Leveraging the Breadth of Knowledge Learned in MBP

Oliver Weisser (MBP ՚15) vividly remembers learning about cellular composition of life on earth in middle school and being fascinated by the idea of a career in the sciences.

"I knew I wanted to learn more," Weisser said. "From that moment forward, the question was only what role I wanted to play." 

He credits Northwestern Engineering's Master of Biotechnology Program (MBP) with helping him find the answer. Today, Weisser is the director of commercial operations for Ginkgo Bioworks, a business that uses biology to improve products across a range of industries, from food to fragrances to pharmaceuticals. His focus is the biopharmaceutical industry, and the projects he works on encompass the entire drug development value chain from discovery to deployment.

"​​I sit at the nexus of many teams at Ginkgo, and my job is extremely varied as a result," he said. "As the person responsible for project delivery, I get to work closely with the technical, commercial, legal, finance, and marketing teams, and others. This makes the job perpetually interesting and also gives me the chance to learn something new every day."

Because he deals with so many different teams and clients on a daily basis, Weisser is able to use a wide range of knowledge from his MBP education. Recently, he was asked to estimate the potential value of a customer project, and he directly leveraged the valuation framework and tools used in Technology Commercialization Fundamentals to help him do so — and ultimately help others in the company understand how drugs are valued. 

During the project planning process for a different customer, Weisser's experience from his bioprocess development and microbiology classes helped him intuitively grasp why the customer was having issues with their lead strain and how Ginkgo could add value.

"This meant that I could instantly focus our team's attention on the work that mattered," Weisser said, "and with that, we were able to quickly add value to the customer in the form of an improved strain and process."

Weisser said engineering biology is not easy and the best path forward for a project is not always obvious. Because of that, part of his responsibility is to continually monitor whether the work being done is optimally aligned to the customers' needs — another skill he learned in MBP. 

"I consider my time at MBP as one of the two or three major inflection points that fundamentally changed the trajectory of my career," he said. "The rigor and intensity of the scientific and engineering curriculum gave me a real and intuitive understanding of the key technological drivers underlying the industry. This is an invaluable toolset that helps me contextualize so many things I encounter on a daily basis."

Beyond the toolset, Weisser said it was the knowledge and understanding of the industry that prepared him to succeed professionally.  

"The industry focus of MBP helped me understand how work gets done, who the key players are, and how the industry is structured," he said. "From a recruiting perspective, MBP gave me so many industry connections that helped me understand where my skills would be best leveraged and what type of role would set me on the right trajectory."