Biotechnology is Not Science Fiction

Christi McDowell-Patterson has spent 20 years in the biotechnology industry. She's seen the industry evolve, and as a manager at Spark Therapeutics, Inc., she's helped rising scientists continue to push the industry forward.

McDowell-Patterson received her PhD in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, and for the past decade, she's served as an Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) member for Northwestern's Master of Biotechnology program (MBP). MBP works closely with its IAB to ensure the academic experience for students prepares them to seamlessly transition into the industry and make an immediate impact.

McDowell-Patterson recently returned to campus for an IAB meeting, and during a break in the gathering, she spoke about the state of the industry, the biggest myths that exist and how she thinks MBP is preparing students to succeed.

How do you describe your role and responsibilities at Spark Therapeutics?

At Spark, I am responsible for two teams: Upstream Process Development (PD) and Pre-Clinical Operations (PCO). My role focuses on building infrastructure and processes (such as training how to implement statistically designed experiments) as well as introducing and fostering industry management practices (such as root cause analysis, conflict resolution, dealing with ambiguity, etc.) into a mostly academic-based environment.

Our mission in Upstream PD is to deliver production processes for novel gene therapies that are suitable for implementation into Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) manufacturing sites to generate clinical and/or commercial products for patients. 

Our mission in Pre-Clinical Operations is to serve as Spark Therapeutics’ research vector core and deliver high-quality, research-grade and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) grade vectors in a timely and efficient manner to support both research and pre-clinical gene therapy programs.

What are the biggest challenges you face in that role?

There's always the technical challenge of getting the work done and getting it done on time, but I think it's also being able to motivate teams to get the work done. Sometimes teams need technical direction, but sometimes teams need, for lack of a better phrase, emotional support. Sometimes teams need help with techniques to solve problems, to resolve conflicts, or to deal with ambiguity.

A lot of my staff are from mostly academic backgrounds, so they're incredibly bright, very talented, and highly educated, but they don't have the industry experience in terms of working in teams. How do we work well together? How do we work across teams or within interdepartmental groups? Things like that.

How do you think MBP prepares students specifically for that teamwork aspect? 

Obviously, the focus in MBP is on the technical piece. It's a Master's in Biotechnology. But along with those technical courses are courses like technology commercialization that give students a good perspective of the other teams they'll have to interact with. They find out how regulatory affairs come into play and how to work in teams. Those types of skills will serve them well so that when they do enter the workforce, it's not a huge surprise or a huge shock.

How else do you think MBP prepares its students to succeed in the biotech industry? 

I think that MBP prepares its students to succeed in the biotech industry by providing a well-rounded experience that includes, but is not limited to the following:

• Relevant course work
• Laboratory classes that emphasize equipment and trends consistent with current industry practices
• Emphasizing “soft skills” along with all of the technical aspects of biotechnology

What do you think is the biggest misconception about biotech?

That it's Voodoo. If you think about using a virus to cure someone, it sounds crazy, and I think a lot of times the public perception can be that it's very much like a science fiction movie. But with every advancement, with every new drug, with every product, there's years and years of research behind that. So it's not like something just kind of popped out and there's some mad scientist. There's a lot of work that goes behind that, and along with all the technical work, there are all these regulatory and compliance hurdles that you have to meet in order to get to the next step. There's just a lot of effort behind all of those treatments, so it's not some crazy science fiction treatment.

What do you think are some of the biggest trends to keep an eye on within the biotechnology field? 

Obviously gene therapy and cell therapy. I think gene therapy is really effective to address rare diseases, and unlike something that's a prophylactic, like a vaccine, that you might need to make huge vats of because everyone needs a flu shot, if you're treating a rare illness, your patient population may be very small. It's a difference in the way that you think about how to make these types of products. What type of facility do you have? What type of equipment do you use? And then on the back end, how do you come up with pricing for these products? If someone's making a gene therapy and supposedly you get one dose of it and then you're cured, how do you price that versus something that you would take over the course of your lifetime? 

There are all these different types of questions, but it's all exciting. The thing I love about it is that it's always changing and I'm always constantly learning something new, so that's exciting.

How do you think MBP is preparing its students to enter this ever-changing field and be prepared to make an immediate impact?

I think the MBP faculty do a great job of meeting with IAB members to learn about current trends, future trends, and what type of equipment students should know how to use. That feedback loop is wonderful and keeps things current. I've been on the board for more than 10 years and I've seen the program really morph to where it is now. I know it's an intense program, I know it's an expensive program, but I think the education that you get out of it is invaluable.

I think the MBP right now is fantastic, and it has a great link between academia and industry. If I could build myself a time machine and go back in time and take the MBP here at Northwestern, I would totally do it.