Stanford Students in Biodesign and Biopharma [SSB] is Stanford’s largest, oldest, and flagship student group for those interested in biotech & health-tech: building products and technology for healthcare and biomedicine.

Founded in 2001, we aim to cultivate and support an environment of healthcare innovation for students in engineering, design, and pre-health disciplines. We are supported by Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign and the Stanford School of Medicine, who share our goal of encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration when tackling problems in healthcare.

Our Goals

1. Connect members of the Stanford community with advising, mentorship, and opportunities in biomedical innovation. We introduce students to biotechnology, medical device, and pharmaceutical companies, faculty and alumni, and venture capital and private equity firms.

2. Expose students to different pathways to biomedical innovation, such as industry, academia, business/entrepreneurship, and healthcare.

3. Empower students with the tools and experiences to build for healthcare through workshops and targeted coursework on medical device, health technology, and patient-centered design.

Our Initiatives

Catalyst | Stanford’s premiere introduction to biodesign and biotechnology for freshmen and sophomores, including networking with biotech/pharma executives, learning and practicing the biodesign process, and more!

Launchpad | Leads Stanford’s first project-based introductory course to medical device design for undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines.

Connect | Introduces students to opportunities in the biotech, medtech, and biopharma industry through career panels, company tours, and alumni mixers.

Project | Empowers students to explore the biodesign process by providing SSB members with a crash course on how to solve critical unmet medical needs through a hands-on, student run med-tech project.

Conference | Brings cutting-edge research and innovation in biomedicine and healthcare through speaker series, student panels, and an annual spring biodesign conference.

Journal | Directs the production and publication of Probe Magazine, which illuminates topics, issues, and pathways in medicine and technology.

Digital Health | Organizes and runs the CS 522 AI+Health seminar, connects the Stanford community with the latest advances in computational biology & digital health, and works on projects in digital health.

Hackathons | Recreating quarterly bio-hackathons in all fields of biology, including our signature Blueprint datathon; previously coordinated and run by SHIFT.