The University of Arizona Alumnus / Winter 2009
The Business of Mergers
by Carolyn Niethammer
Jacob Chinn photos
On a hot day in June when the temperature in Phoenix soared well past 110, Brice Akridge ’02 was in an air-conditioned lab contemplating the skull of a person who died in the 1970s. It wasn’t clear who the person was — it was Akridge’s job to test the mitochondrial DNA, compare it with several possible relatives, and make an identification.
Akridge works for both the FBI and the Arizona Department of Public Safety, investigating cold and missing-persons cases, and identifying human remains from all over the country.
“Mitochondrial DNA is housed in a subcellular structure that stays around longer than nuclear DNA in skeletal remains including bones, teeth, and hair, so it’s helpful in cold cases,” Akridge explains.
It’s engaging work, and he is delighted to have found his niche. Back in 2001, he was fresh out of college with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He knew he wanted to go to graduate school, but wasn’t sure of his direction as he considered careers in applied science or patent law.
In order to find that next step, Akridge enrolled in the Professional Science Master’s (PSM) Program in Applied Science and Business at The University of Arizona.
The PSM program was started in 2000 with a $400,000 seed grant from the Sloan Foundation to promote a new type of terminal master’s degree for scientists akin to an M.B.A. for business majors or a J.D. for lawyers. Today it is funded by a combination of corporate support, state funding, and small grants.
According to the program’s director, Alaina G. Levine ’96 ’97, its goal is to educate students for scientific careers in industry or for professional careers in such fields as product development, marketing, or technology transfer in science-based organizations. Students choose a broad track in applied biosciences or applied and industrial or medical physics. They take core science classes in the College of Science, three business classes, and choose science electives that support their interests. They finish up with an internship and complete a final project that marries science and business.
“Participants can choose classes and projects in the medical school, cancer center, agriculture college, law school, or biomedical engineering — anything that supports their goal,” Levine says.
Each student is also assigned a mentor with a career in business or industry in the community.
“We’re constantly exposing the students to various aspects of industry by bringing in speakers, creating special events, and arranging for leadership lunches where a few students go to lunch with a CEO of a company,” Levine says. “We also arrange for them to attend industry conferences for free.”
The model worked well for Akridge.
“I had control over what I wanted to do,” he says. “I wasn’t pigeonholed into a specific place.”
Akridge wasn’t sure where he’d work after receiving his P.S.M. degree, but it turns out practically everything he studied has made him more effective at his job at the crime lab.
His college research involved DNA, so he got experience with the equipment and techniques he’s using now.
He learned how to read and make up a balance sheet, useful skills as he takes care of the ordering and inventorying of supplies for his lab.
“There was also a big emphasis on oral and written communication,” Akridge recalls. “In explaining our final projects, we had to learn to communicate to both business people and scientists. In my work, I have to be able to explain things to detectives, lawyers, and juries. When I testify in court, I need to express myself in a clear manner.”
Akridge is one of approximately 60 graduates of Arizona’s PSM Program. Half of them enter the program having already spent some time working in industry.
According to Levine, the University of Arizona program stands out because it graduates a high percentage of Hispanic and American Indian students, setting them on the road to successful careers.
And those careers pay well, too. Graduates of the PSM program have a median starting salary of $52,000 per year and after four years on the job are making an average of $64,000.
Nicole Schechter ’08 was a scientist looking to understand business when she began her PSM studies. She already had a bachelor’s degree in zoology and biological sciences and more than 14 years of research experience.
“The program was good for me, because it combined business management and product development with genetics,” she says. “It is important for modern scientists to also understand business.”
For further business direction, she also entered the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program in the Eller College of Management.
As she got to the point of choosing a final project, a serendipitous set of circumstances involving other UA alumni led Schechter to the perfect product. Don Connelly ’78 had been in nursing-home administration for years, and had noted how difficult it was for his aging clients to manipulate a standard wheelchair. While discussing the subject over beers with a former Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brother, Mark Mittelstaedt ’77, they came up with an idea to add levers to the chair’s axles, making it easier to propel the chairs. They set out to create a prototype. But with full-time jobs, they didn’t have time to commercialize the device. Through another laboratory-related project, they ended up talking it over with Schechter ‘s husband, Jason Schechter, who was excited to get involved with a product that could help so many wheelchair users. Nicole joined the team and wrote a business plan for her PSM project.
“There are over 2 million users of manual wheelchairs in the country,” Nicole says, “and they have to exert a lot of effort to move their chairs up steep inclines or over rough surfaces such as grass, gravel, or sand. This leads to nearly 400,000 repetitive strain injuries every year. And they have to move the chair by gripping the wheels. This is like wiping your hands over the bottoms of your shoes.”
The new device, called LeverDrive, solves many of these problems and more. It consists of an aluminum lever on each side of the chair, integrated into the wheelchair’s wheels, that a user pumps to move, steer, and brake. The levers make it easier for users to manipulate their chairs and the levers reduce the risk of injury. (You can see a video of LeverDrive in action at the company’s Web site www.leverdrive.com).
“We tested the LeverDrive at the University of Arizona Disability Resource Center and at Devon Gables Nursing Home,” Schechter says, “and made a few modifications. Now we’re about to go into full production — it is going to be built in Tucson. We hope to keep it affordable — around a thousand dollars.”
But the work wasn’t all about hardware — there’s also paperwork to get the device recognized as ADA compliant, FDA accepted, and VA and Medicare approved. Another Phi Gamma Delta brother, James H. Dyer ’75 ’78 is helping with that.
Now that the partners have gotten LeverDrive past so many hurdles, Schechter’s lessons in business management and entrepreneurship will be tested as she and her colleagues take LeverDrive to millions worldwide.
The national E. coli spinach scare in 2006 launched two PSM students on a quest to develop and market a better, quicker test for the bacteria. Alicia Reeves ’03 ’06 ’07 had finished a degree in basic science in physiology and was working in clinical research at the University of Arizona Cancer Center when she entered the PSM program in 2004.
“Since I was taking on more of a role as a laboratory manager, I had to coordinate strategies for the lab and budgets and that is what attracted me to the program,” she explains. As she became more interested in business, she decided to concurrently enroll in the MBA program in the Eller College of Management.
Olin Feuerbacher ’00 entered the program a year later. “I’d always had an entrepreneurial side,” he says. “As an undergrad I started a marine hatchery for clown fish and sea horses. But I needed to learn the basis of a business operation, how to do things properly. I liked the PSM project because I could tailor the program to fit my goals.”
As the time came for them to decide on a final project, E.coli-contaminated spinach had caused more than 200 illnesses and three deaths. Feuerbacher knew of a rapid diagnostic process developed by a UA professor that would work for detecting the presence of E.coli. He and Reeves teamed up and traveled to California to meet with some farmers to discuss what they needed in a testing product.
“Our process can detect any large molecular target, including bacteria or viruses, and can find hundreds of pathogens at one time,” Feuerbacher explains. “And it can be accomplished in about 30 minutes in the field rather than three to six hours in a lab.” For now they are looking at water testing, later it will be broadened to food.
Today Reeves and Feuerbacher have space at the Arizona Center for Innovation and are both working other jobs as they face the challenges of bringing a new project to market. From the contacts they made through the PSM program, they know people to call when they hit a snag or need advice.
“We’ve faced technological difficulties, and we have had to deal with intellectual property issues and securing the licenses,” Reeves says. “We’re accumulating funding through grants and private investment to do the R&D. We’ve got about six months left of laboratory work to get a prototype out for testing.”
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