The CUIMC Department of Neurological Surgery is advancing several initiatives to increase financing options for translational neuroscience research and to expand access to life-saving neurological and neurosurgical treatment for the medically and financially vulnerable. My primary assignment this summer was to craft whitepapers articulating the department’s strategy, which were presented to internal leadership and external contacts. I also worked with other MBAs to develop financial models for a venture philanthropy vehicle that would enable donors and investors to fund research by Columbia faculty and students. As part of that project, we worked extensively with Columbia Technology Ventures to understand where there might be opportunities for innovation within the prevailing technology licensing process. This set of projects reflects the Department of Neurological Surgery’s dual mission of serving patients and producing innovation through research. The initiatives and financial models our team worked on could provide a blueprint for other departments within Columbia and beyond to advance both goals.

In this internship, I applied skills learned from the following CBS courses: Corporate Finance; Impact Investing; Foundations of Innovation; and Launching Social Ventures. I also leaned on skillsets gained my previous internship, which was at an organization in the public sector. Many of the whitepapers I wrote for the Department of Neurological Surgery were directed at a public sector audience, so my understanding of the metrics generally valued by that field was useful.

I had not had much exposure to the biotech world through my coursework, including the evolving venture philanthropy space. It is a fascinating and innovative piece of the social enterprise world, and I would recommend that CBS consider adding courses on the subject to its curriculum. I would suggest adding a course that discusses the work of MIT professor Andrew Lo. There is also an excellent Harvard Business School case on Bob Beall and his success as leader of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Venture philanthropy in drug development is an exciting and still nascent space, and I think there’s an opportunity for CBS to introduce it to its students.

I really enjoyed this internship and did not face many challenges. We were a small team and our manager bestowed on us much responsibility and autonomy. At the same time, we were afforded support from department leadership and other teams at Columbia.

The primary challenge I would point to is that the department’s strategy is very much in a state of evolution, and important elements of our initiatives shifted many times in the course of the internship. However, learning to shift my own gears in the face of evolving department priorities was a valuable part of the overall experience, and the result was that we as interns had a major influence on strategy. We went down several “false” paths, but learned a lot in the process. Moreover, the fact that we were pursuing so many discrete initiatives meant that we were never discouraged when any one of them hit a roadblock.

I believe strongly in the mission that my supervisor, Alexandra Clark, and her colleagues at the CUIMC Department of Neurological Department are working to accomplish. Drug discovery and development for neurological conditions is extremely risky, with a high rate of failure in clinical trials. Alexandra is a formidable advocate for novel approaches to financing translational medical research- — with her influence now expanding beyond neuroscience at CUIMC — and I’m confident about her future success.

Through this internship, I was exposed to intractable problems for which I’d love to contribute to solutions. The drug development and technology transfer processes are rife with misaligned incentives, and the result is that life-saving technologies are not developed or do not reach commercialization. One major exception to this trap is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, which together with Vertex Pharmaceuticals used innovative fundraising and investing techniques to cure an orphan disease. In my career, I would love to be involved in efforts to adapt this model to other conditions, including in the field of neurology, and I owe Alexandra considerable thanks and credit for introducing me to these ideas.