Student blogs

On February 5^th, some of us a day-long event called “Getting down to business 2021”. It was for master’s students in the Biomedicine, Bioentrepreneurship, and Toxicology programs. The topic was drug development, and different aspects concerning this field. Because this area is highly interdisciplinary, it is beneficial to listen to different points of view according to area of study while you are learning about it.

It was mainly group work where were we had to complete three assignments based on discussion with the team members. There were 12 groups of about 8 to 9 students each, with participants from all 3 programs.

Schedule

What we did

We were given a case scenario occurring during a hypothetical drug development process. A drug for weight loss that had just successfully passed phase 1, had then been discovered to be potentially expressed in the brain. Therefore, it could possibly cause negative side effects. One person did further research on this topic without informing supervisors or funders, which was a breach of contract.

In our groups, and then in bigger discussion groups with professors, we had to analyze the ethical issues, the concerns about research strategies, the contract, the risks and other concerns we had regarding the case. Following this, we had to give our opinion on the next steps the different participants in this process should take or took. Furthermore, we had to ask ourselves if our reasoning would change if things had been slightly different. For example, if the drug was targeting a very severe disease that did not have a cure or treatment. We wrote reflections and submitted them on canvas.  

Students from different masters could contribute to the discussion in different ways. For instance, the biomedicine students maybe were a bit more interested in the research part and how to design a research plan for the drug and its side effects. Toxicology students were maybe a bit more knowledgeable about safety issues and how to test for them. While bioentrepreneurship students could present us with a more business view of this problem. Together, we were able to discuss different parts of the case scenario and reach consensus.

I found this event very interesting and thought-provoking. A good way to start Applied Communication in Biomedicine 2!