Blogs

Contributed by:

N. Jan Chalupny, PhD
Manager, Biotechnology Outreach and Adjunct Faculty
Shoreline Community College
16101 Greenwood Ave N
Shoreline, WA 98133

Shoreline Community College students are working in partnership with the University of Washington, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and NOAA Fisheries on a research project to determine the genetic diversity within and between populations of the Pacific Sand Lance ( Ammodytes personatus ).

The Pacific Sand Lance is found along the west coast of the United States and Canada where it... Read more

I think cell culture can be one of the most exacting skill sets in biotechnology. I have done it, and sometimes it went well, and sometimes it did not!

Millipore Sigma has posted some terrific (and free!) videos that cover many important topics about cell culture. Some of the videos are very short and cover just one specific point such as how to cryopreserve your cells. Others are webinars that are about an hour long and cover a number of topics including the incredibly important topic of cell line verification.

I particularly liked the... Read more

Book review : Bad Blood by John Carreyrou

In the many years I’ve been educating future biotechnicians, most of my experiences with biotech companies have been good.

But there are always exceptions.

How do we prepare our students for low - not non-zero possibility that they could find themselves working in a company like Theranos? Theranos looked great from the outside and made exciting claims about performing multiple tests from small amounts of blood, while deceiving investors and partner companies, and endangering patients by returning invalid results.

I haven’t encountered many fradulent... Read more

South Dakota has a lot happening this summer. Not only can you visit Badlands National Park, or gaze at Mt. Rushmore, but if you are an undergraduate student you can find some terrific research opportunities. Undergraduate students from around the country can get real-world research experience while participating in Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs and other research opportunities on the campus of South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.

Funded through the National Science Foundation (NSF), REUs are paid 10-week research opportunities for undergraduate students hosted by various institutions both... Read more

Last December (12/21/2018) City College of San Francisco held its 22nd annual Biosymposium, on the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) campus. Over 180 individuals participated. 33 CCSF students presented posters and 40+ volunteers from academia, industry and government attended to support those student's career development through mock interviews, judging poster presentations, networking lunch discussions and a panel discussion on transitioning to the Biotech workforce. The Biosymposium is the CCSF Biotechnology Program's capstone event for its Biotechnology Internship Programs .

Of the 33 poster presentations, 15 CCSF Biotechnology students presented posters on internship research they performed at... Read more

Two students from Flathead Valley Community College (FVCC) in Kalispell, MT, Skye Hatfield and Kyle Montgomery, presented their research projects at the Fall 2018 CCURI (Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative) Research Colloquium in Glendale, AZ. The FVCC students’ projects focused on identifying antibiotic compounds from plant and fungi species collected in the Flathead Valley located in NW Montana. The CCURI conference provided the students with the opportunity to interact with fellow community college undergraduate research students and attend workshops on mentoring and building their scientific resumes through summer internships.

Read more

At this year's ABRF (Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities) annual meeting (March 23-26, 2019) Bio-Link is hosting session entitled " Community colleges: the new frontier for advanced biotechnology education and laboratory services ." The goal of this session is to introduce ABRF members to Bio-Link and introduce Bio-Link members to ABRF because both groups have so many common goals that include biotech education, contract services, and technology interests. Read more

Math--how to teach it, how to use it, who needs it, and how to keep it from being a barrier between students and jobs. These are all topics of discussion at the Needed Math, a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education Funded Conference. This conference, held from January 12-15, 2018 brought together employers in three STEM fields (biotechnology, manufacturing technology, and information and communication technology), post-secondary instructors of technical subjects related to those fields and mathematics educators. Employers surveyed for the Manufacturing Institute's 2014 Skills Gap study report a "sizeable gap" between the talent they need and that available on... Read more

The 2018 Texas ASM Fall meeting was hosted by the Texas A&M University and co-hosted by Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, November 8-10th. Both faculty and students gave oral presentations, on topics that ranged across microbiology, as well as molecular and cellular biology. The conference also had an afternoon dedicated to undergraduate and graduate student poster presentations and with prizes awarded for the best talks and posters in each category.

Dr. Daisy Zhang and Dr. John Robert Hatherill from Del Mar College organized the judging and award ceremonies. Dr. Linnea Fletcher and Dr. Daisy Zhang organized and co-chaired... Read more

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) held the 10 th Community College (CC) Day on November 19, 2018. This provided community college students and faculty in Maryland and Virginia an excellent opportunity to visit the NIH campus and learn about careers and training opportunities in Biomedical and Health-related fields.

The NIH CC Day keynote talk was delivered by Dr. Erica Barr, Director NIH CC Programs and Dr. Sharon Milgram, Director, Office of Intramural Training and Education. It was very insightful and inspiring for the students. Following the talk, there were breakout sessions on careers including; Research, Medicine,... Read more