Biotech Beat: Working at a Biotech Startup: Challenging AND Rewarding

Tune in to the April 9, 2025 episode of the Biotech Beat podcast, where Adia describes her career in biotechnology. Adia's family was already in the biotech field so when it was time to make a career choice, she knew enough to feel that the field would be a good fit for her too. It did not hurt that she is in the Durham, North Carolina area, where there are a lot of biotechnology and biomanufacturing opportunities!  Adia is currently working at Humacyte, a 20 year old biotech startup where her role on the 2D bioprocessing team as a Bioprocessing Associate I, is to grow cells that will help produce Humacyte's FDA approved product: acellular tissue engineered vessels that are universally implantable. Her day-to-day tasks include monitoring alarms, cleaning and prepping equipment, cell seeding, counting, and harvesting. Adia is really excited to be part of an opportunity to grow blood vessels and to grow in her role at the company.

Adia started her work journey with house sitting and baby sitting, and a brief stint at T.J. Maxx where she discovered retail was not a good fit.  She was then hired at Grifols, and she feels that her two Associates degrees (one finished while she was at Grifols) and in particular her BioWork certificate, earned at Johnston Community College,  definitely helped get her foot in the door. And when she applied to Humacyte she almost immediately had to let them know that she was starting her undergraduate degree at East Carolina University--the Humacyte hiring team was very impressed with her perseverance. She credits her community college time with helping her learn adaptability because she was in school during the COVID pandemic and had to pivot for the first time from in-person to online classes.

Adia had to make up some classes, and felt that she was not as focused as she could have been, but despite the challenges of school, and the extensive training that her jobs have required, she feels biotech is very rewarding as she helps make a life-saving product. She believes the degree program she is currently enrolled in, a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in management, will work had-in-hand with her experience in biotech and be even more valuable as her career develops.

Tune in on Spotify, iHeart Radio, or Apple Podcasts for more of Adia's story and why she thinks community college education, including certificates and degrees, is great preparation for working in biotech.