PhD in Biotechnology Program
The PhD in Biotechnology is a new program that effectively combines biological and scientific knowledge and concepts with the legal, regulatory, marketing, and financial aspects of the life sciences industry with the expectation of students launching or joining a biotechnology company after program completion.
Students will have the option of working on their own idea for a product/technology or working on projects identified through the UAB Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (HIIE) and/or through our partnership with Southern Research (SR).
Southern Research helps ensure that student-developed companies will be poised for growth, provide a range of new job opportunities, and spur economic development in the Birmingham region.
Program Benefits
- Graduates will be highly competitive for a variety of for- and not-for-profit jobs in the life sciences industry.
- Preparation to apply for a patent, and to pursue a licensing or commercialization strategy as part of their dissertation work, and to launch a biotechnology company.
- Blends traditional scholarly research and pedagogy with practicum-based learning, providing unique, and highly marketable skillsets.
- Obtain the knowledge and skills needed to successfully conduct and evaluate research within the setting of a biotechnology company.
- Learn biotechnology economics, regulatory affairs, how to launch a biotechnology company, and the finance skills needed to advance a biotechnology product and company.
Partners
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Southern Research
The PhD program in Biotechnology is partnered with Southern Research (SR), a translational scientific research organization headquartered in Birmingham next to the UAB campus. With more than 400 scientists and engineers across various industries, students will train and learn from world-renowned biotechnology professionals. Real-world problems are addressed through the discovery and development of novel, innovative products, and technologies.
The areas of expertise offered to doctoral candidates span the drug discovery and development pipeline, including virtual and high throughput screening, assay development, enzyme and cellular assays, medicinal, analytical, and computational chemistry, structural biology, disease animal models in various therapeutic areas (oncology, neuroscience, infectious diseases, and bacteriology), and toxicology studies.
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Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
UAB Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (HIIE) fosters an entrepreneurial community and innovative ecosystem at UAB and provides the infrastructure required for faculty, staff, and students to commercialize innovation within the region and beyond.
The HIIE serves as the university hub for innovations developed by UAB faculty and staff and helps create business relationships between UAB faculty and commercial entities. These relationships foster development of products from discoveries, inventions, and research generated on campus which often leads to licensing agreements that grant commercial entities rights to develop those technologies.