Engaging student opinions on vaccine development innovation: Experiences from a “Shark Tank” project.

A graduate course on vaccine development challenged students to propose concepts to improve upon current vaccine development paradigms in the context of a “Shark Tank-style” format where students were asked to develop an abbreviated business plan and make a pitch to the “Sharks” (experienced academic and industrial vaccine researchers and developers) where they could request funding, research collaborations or regulatory guidance. Students were graded based on the components of their plan and on their ability to convince the “Sharks” of the feasibility and innovation potential of their project proposals.

This approach to teaching vaccine development explored areas where novel approaches would be helpful and assessed current gaps in vaccine innovation. The class also utilized artificial intelligence-based contributions using ChatGPT which has also been summarized. This summary of the collective view of the class provides recommendation for future campaigns to develop new vaccines and therapeutics.

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