The primary objective of this program is to nurture our exceptional students to become the next generation of biotechnology leaders and innovators. The Biotechnology Training Program excels at continuously evolving and adapting its focus and curriculum in response to current and future needs for biotechnology research and industry. For this, we rely on seeking feedback from multiple internal and external sources. Training faculty are strongly committed to the program’s core mission of giving exceptional students access to the highest-quality inter-disciplinary biotechnology training.

Since its inception in 1990, the Biotechnology Training Program at the University of Minnesota has developed its Alumni network. Now 120 graduates strong, the network is available to students seeking jobs, internships, and career planning advice. Our past trainees, of whom the vast majority joined the industrial sector, serve as an informal job referral group for our graduating trainees.

A recent survey of former trainees found that graduates of the training program have taken their careers in different directions from the traditional route of academia and research, to branching out in medicine and business (n=77).

Our former trainees who developed careers in academia and research laboratories have also been exemplary. In addition to conducting cutting-edge research, they continue to apply the skill sets acquired here to educate the next generation of students.

"I graduated with my Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Haynes group in May 2016. Through my internship at Boston Scientific, I was hired as a Process Development Engineer after graduation to work on a Boston Scientific-Mayo Ventures project. This position encompasses both research and development of products from early stages through human trials with doctors at the Mayo Clinic." - Sarah Gruba, Process Development Engineer, Boston Scientific, Former Trainee