ATE Project Talks: Expanding Hands-On Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Experience to Engage More Students in Biosciences

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:  Expanding Hands-On Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Experience to Engage More Students in Biosciences 

Description: This ATE Project provides bioscience faculty with tools to connect with various learning styles and trains community college (CC) bioscience faculty to implement supply chain biomanufacturing projects at their colleges in which CC students manufacture biotech products for use in high schools (HS) to bridge bioscience pathways from HS to CC. Viewers will be introduced to project goals, roles of the Project Team, trainings and workshops that were delivered in the first year of this project. Plus a supply chain project implemented by faculty at El Camino College will be highlighted.

Lead Speaker:  Terri Quenzer, PhD, Executive Director, Bioscience Workforce Development Hub, MiraCosta College

Biography:  Dr. Quenzer leads initiatives for California Community College bioscience programs that help bioscience faculty deliver training aligned with industry workforce needs and help community college students gain valuable work-based learning experiences. She worked as an analytical chemist at Pfizer, where she also hired and managed interns, mostly from community colleges. 

Participants: Ying-Tsu Loh, PhD, Co-PI and Executive Director at BABEC, Emily Quach, PhD, Co-PI and Professor of Biology at Laney College, Eduardo Ayala, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biotechnology at El Camino College 

• ATE Project: Expanding Hands-On Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Experience for Diverse Student Populations