BioAgenda Educational Programs are at the core of our mission. As a young organization, the BioAgenda Institute is creating several programs in various stages of development. We are working with or are in discussion with nonprofits, universities, and other organizations to co-organize and co-fund some of these programs.

Online Library. A library of articles chosen for excellence and educational value from top science writers, thinkers, scientists, and others on critical topics in biotech and life sciences that will impact society, such as stem cells, drug pricing, politics and science, globalism, and new scientific innovations. The Library will also be the repository of discussions and dialog from the BioAgenda Summits and other events.

Target:  By February, 2006: 50 articles.

Target:  By June, 2006: 150 articles plus events content.  

BioAgenda Challenges. Leaders and prominent thinkers issue their own challenges about how to improve an issue, with analysis of the problem as they see it and a suggested solution. In some cases, the Challenge will be followed up by an Institute White Paper that will be prepared by researchers working with an expert panel; the paper will be presented to the appropriate authorities (Congress, other government leaders, business, academics) as an analysis and discussion of policy options.

Target: Four Challenges delivered by June 2006, including the two already delivered at the BioAgenda 2004 Summit (below), with two followed up by White Papers to be completed by December, 2006.

1.  Lee Hood, MD, PhD, challenged medical school and hospitals to reform medical education for the genomics age.

2.  William Haseltine, PhD, challenged the biotech and pharma industries to reform how they pay for and develop new drugs.

BioAgenda Innovators. These are scientists on the leading edge of innovation in biotech and life sciences, chosen by the BioAgenda Team with input from the Board of Advisors and the Council of Journalists. At the annual Summit, the scientists present brief overviews of their work.

Target: BioAgenda identified three Innovators at the BioAgenda 2004 Summit and will choose and name three more innovators in 2005-2006. Current BioAgenda Innovators are:

• Cynthia Kenyon, PhD, Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco: Extending the lifespan of C. elegans using key regulator genes.

• Floyd Romesberg, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, The Scripps Research Institute: Synthetic nucleotides, developing new life forms and tools to analyze the nano-machinery of how evolution works.

• Jennifer Elisseeff, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University: Bioengineering tissues on demand using innovative materials sciences and lasers.   

Fellowships in Life Science Policy. This is a pilot program for a larger fellowship program to be developed in 2006-2008. We are planning to offer a cash stipend to a three-person team: a scientist, journalist, and policy leader, that will take a sabbatical to pursue a topic they have proposed to educate themselves and to further the study and discussion of an important biotech and life sciences issue. BioAgenda Fellows will be chosen by a committee of judges and will be awarded at the BioAgenda 2006 Summit. The amount and duration of the fellowships are to be determined.

Target:  Three BioAgenda Fellows chosen for awards at the BioAgenda 2006 Summit.

Packaging and Distribution of BioAgenda Content. Thus far, BioAgenda has generated more than 21 hours of compelling dialogue with top thought leaders about critical issues and policy affecting the biotech and life sciences industries. BioAgenda will create at least another 20-plus hours of new content during the coming year. This material will be packaged into transcripts, webcasts, and DVD distribution for the business, government, and educational communities, as well as the general public.

Target:  12 hours packaged by January 2006; an additional 12 hours packaged by July 2006.  

Summit Media Event. At each annual Summit, BioAgenda will create a signature media roundtable in partnership with a major publishing or broadcast organization. The content from that roundtable will then be distributed by the media partner. At the 2004 Summit, Discover Magazine partnered on this roundtable: "The politics of biotech: how best should leading-edge science move forward in an age of political polarization?" The resulting article will be published in the February 2006 issue of Discover Magazine.

Target: At least one major media event at each Summit.

GAPCures Initiative. Founded by leaders in the biotech industry, the GAPCures Initiative is a project to analyze where the gaps are in getting critical treatments to developing world areas that fall in the "gaps" between current aid programs and market economies. The initiative is the BioAgenda Institute's first major think-tank policy project -- a pilot program for more to come.

GAPCures Mission Statement: The GAPCures Project is dedicated to finding a sustainable, industry-led effort to provide novel medications for resource-constrained areas around the world that fall in the gap between developed market economies and existing international programs. The Project will initially focus its efforts on understanding the gap by bringing together such leaders and participants in global health, including representation from industry, Gates Foundation, treating physicians in resource-constrained areas, WHO, multi-lateral organizations, NGOs with expertise in finding practical solutions for the poor, and so forth.

Target: BioAgenda is assisting the GAPCures Initiative in preparing a White Paper analysis assessing the "gaps" and formulating a plan of action, which will be presented at the BioAgenda 2006 Summit in Palm Springs on March 8-10.

Co-funded by the GAPCures Initiative. Other sponsorship opportunities are available.

Arts and Science Program. Readings, visual art, plays, short films, and other offerings that encompass the themes of scientific discovery and its implications for the present and future, presented at various events and at the "Arts Evening" that opens the annual BioAgenda Summit.

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