Biomedical Engineering Society Hosts Networking Event with M2D2-based Companies
Image by Ed Brennen
11/17/2021
By Ed Brennen
One of the best things about her internship at medical device startup RevBio, says biomedical engineering alumna Molly Shutt 鈥�21, was that every day seemed different.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a startup, so you鈥檙e on every project and handed a lot of responsibility,鈥� says Shutt, who interned during her junior year at the Lowell-based company, which is developing a novel synthetic bone adhesive. 鈥淚 got to see a lot of different things, from mechanical testing to working with surgeons in cadaver labs. I came out of it with experience that I never could get just sitting in a class.鈥�
She also came out of the internship with something else: a job offer. Shutt was hired as a product development engineer at RevBio after graduating last spring.
Shutt shared her story with nearly 50 engineering, biology, chemistry and biomedical and nutritional science students during a recent networking event co-hosted by the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (M2D2) and the UML student chapter of the .
Dubbed a 鈥淪tudent Intern and Employer Mashup,鈥� the event included a dozen resident companies from M2D2, an incubator program for early-stage medical device and biotech startups that is a joint venture between UML and the .
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Held at M2D2鈥檚 110 Canal St. location in downtown Lowell, the event was the idea of junior biomedical engineering majors Devon Hartigan and Irene Frechette, co-presidents of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
鈥淢2D2 is so close and they have so many of these great companies, so it just seemed like common sense that we would have more of a connection,鈥� says Hartigan, who along with Frechette pitched the event idea to M2D2 Director of Operations Mary Ann Picard at the beginning of the semester.
鈥淲e鈥檙e thrilled to support it,鈥� Picard says. 鈥淎ll of our startup companies make use of interns, and they鈥檙e not always aware of the high level of talent that鈥檚 here on campus. It was a great opportunity for them to get to meet each other.鈥�
Cameron Methot, a senior biology major from Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, told students about his summer internship at Versatope, a biotech startup developing vaccines and therapeutics. He now works at the company 16 hours a week as a process development technician.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been such a great experience,鈥� says Methot, who learned about the opportunity through the Professional Co-op Program. 鈥淢y work revolves around the upstream and downstream processes of a 5-liter bioreactor, which is new to me entirely. I don鈥檛 know anyone my age that鈥檚 done work with bioreactors.鈥�
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Hyalex Orthopaedics, a company that is developing synthetic cartilage technology, has hired five interns from UML over the past five years 鈥� two of whom became full-time employees.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had really great experiences with UML students,鈥� says Shimon Unterman, a senior scientist at Hyalex who notes that 鈥渙ur goal is to help students understand the process of what you actually do in industry, not just the physical steps in the lab.鈥�
That鈥檚 also the case at MedicaMetrix, a medical device company working to advance prostate disease management.
鈥淲e鈥檙e looking for students interested in seeing the full range of making a startup biomedical device happen,鈥� says COO and co-founder Christopher LaForge. 鈥淚nterns have the opportunity to participate not just in the engineering and testing side of things, but also the regulatory side.鈥�
LaForge says they鈥檝e recruited interns 鈥渕ostly from 51视频,鈥� including Shalmali Salunke 鈥�21, who was hired as a product development engineer at the company last spring after earning a master鈥檚 degree in plastics engineering.
MedicaMetrix caught the eye of William Zouzas, a senior biomedical engineering major from Chelmsford, Massachusetts, who came to the event in search of a spring or summer internship.
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鈥淎 lot of career fairs are more general; I like how this was really tailored to biomedical engineering and biotech,鈥� says Zouzas, who completed a six-month co-op at NxStage Medical in Lawrence, Massachusetts, last year.
鈥淚鈥檓 interested in seeing how smaller companies operate,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 talking to all the medical device companies; that鈥檚 my focus.鈥�
Saim Waqas, a junior biomedical engineering major from Pakistan, handed out his r茅sum茅 to several companies that do tissue engineering and cell cultures.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great event because it鈥檚 more personal. You can talk one-on-one,鈥� he says.
Other companies at the event were Advanced Silicon Group; AltrixBio; Gelformed; Haystack Diagnostics; Glyscend; EnVision Endoscopy; and Hologic.
Glyscend, a company that develops drugs for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, has hired eight interns over the past three years and was looking for its ninth 鈥� a polymer chemist in training.
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鈥淲e鈥檙e always coming back to this well, because it鈥檚 been hugely impactful for us,鈥� says Director of Operations Kevin Colbert, who co-founded the company, located at M2D2鈥檚 Wannalancit Business Center site on East Campus.
鈥淚 was sitting in a chair like that not too many years ago,鈥� Colbert told students. 鈥淚 would have given anything to be part of a small company in the biotech space. You should definitely take advantage of every opportunity, because you can do a lot of learning in this type of internship.鈥�
Shutt, who is now pursuing a master鈥檚 degree in biomedical engineering and biotechnology while working at RevBio, agreed.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do too much networking when I was an undergrad,鈥� she says, 鈥渟o it鈥檚 great to see students here asking lots of good questions.鈥�