An aura of a world-class industry floats around the 82,500 square foot ultramodern BTEC-Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center on Centennial Campus. Through the center’s large glass windows, passersby can see students wearing lab coats and safety glasses working on high performance machines. But unlike most labs, theirs is alive.
“BTEC is a state of North Carolina funded facility and a bio manufacturing training center for not only students but also professional individuals who wish to pursue education and industry experience,” Winnell Newman, the manager for student programs at BTEC, said.
BTEC is housed by the College of Engineering and attracts students across majors from engineering, CALS and all those interested in experiencing industry-level, hands-on tasks in the field of biomanufacturing. Biomanufacturing involves production of biomedical products from cell culture other organic media. BTEC was founded August 2007 and since then it has witnessed an increasing number of students enrolling in its courses.
BTEC offers a minor degree in biomanufacturing, which can help students become accustomed to an industry-like environment. Concurrent to the minor, the faculty at BTEC provides trainees from pharmaceutical companies gain an updated knowledge in biomanufacturing.
“Our courses give students an edge to perform well in the bio-tech world, and complement courses like biotechnology and biomedical engineering, just with an extra taste of an uncanny resemblance to actual industries,” Newman said. “The future of biomanufacturing is going to be glorious and more and more pharmaceutical companies want to hire young professionals who possess a cutting edge over the others, which is absolutely realized and achieved by BTEC.”
Newman said BTEC courses are also designed for the laid-off workers who can master their skills in biomanufacturing and become competent for a job in upcoming companies. The center also offers a post-baccalaureate certificate for workers.
BTEC hosts a faculty from diverse areas of sciences and brings it them together in this emerging field. Reuben Carbonell, a chemical and biomolecular engineering professor, directs the center, BTEC’s upstream processes are taught by John Shepperd, a food processing professor and Gary Gilleskie guides students through the downstream processes. In biomanufacturing, upstream processes involve cell culture and harvest, while downstream processes involve maintenance of bioreactors.
“Sixty-five percent of our faculty comprises of industry personnel and the rest 35 percent are academic experts,” Newman said. The blend of academic and industry masters gives BTEC an overall focus on the exposure of the students to the industry-like mechanisms.
The biomanufacturing minor is usually chosen by students pursuing COE, CALS or PAMS majors, such as chemical and biomolecular engineering, chemistry, biological sciences, genetics, microbiology, biochemistry and animal science. Unrelated majors such as mechanical engineering students usually opt for an undergraduate certificate course in biomanufacturing.
Nick Butterbaugh, a senior in bioprocessing with a minor in biomanufacturing completed his three years of training at BTEC last fall.
“BTEC has helped me get a hands-on experience in an industry-like atmosphere over the three years of training”, Butterbaugh said. “I am extremely confident of getting a job in the area of biomanufacturing, after my graduation, this December. Recruiting companies can save their time and money training BTEC students, and that makes us competent over other students looking for jobs in biomanufacturing.”
Along with degree students, BTEC also serves companies and government agencies for biomanufacturing and bioprocessing training. According to the BTEC website, in Nov. 2011, the fifth cohort of trainees from the FDA began a series of training courses that BTEC provides to the agency on a contract basis. BTEC also conducted three courses during the year, for selected influenza vaccine manufacturers over the globe after it received an $861,453 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
“BTEC also received funding from the state of North Carolina’s taxpayer money, grants and company short courses,” Newman said. “The BTEC building on N.C. State’s Centennial Campus is built with the support of Golden Leaf’s Tobacco Settlement Fund.”
Some of the current research at BTEC includes vaccine production, antibody fragment expression system in ‘Chinese Hamster Ovary- CHO,’ which provides mammalian cell lines for experimentation. BTEC houses modern equipment like bioreactors, disc-stack centrifuges and chromatography purification systems, making it a high technology center in this field.
“We have a 100 percent job placement rate for students minoring in biomanufacturing,” Newman said. “The upcoming BTEC/ISPE career fair to be held at BTEC facility on Centennial campus on Feb. 24, can give a thorough insight to our prospective students about the future of biomanufacturing and a guaranteed successful career in this field.”
