Gaston College Receives $173,626 Grant for BioTech Lab
Gaston College has received a grant for $173,626 from the Duke Energy Community College Grant Program to equip a state-of-the-art biotechnology laboratory. This laboratory will support the necessary programs, courses, and workforce training for current and potential jobs in local biotech and pharmaceutical industries. The lab is necessary to support the College’s new course offerings in genetics and biotechnology, in industrial engineering technology with a biotech option, and in bioinformatics. It will also benefit local textile companies, the key to whose survival in the global marketplace lies in developing high-tech niche markets and in prototyping new concepts for nanotechnology, biotechnology, and other innovative developments in textiles.According to Melissa Armstrong, Ph.D., chair of the Gaston College science department and director of this project, "The highly specialized equipment and instrumentation this grant will buy is fundamental to training students in the basic knowledge and skills for biotech industries. Pharmaceutical and bio-pharmaceutical manufacturing are highly regulated. Good Manufacturing Practice guidelines govern processes down to the smallest detail, and a single failure to observe or document these details can result in a million-dollar loss to a company. Being able to provide experience with this equipment and these processes is, therefore, critical to meeting the documented need for lab technicians."
Gaston College will soon be offering two courses that are not yet available in other community colleges in the Charlotte economic region: BIO 250: Introduction to Genetics; and BIO 280, Introduction to Biotechnology. These courses will provide adaptable high-tech career training as the biotechnology industry develops locally—including opportunities for high school science teachers and other area professionals to update their credentials.
In accepting this generous grant from Duke Energy, Gaston College President Pat Skinner reflected on the fact that the loss of textile jobs had left Gaston County with a large un- or under-employed workforce with manufacturing experience, a strong work ethic, and solid roots in this community. "The specific need this project addresses is retraining these workers," she said.
Skinner also noted that the development of this biotechnology initiative is the result of a strong partnership with other area colleges and local economic development agencies. The initiative has led to Gaston College ’s recent receipt of several grants from the Golden LEAF Foundation through the North Carolina Community College System office (NCCCS) for onsite and distance learning biotechnology programs. Among these grants was a $320,000 award to establish and host a statewide BioNetwork Center to develop and deliver biotechnology training courses and continuing education modules, called the BioNetwork BioEd Center.
David Brigham, Ph.D., manager of the BioEd Center , which will also have access to this lab, said, "A lab of this kind is necessary for building foundational skills in many areas of biotechnology. Although 67% of the jobs in these industries can be filled by workers with a two-year degree or less, the typical biotech or pharmaceutical factory floor has far more stringent protocols than the usual industrial or manufacturing workplace. A training lab that replicates such an environment is an expensive but necessary investment—both for careers and jobs that are already emerging across the state, as well as for local economic development agencies in marketing the area to new and expanding biotech businesses."
Barry Matherly, executive director of the Lincoln Economic Development Association in Lincolnton, commented that "The ‘technology’ in biotechnology leads many people to envision space-age manufacturing and industry, when in fact biotechnology is as old as beer- and wine-making. In rural Lincoln County , we have already made important progress in recruiting new companies and businesses involved in food-processing—among them, several vineyards and wineries, the latter of which qualify as manufacturing enterprises. What food-processing and wineries have in common with other biotechnology businesses is the higher degree of regulation involved in their processes. That is where prior experience in a biotechnology lab becomes critical."
Edward F. Hoerning, laboratory manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture lab in Gastonia , was also supportive of this grant. "Over the nearly 25 years that I have been involved with the U.S.D.A. lab in Gastonia , it has been very difficult to find qualified laboratory researchers and technicians locally, "Hoerning said.
"Most of us were recruited from outside the area and outside the state. For the Central Piedmont area of North Carolina to become a manufacturing center in biotechnology, it is essential that courses in genetics, biotechnology, and high-tech science lab instrumentation and techniques are offered at the community college level—not only for training laboratory and manufacturing technicians with A.S. and A.A.S. degrees, but for developing an interest in these fields in students planning to go on to science programs. The area is not producing enough scientists."
In addition to offering the specialized training available in the biotechnology and genetics courses, the science department plans to include training in some of the topics of genetics and biotechnology in lower-level science courses. Experiments using the new equipment are planned for students in general biology, general chemistry, and allied-health science classes. It is the hope of the department’s faculty that all students taking life science classes at Gaston College will gain an appreciation for the techniques that are so important to the biotech industries. This exposure may encourage students to study these areas in more depth. Gaston College students earning Associate of Science degrees frequently transfer to four-year institutions to complete their science and engineering degrees. Use of the equipment in the new laboratory will provide them with opportunities that many students in large universities will not experience until graduate school.
The grant is also important to the local textile industry. "What chemistry and plastics were to the textile industry almost a hundred years ago, biotechnology is to it now," says Gwendolyn Perkins, Interim Director of the Textile Technology Center in Belmont . "‘Smart fabrics’ with antimicrobials and bio-engineered organic fibers are two examples of the relationship between biotechnology and textiles. We would be very interested in training some of our trainers in biotechnology at the Gaston College lab and pursuing other cross-training projects."
Gaston College President Skinner said, "The NC Biotechnology Center has published data that indicates the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable business in the U.S. , with net profit margins of 18% compared to the median 5%. Because seven of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies already have facilities in North Carolina , it is estimated that 125,000 new jobs might be created in this state by 2025. Thanks to Duke Energy, we now have a far greater chance of ensuring that many of those jobs come to the greater Charlotte area."
Gaston College is a publicly supported, comprehensive community college, organized and chartered to serve the people of Gaston and Lincoln counties in North Carolina . Its main campus is in Dallas , but it also maintains campuses in Lincolnton and Belmont, NC.
The BioNetwork is an initiative by the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) connecting community colleges across the state that provide specialized training curricula and equipment to develop a world-class workforce in biotechnology. It intends to play a major role in attracting and growing this industry in North Carolina and preparing citizens for good-paying jobs in manufacturing and tech-support positions. The specific role of the BioNetwork BioEd Center at Gaston College is to develop employer-driven continuing education and training products, and to lead the conversion of non-credit short courses into optional credit modules.
Duke Energy, a business unit of Duke Energy, is one of that nation’s largest electric utilities and provides safe, reliable, competitively priced electricity and value-added products and services to more than 2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina . The company operates three nuclear generating stations, eight coal-fired stations, 31 hydroelectric stations, and numerous combustion turbine units. Total system generating capability is approximately 19,900 megawatts. For more information about Duke Energy’s grant program, contact Rose Cummings, Duke Energy Public Affairs, 704.382.8333. More information about Duke Energy is available on the company website at: http://www.dukepower.com/.
Duke Energy is a diversified energy company with a portfolio of natural gas and electric businesses, both regulated and unregulated, and an affiliated real estate company. Duke Energy supplies, delivers, and processes energy for customers in the Americas . Headquartered in Charlotte , NC , Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at http://www.duke-energy.com/.
For more information about these course offerings in genetics and biotechnology, please contact Dr. Armstrong at 704-922-6458.
