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t m c » p u l s e | m a y 2 0 1 5 34 Captains of Industry As the newest member of the Texas Medical Center, the University of St. Thomas has partnered with Houston Methodist Research Institute to train the future leaders of the city's biotechnology boom LEFT: University of St. Thomas Visiting Professor of Biology Edward Nam leads the Master in Clinical Translation Management class during an evening session. RIGHT: The inaugural Master in Clinical Translation Management class, from left to right: Richard Le, Rosemary Tran, Maria Babu, Heather Vasquez, Homer Quintana, Perla Rodriguez, Amy Ewbank and Dr. Edward Nam. T wice a week, a handful of stu- dents—seven, to be exact—set- tle into a small classroom situated within the University of St. Thomas' nearly 70-year-old campus with one shared goal: to become the pioneers of Houston's next big industry. Because for all its brilliant history defying boundaries—be it capitalizing on Spindletop's 1901 gusher, traveling 238,900 miles to bounce on the dusty surface of the moon, or successfully transplanting that first fragile heart— Houston is still far from reaching its potential on the biotechnology frontier. Branded as the application of biological systems to create new prod- ucts or processes, the biotechnology industry bridges the gap from scientific discoveries in the lab to FDA-approved therapies administered at the bed- side. Robust on the nation's coasts yet all-but-absent at its heart, the industry requires extensive know-how of the clinical translation process, including navigating regulatory requirements and intellectual property laws, com- mercialization and market potential, product-specific business modeling, and proficiency in manufacturing and clinical trial requirements—a skill set surprisingly deficient in the Houston workforce despite the wealth of resources brimming within the Texas Medical Center. "What we realized is that everything is set in Houston for a viable biotech sector to grow," said Dominic Aquila, D. Litt. et Phil., provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of St. Thomas. "The intellectual capital is here from the Texas Medical Center, there is even financial capital—what's been missing is the expertise to take B y A l e x a n d r a B e c k e r Each year, new entrepreneurs will graduate from the University of St. Thomas, focused and pas- sionate about developing exciting discoveries made in Houston Methodist laboratories and clinics into real technologies that will benefit our patients. — MARC BOOM, M.D. President and CEO of Houston Methodist Hospital