ATE Biotechnology Projects

There is a renewed sense of urgency to develop a more diverse workforce in STEM-related fields. This project focuses on community college students from groups that are not yet equitably represented in STEM. These communities have also been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most workforce interventions to prepare students for technical positions have been based on the premise that the students simply need targeted skill training and tips on behavioral norms to be successful in these workplace cultures. This “student deficit” model puts the burden on the newcomer to navigate ... Read more

The overall vision of the Bioscience Emerging Technician project at Atlanta Technical College is to increase the knowledge of emerging bioscience career opportunities among groups historically underserved in STEM in the metropolitan Atlanta area. This three-year project plans to engage dual-enrollment students in unique summer workshops, support an industry speaker’s series, provide tours of biotechnology companies, and develop a first-year experience seminar course. These experiences will be designed to teach students the skills they will need for employment in the field. Students who ... Read more

The biomanufacturing industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. It is also known for its continuous attention to modernizing its facilities and adopting new technologies. Emerging technologies are rapidly changing the landscape of biomanufacturing. As a result, biomanufacturing technicians require new courses and workforce skills to stay current. This project will facilitate development of a learn-by-doing instructional model that combines a traditional, in-person laboratory with virtual experimentation. The project predicts that this blended learning environment, which ... Read more

Texas Southmost student, Juan Silva, teaching students at the 2019 Biotech Summer ​​​camp about ELISAs This project plans to build a Biotechnology Unified Education Network of Opportunities (BUENO) in the Lower Rio Grande Valley that will offer a clear path for undergraduates into careers in biotechnology-based STEM fields. The project includes three major activities: 1) curriculum and educational materials development; 2) professional development for educators; and 3) program development and improvement. The main goal of the BUENO Project is to build the first biotechnology program in the ... Read more

The Madison, Wisconsin, region has a high concentration of jobs in bioscience industries. For example, it ranks fourth in the nation for concentration of pharmaceutical industries. The existing Biotechnology Program at Madison Area Technical College has a 90% job placement rate, but does not produce sufficient graduates to meet regional industry demands. This project will establish a nine-credit Biotechnology Program for liberal arts and undeclared students at Madison Area Technical College. By integrating biotechnology laboratory skills and career development experiences into the general ... Read more

Recent innovations in personalized medicine have spurred rapid growth in the regional biopharmaceutical industry and an increased demand for skilled technicians. Working closely with industry leaders, this project from Frederick Community College will create a specialized curriculum to meet the needs of the regional biotechnology workforce. Over the three-year project, 25 students will gain specialized skills in cell therapy and flow cytometry as part of an associate’s degree, certificate, letter of recognition, or Registered Apprenticeship pathway. The overall enrollment in the Frederick ... Read more

Recent innovations have enabled development of new therapies that reengineer the body’s immune system. These therapies include medical treatments with bioengineered cells (cell therapy) and medical treatments with drugs or other molecules that alter immune system function (immunotherapy). With the rapid development of these therapies, the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry has made major advancements toward curing some of society’s most devastating cancers and diseases. Manufacture of these therapies requires large numbers of skilled biomanufacturing technicians. Yet, due to the relative novelty ... Read more

This project aims to coordinate a network of stakeholders that will promote economic growth through workforce development in Advanced Manufacturing of Cell and Tissue-based Products (CAMCTP). CAMCTP requires a new kind of manufacturing that uses robotics, microfluidics, 3-D printing, computational modeling, and novel types of engineering to construct biologically relevant products composed of living cells in combination with natural or synthetic materials. The field is built upon advances in stem cell biology, genome editing, synthetic biology, computational modeling, micro- and nano- ... Read more

The growth of Texas companies that manufacture biological products on a contract basis has created a local and regional workforce need. This project proposes to serve this growing biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry by developing an advanced biomanufacturing certificate and educating a skilled and diverse biomanufacturing technical workforce. The new certificate will be designed to incorporate interactive and inquiry-based laboratory learning and to provide students with real world experience with biotechnical/biomanufacturing equipment. The project will also implement new strategies for ... Read more

The United States Biotechnology Industry has increasing demand for jobs based on DNA sequencing technology. The U.S. DNA sequencing market is estimated at $2.8 billion dollars for 2020 and on-track to grow to $5 billion by 2027, a compound annual growth rate of 16.6%. Biotechnicians with specialized training to run DNA sequencing instrumentation are needed to fill the jobs in this growing sector. Texas currently has 63 DNA sequencing facilities, 60 of which are located within 250 miles of this workforce education project. To fulfill industry needs for trained technicians in this field, Austin ... Read more

Johnston Community College’s (JCC) Expanding a Multi-skilled STEM Technician Pipeline to Meet Industry Needs “Bio Blend 2.0” seeks to better prepare students to meet biotechnology company hiring needs and to improve employment outcomes for underserved populations, specifically focusing our recruitment of neurodiverse individuals on the autism spectrum. JCC is located one hour south of Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, where the demand for well-trained and diverse biopharma technicians is growing and exceeding the number of technicians currently produced from local and regional ... Read more

The St. Louis region is home to many agricultural technology industries based on plant science research. These include both large companies such as Bayer Crop Sciences (formerly Monsanto) and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and small start-up companies. As basic research in genetics leads to the development of new technologies across these companies, current and future employees must learn new skills. Through this project, to address growing industry education and training needs, St. Louis Community College (STLCC) will develop new courses in targeted genome editing to enhance its ... Read more

An urgent need exists for a highly trained, diverse life sciences research workforce to support the rapidly expanding U.S. biotechnology industry. To address this need, this award will enable Wistar Institute to entirely re-design an existing hands-on, mentored technician training program and expand it to additional community colleges. The project will provide students with research experiences required for employment as technicians in biomedical research. Students will participate in an accelerated, paid summer program that includes pre-apprenticeship training, a hands-on Orientation at ... Read more

Over the past four years more than 30 cell and gene therapy companies have started or become located in Montgomery County, Maryland, making it an emerging center for biopharmaceutical industries. Montgomery College will address the critical workforce needs of this growing industry by increasing the number of work-ready biotechnicians with a focus on cell and gene therapy. The biotechnology program at Montgomery College will add a new Certificate in Cell and Gene therapy with an expected annual enrollment of 20 students by 2025. They will combine this new certificate program with two new micro ... Read more

This project will drive community college student retention and recruitment in biotechnology fields by fostering mutually beneficial relationships between students, alumni, industry, and the community. The need for biotechnicians is increasing nationwide, requiring an ever-expanding pool of skilled biotechnicians. This project will focus on activities to develop and test methodologies to directly engage graduates of community college biotechnology programs in alumni networks and activities. These activities will expand awareness of biotechnology career pathways and build direct industry ... Read more

The number of biomanufacturing companies in the United States is upwards of 350 and growing. The demand for advanced technology technicians educated in the skills, knowledge and attributes of biomanufacturing remains high and is currently not being met by 4-year college graduates entering the job market. "The Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity and Production" recognized the importance of community college biomanufacturing programs in educating this workforce, and this Center will continue to create local infrastructures and a national network to support the ... Read more

Advances at the intersection of biomedical devices and tissue engineering are creating new workforce demands for advanced technological education. With the development of combination devices, sensors, photonics, and implantable systems, employers need technician-specialists who understand more than classical biological and chemical sciences and traditional engineering. The emerging technician-specialist will also need to understand fundamental principles of electronics engineering, mechanical engineering, nanotechnology, optics, photonics, and process-control/quality assurance. Through its ... Read more

The rapid expansion of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing into every subdiscipline of biomedical research requires concomitant training of qualified technicians. The Technician Training in Gene Editing (TTiGE) project addresses this need through a collaboration between instructors at Delaware Technical Community College (DTCC) and scientists at the Gene Editing Institute (GEI). Through this partnership, the latest techniques and applications of gene editing being used in the research settings of GEI will be integrated into student-centered curriculum in several courses in the DTCC Biotechnology program ... Read more