolism

322-3 Molecular Physiology

Um,er Division - Business

BUS ?

303-3

Bus., Society & Ethics

Consumer Behavior OR Another

Marketing Course

374-3

Organizational Theory / OR

381-3

Intro Hum. Resources

Mgt

432-3 Adv. MBB Lab

Or BISC 457-3, Plant. Mol Bio. Biotech

360-3

Business Communication

3XX- I Intro. Business & Biotech..

393-3

Commercial Law

AND ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

MBB 423-3 Protein Struct. & Function.

MBB 426-3 Immunology

MBB 435-3 Genomic Analysis

477-4

New Ventures Planning

BISC

331-3 Molecular Biology

MBB COURSE PREREQUISITES

SFU Calendar 2000-2001

Course

Corequlsite

MBB

M13B311,312or

MBB

MBIS 322

'MBB 308 will replace MBB 311

bB 309 will replace MBB 312

MBB

432 is a new advanced molecular biology lab course.

d Recommend that listed course precede its 'corequisite'

BUSINESS COURSE PREREQUISITES

SFU Calendar 2000-2001

Corequisite

157 ?

BUS 254,60 CREDIT HOURS

BUS 272,60 CREDIT HOURS

BUS 381

BUS 272,60 CREDIT HOURS

343

103,