Blogs

Spring 2021 may seem far away, especially now when things are so unpredictable. But still, it is good to look beyond what is happening now and be optimistic that great opportunities will be available. One great opportunity for community college students is the Department of Energy Community College Internship program ( DOE CCI ). The Community College Internships program seeks to encourage community college students to enter technical careers relevant to the DOE mission by providing technical training experiences at the DOE laboratories. Selected students participate as interns appointed at one of 16 participating DOE laboratories... Read more

This article was written and contributed by: Guy Aday, Alamance Community College graduate, BFIP Fellow, and Biotechnology Professional

My journey into biotechnology began accidentally; more of a plan B after my initial goals seemed less in line with my physical limitations following a work injury. Ultimately discovering that I enjoy the field, I turned my attention to it fully and became determined to do my best. Part of the curriculum for my AAS program was the completion of an internship with an industry partner or an individual research project. I had the privilege of being... Read more

This morning I noticed the following article and thought I would share it with you --this update by Pharmaceutical Technology Editors-- is an update on one of the vaccines being developed. There are several more that also show promise. I encourage people to keep up with the news on vaccines as the faster they are developed, shown effective, and distributed to the public --the more likely the pandemic will be brought under control. Remember it is biotechnicians and biomanufacturing technicians who are involved in the development and production of vaccines --biotech programs produce essential workers!

AstraZeneca Vaccine... Read more

I have always been excited to work in Biotech, I think it is the most exciting field of science around—a field that can help improve not only the human condition but more universally improve the condition of the entire world. And now the biotech stakes are higher than they have ever been, as hundreds of companies, universities, and partnerships are working around the clock as they try to find a vaccine against the virus SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Much of the world is closely following the efforts as we look for preventative measures, treatments and ultimately a... Read more

Cross-posted from the ATE Impacts blog .

An Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grant helped to reconfigure biotechnician degree courses for online delivery and imbued two North Central State College educators with knowledge they used to help colleagues cope with the massive curriculum shift required by COVID-19.

In September 2018 Justin Tickhill and Jason Tucker began curriculum revisions funded by the Mansfield, Ohio, college’s first ATE grant from the National Science Foundation to convert six bioscience courses for online delivery of lectures and in-person labs for a specific audience:... Read more

With funding from the National Institutes of Health, the DNA Learning Center is launching a pilot project, US Ants, to show the feasibility of citizen scientists using DNA barcodes to identify and map the ant species of the United States. Just as a universal product code (UPC) identifies each commercial product, a DNA barcode can potentially identify each species of ant. We are looking for 50 small teams of people to help with the project. I am writing to InnovATEBIO partners because I think this project offers an opportunity for community college faculty and students to serve as mentors for... Read more

Ending the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic requires that we have robust diagnostic tests, effective antiviral drugs, and a vaccine. The front line is testing. As learned in the last post [1] , molecular diagnostic tests are the best way to identify active COVID-19 infections, and the number of available tests has been growing at a rapid rate. Tests can be made by laboratories for their own use, or by companies to be used in many laboratories.

When companies make a... Read more

Now more than ever we are turning to eLearning to develop new skills! The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides online training for public health laboratory professionals. This Microbiology eLearning Series contains five eLearning courses and covers basic microbiology laboratory skills and procedures necessary to identify microorganisms from clinical specimens. Job aids and laboratory exercises are included so participants may work with a supervisor/mentor to comprehend and perform proper microbiology techniques.

The five courses are:

Evaluate primer sequences from the UW publication - this is similar to an activity in Dr. Porter's bioinformatics course ( Bioinformatics for Biology and Biotech : Learning guide 10. PCR and primer BLAST)

Before you begin : Go to the bottom of this page and download the worksheet. top

1. Pick a pair of primers and their corresponding probe to investigate from Table 1 below. There are 14 sets of primers (forward and reverse) and probe sets.

A. Only use the negative controls if you... Read more

Dr. Daiyuan ("Daisy") Zhang , Del Mar College, adapted to her college's lockdown by planning projects her students could do online. Her webinar describes three projects her students complete that are related to SARS-CoV-2.

VIEW THE WEBINAR

1. In the first project, students go to the NCBI Virus Lab, find the reference sequence for SAS-CoV-2 and use it as a query in a nucleotide BLAST search to investigate where the virus came from and look at mutations.