Brian Cheng, COL & WH ’27, Rockledge, FL
After my tennis coach passed away from the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, I was left with many questions about why patients with rare conditions often have limited treatment options and face so many challenges in accessing proper care. This experience pushed me to learn more, both in the lab and beyond. Working in a rare disease research lab at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) during my first few semesters, I became immersed in the science behind these conditions. Yet, as I spoke with rare disease patients and families, I realized that there was a great and complex schism between breakthrough bench side discoveries and what ultimately reaches patients at the bedside.
Interested in learning more about this gap, I decided to pursue a summer internship at a biopharma venture capital firm, where I was able to step outside of the lab and explore the translational process from the perspective of Wall Street. I came into the internship with more of a scientific lens but wanted to understand how therapies move through the pipeline, from early discovery to clinical trials, regulatory review, and ultimately commercialization. My day to day consisted of creating market maps of biotech companies, understanding their science through literature reviews, and keeping up with the news and trends in the biopharma space.
What struck me most was how different stakeholders like scientists, investors, and regulators each brought their own perspectives and priorities. A promising discovery in the lab may face hurdles in manufacturability, administration, or reimbursement. Conversely, a therapy that may seem incremental from a scientific perspective could make a large difference in the lives of patients, especially those suffering from orphan diseases. My role at the firm required me to balance both lenses: to apply scientific rigor while also considering business strategy, competitive landscapes, and patient impact.
One of my favorite projects I worked on was the opportunity to evaluate a company developing therapies for metabolic diseases. I had to not only keep in mind the scientific data but also the market size and how to compete with other therapeutics in the crowded and growing metabolic disease market. I believe the skills I picked up from my time doing research was a value add to my experience as I was able to interpret data more effectively and was able to ask meaningful questions.
By the end of the summer, I was able to apply a much broader lens to the research I did during my earlier years at Penn and the general process on how scientific discoveries can lead to new therapies. I learned that progress in rare diseases requires more than just strong science; it demands collaboration across disciplines and alignment between stakeholders who may not always be on the same page. My time this summer gave me a clearer sense of how I hope to contribute in the future: by bridging my scientific training with an understanding of business and translational medicine, I want to play a role in ensuring that discoveries in the lab do not remain abstract but become real treatments for patients in need.
I would like to thank Penn’s Career Services team for helping to fund my experience this summer and giving me this learning opportunity. Through this internship, I developed a strong foundation in evaluating biotech companies and understanding the translational process that bridges laboratory discoveries with real-world therapies. These skills will be invaluable as I continue exploring how to support the rare disease community.
This is part of a series of posts by recipients of the 2025 Career Services Summer Funding Grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they spent their summer. You can read the entire series here
