ATE Project Talks: Antibody Engineering, NexLAB and Alumni networks

Welcome to the 2025 InnovATEBIO series of virtual ATE project talks.  This series features leaders in biotechnology workforce education from across the US sharing their work on exciting projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.  The ATE program supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy.

Each talk will be 20 minutes, followed by 15 minutes for questions and discussion.

View the whole series of Spring 2025 ATE project talks.

Talk 1:  Antibody Engineering and NexLAB

Description: NexLAB is being developed as part our ATE project. It consists of two main components: (1) The Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) and (2) the Content Management System (CMS). The ELN will give students an introduction to recording their laboratory work electronically – required at most companies today. The CMS will give instructors the ability to add course-specific content for their lecture or laboratory courses. In this talk, we will introduce you to NexLAB and show you how to access the Quick Start Guide and Tutorial. We will also introduce you to PAT (Personalized Academic Tutor), the generative AI smart tutor which is integrated into NexLAB, as well as describe our plans to integrate both generative AI and a data science toolbox to NexLAB in the coming months. More details will be presented on PAT and our PILOT (Personalized Instructor and Learning Optimization Toolbox) platform.

Speakers:  Dylan Bulseco, PhD, PI, Sr. VP of R&D, Institute for Future Intelligence, Boston, MA, Andriy Kashyrskyy, intern,  Institute for Future Intelligence

Biography: Dylan is Senior Vice President and a principal scientist at IFI. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and has over 20 years of experience with fluorescence-based instruments, reagents, and applications working on commercialization of both research-use-only and diagnostic instruments as well as medical devices and therapeutics. As a Native Hawaiian, he has also been involved in projects aiming to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in science education and workforce development in both his residency state Massachusetts and his home state Hawaii.

• ATE Project: Integrating Data Science and Hands-on Experience into the Community College Biotechnology Classroom with Applications to Antibody Engineering

Talk 2:  Alumni Success Stories - Podcasts & More

Description: Our project goal has been to drive community college student retention and recruitment by fostering mutually beneficial relationships between students, alumni, and industry to help address the need for skilled biotechnicians nationwide. Objectives: Establish an alumni network to document alumni career pathways for the purpose of educating current and future students. Develop employee and alumni outreach tools to increase alumni and industry engagement creating direct industry interactions between existing and potential community college students.

Speaker:  Dr. Karen Leung, PI, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Biography: Dr. Karen Leung has been a Biotechnology Instructor and internship coordinator at City College of San Francisco since 2013 where she is focused on supporting students to achieve their career and educational goals. For the past seven years she has been engaged in multiple grant projects to develop and implement: 1) innovative professional development training to foster inclusive workplaces for diverse workforce pipelines, 2) novel strategies for engagement between industry, alumni and diverse student populations, and 3) interactive virtual training and events including over a dozen Speed Networking Events. She is currently co-PI on three NSF ATE project grants: 1) Increasing Student Retention and Recruitment through Alumni Programs, Speed Networking, and Industry Engagement, 2) A Collaborative Approach to Work-Based Learning: Building Inclusive Lab Environments, and 3) Journal of Advanced Technological Education (J ATE). She obtained her Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco where she focused on mammalian epigenetics in early development.

• ATE Project:  Increasing Student Retention and Recruitment through Alumni Programs, Speed Networking, and Industry Engagement.
   
• Check out the Biotech Beat Podcast