In 1997, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences (KGI) was founded to educate future leaders of the bioscience industry, building a generation to help translate basic scientific discoveries into commercial realities. Guided by the vision, wisdom and sheer will of its founding president, Henry “Hank” Riggs, KGI was created to serve the needs of a new century and a new science.

With a founding grant of $50 million, the W.M. Keck Foundation established KGI through a spectacular act of “venture philanthropy.” Convinced that the life sciences would shape our future, KGI’s founders were determined to create a new institution adapted to these needs. Starting from scratch, President Riggs and Secretary Bonnie Busenberg began by assembling a governing Board of Trustees representing the leadership of the Claremont Colleges and chaired by Sidney J. Weinberg, Jr.

They built a first-rate Advisory Council made up of leaders in business and science, which helped structure a curriculum relevant to the needs of the life sciences industry. They bought the land and buildings that became KGI’s campus, equipped its labs and located its first faculty. In recognition of all the founders accomplished, the Keck Foundation awarded the Institute an additional $20 million grant in 2005, challenging KGI to raise $30 million in matching funds by 2011. Today, KGI is meeting that challenge: It has raised almost 60 percent of the matching funds, a year ahead of schedule.

In just a decade, KGI has made tremendous strides. What has been accomplished? We have acquired space and built state-of-the-art labs. We have recruited an excellent faculty --- currently 22 strong and growing -- which has attracted more than $10 million in research funding from a mix of federal agencies including NIH, NSF and DARPA, as well as private foundations and companies. Collectively, faculty members hold over 60 issued patents, with an additional 21 still pending. Consistent with our mission, KGI has already spun out two companies: Ionian Technologies concentrates on molecular diagnostics and biomedical research tools to diagnose infectious diseases and detect biothreats. Now defunct, Zuyder Pharmaceuticals sought to accelerate the process of drug discovery through computational target identification, focusing initially on metabolic bone disease. Two additional companies are in development.

KGI created a degree that exists nowhere else: the Master of Bioscience (MBS). Our MBS program is setting the national standard for team-based, hands-on, real-world professional graduate education at the intersection of business and science. The degree has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and validated by the bioscience industry. Our first class of 28 students graduated in 2002. Today, there are 146 MBS degree-holders, and 80 students are currently enrolled. A single statistic underscores the success of the KGI concept: 97 percent of KGI graduates are at work in the life sciences industry within six months of graduation.


Over the past two decades, powerful new advances in the biosciences have revolutionized the study of life. Genomics, molecular biology and biochemistry have been married with engineering, pharmacology and bioprocessing – together magnified by vast improvements in computational tools and models. In light of these advances, many are calling this the “biocentury,” when our ability to manipulate organic materials will match our ability to modify the physical world. According to the economist Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary, “If the 20th century was defined by developments in the physical sciences, the 21st century will be defined by developments in the life sciences.”

In a Financial Times op-ed (“America must not surrender its lead in the life sciences,” January 29, 2007, p. 13), Summers argues that America’s scientific leadership in the 20th century was principally a function of our superior ability to apply the lessons of the physical sciences to practical ends. In the 21st century, the life sciences hold similar promise: Nations that nurture basic research will prosper in direct proportion to their ability to promote applied innovations as well.

The demand for talent in the biosciences is growing. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates the biotech workforce is growing at a clip of 12 percent annually. By 2012, the demand for biological scientists and technicians is expected to grow by 19 percent. In the DoL’s July 2005 report on biotechnology it stated, “To succeed and grow in the 21st century economy, biotechnology employers need to fill each position in their companies, from entry-level to the most advanced, with skilled, qualified individuals. Because the industry is experiencing such rapid growth, biotechnology firms often demand more skilled workers than are available and are projected to need more workers than are currently enrolled in training programs.”


In line with its founding goals, KGI remains dedicated to a single mission: Using education and research to translate the power and potential of the life sciences into practice for the benefit of society. It is the only American graduate school created exclusively for the education of leaders for the life sciences industry. KGI offers the world’s only MBS degree, which combines business and science in a hands-on, team-based, project-focused curriculum. Its students concentrate in five practical focus tracks representing critical skill-families: Biomedical Devices and Diagnostics; Bio/Pharmaceutical Discovery and Development; Bioprocessing; the Business of Bioscience; and Clinical and Regulatory Affairs.

To keep this new model of professional education current, we consult regularly with leading scientists, managers and executives on trends in the industry and its needs. Our curriculum reflects what we have learned:

n Hybrid education. The industry tells us that it does not need more traditionally trained PhDs or MBAs. Instead, companies are looking for people with solid, but broad, scientific training; strong backgrounds in business, finance and management; and an in-depth understanding of how the biosciences industry functions. Moreover, the companies want scientists who can work in teams to achieve integrated scientific and business goals, with the professional skills to communicate these outcomes effectively. To accommodate these needs, KGI’s curriculum combines science and business in a focused, two-year degree. The demand for our graduates proves that this approach works. In 2002, KGI worked hard to place its first 27 graduates in some 17 companies. They were hired the old-fashioned way: We had to knock on doors and introduce them, one by one. Last year, more than 200 companies contacted KGI to recruit students and alumni for internships and full-time jobs.

n Team-based, project-centered learning. Creating useful products in the life sciences not only demands a range of scientific tools, but also requires complex clinical and regulatory evaluations, market research, and intellectual property assessments. All of this requires an ability to work effectively and efficiently in groups. So KGI’s Master of Bioscience degree features team-based and project-focused learning. Our students leave with a critical awareness of how to work well with others. The typical KGI graduate works in areas with strong overlap between science and business. A common career choice is business development, where being able to evaluate technical feasibility and the likelihood of clinical success is matched with the need to negotiate, manage projects, value intellectual property, measure the market and assess the competition. Our graduates also work in bioinformatics, competitive intelligence, compliance, marketing/market research, project management, regulatory affairs and research and development.

n Combining science and business: Real-world experience. Working in the bioscience industry under the pressure of deadlines, high-risk ventures, and capital shortages differs significantly from traditional academic research. Scientists trained in traditional disciplines are simply not taught how to function in such environments. At KGI, our students gain real experience in actual businesses through internships and corporate visits. The capstone of the MBS is a year-long, industry-sponsored Team Masters Project (TMP). With the help of an industry and a faculty mentor, groups of four to five students address real business and scientific problems at the sponsoring company, signing confidentiality agreements and agreeing to strict timelines and budgets – as they will do throughout their careers. The program has been remarkably successful, enhancing the educational value of the MBS and solving problems of interest to sponsoring companies like Amgen, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Applied Biosystems, Beckman Coulter, and Gilead Sciences. Last year, for example, a team of KGI students helped Amylin Pharmaceuticals develop a line-extension strategy for its then newly-approved diabetes drug, Symlin. The team assessed drug delivery options, regulatory requirements and business opportunities to present Amylin with a commercialization strategy. The project was so well received that two of the team members now work for Amylin. That experience is not uncommon; several KGI students have been hired through their TMP experience.

n The value of synthetic knowledge. Because advances in the life sciences occur across traditional academic fields, tomorrow’s leaders in bioscience cannot be parochial specialists. Their value will come through their ability to synthesize insights across the scientific spectrum. At KGI, faculty are not organized into departments and do not have tenure. Many have experience in both academia and industry. They are not only evaluated using traditional measures of research productivity -- the number of federal grants they hold or how often they publish in scientific journals -- but also using criteria such as patents and licensing and company spin-out activity.


To realize the full potential of new discoveries in the life sciences, we will need more graduates with interdisciplinary training, business knowledge and experience developing practical applications. Our students are successful precisely because they are not specialized.

As the life sciences industry looks to the future, it will need more scientists like ours: technically savvy, commercially literate and highly adaptable. At KGI, we are just beginning to tap our potential. During our second decade, we will continue to adapt and refine our programs to meet industry and student needs; to expand our enrollment through full-time, part-time and executive programs; and to pursue cutting-edge research and translational development. KGI is -- and will remain -- at the forefront educating tomorrow’s life sciences leaders.

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Editor’s note: For a different point of view on cross-disciplinary education, especially Keck’s hands-on approach to its MBS program, see the Signals article, “New Keck Graduate Program Targets Converging Disciplines In Life Sciences,” which was published in April 1998.

originally published 05/03/2007