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| For Release: IMMEDIATE | Contact:: Public Affairs |
| Date: May 24, 2004 | (919) 807-6963 |
NCCCS BioNetwork already planning for 2006
RALEIGH, NC
: What comes first - the lesson or the building? In the case of the BTEC facility, the lesson. The NCCCS BioNetwork is already planning what will be taught at the BTEC. Groundbreaking for the BTEC, or Biomanufacturing Training & Education facility, will be happening next year. The state-of-the-art, industry-scale, biomanufacturing pilot plant with a clean room aseptic suite that will be built at NC State’s Centennial Campus in Raleigh, NC, will open in 2006. Apart from BioNetwork being ready when it opens, the curriculum planning being done now will shape construction when it starts. The BTEC will be used to provide community college biotechnology students and workers with a realistic workplace environment in which to learn and develop the skills needed by North Carolina’s biotech industry. A training center of this kind will be a first in the United States and will further underscore North Carolina’s commitment to training a world-class workforce for the knowledge-based industries of the 21st century.
By knowing what will be taught in the dedicated community college aseptic suite
– and the rest of the BTEC - planners and engineers can determine the design, what equipment needs to be accommodated, storage space, and a host of other highly technical elements that are part of building an aseptic working area. An aseptic suite is a workplace that needs to be extremely clean, and in some, even a single hair would be considered contamination.
With groundbreaking for the BTEC still more than a year off, Dr. Andy Rothschild, the NCCCS consultant who is an expert in bioprocessing manufacturing explains:
"unless the building planners know how many students are going to be taught, how many classes there are likely to be, and the kinds of subject-matter they will be learning, it’s difficult to plan for basics, let alone how to optimize the aseptic area with the fermentation and downstream and purification sections of the facility". It has meant that BioNetwork Central Office has been consulting with industry, as well as instructors and biotech departments at the 15 community colleges across the state, to determine the kinds of classes that need to be planned for. Although planning is still in the early stages, so far more than 30 courses have been identified that are likely to be offered at the BTEC through BioNetwork.
The BTEC will offer capstone training to all of North Carolina
’s community college biotech students and incumbent workers. Although much of the basic science and the principles of biomanufacturing is taught at community colleges with small-scale equipment, only the BTEC will offer commercial-scale hands-on training. Some of the skills that will be taught there will include: clean room environmental monitoring, cleaning and sanitization of clean rooms, cleaning and packaging of materials for sterilization, autoclave operation, sterilizing and filtration procedures, gowning and degowning, and good manufacturing practices. In addition to training BioWork students, who will be preparing for an entry level bioprocess position in industry, community colleges also train and cross-train incumbent workers, upgrading their skills so that they can advance up the career ladder and also provide education in biotech and pharmaceutical-related curriculum programs.
Products such as injectibles like insulin, vaccines, blood products or other highly sensitive health products are made in clean rooms. Because of this, procedures to ensure contamination does not happen are a vital part of the day-to-day operation of factories, which operate 24/7. Training of people who work in these sensitive environments plays a very important role in ensuring that quality standards are exceeded. With community colleges training 66% of the workers in biomanufacturing, having this additional capacity will be a big shot in the arm for BioNetwork. Students and workers will complete the bulk of their training at their local community college and will then travel to Raleigh for capstone training experience with machinery and facilities too expensive to replicate regionally. The plan even includes temporary residential quarters for out-of-area workers while they complete their training.
Funding for BTEC is coming from Golden LEAF, and the total bill is expected to run to about $35 million. The estimated value to BioNetwork of the aseptic suite, specialized support areas and classrooms is valued at about $3.4 million. This part of the facility at BTEC will be known as the BioNetwork Central Learning Center and it will be run by a consortium of the seven Research Triangle community colleges, with Wake Tech as the lead institution. The Golden LEAF Board will make a decision on the grant on June 3, 2004.
BioNetwork and the BTEC form part of the BPTC, which is a consortium that is collaborating to grow the biotech and pharmaceutical industry in North Carolina. The BPTC, which stands for the North Carolina Biomanufacturing and Pharmaceutical Training Consortium, has as it
’s partners, the NCCCS BioNetwork, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University.
For further information, contact:
| Susan Seymour | Released by: | NCCCS BioNetwork |
| NCCCS BioNetwork Director | Norman Smit | 5003 Mail Service Center |
| (919) 807-7155 | NCCCS BioNetwork Marketing Director | Raleigh, NC 27699-5003 |
| seymours@nccommunitycolleges.edu | smitn@nccommunitycolleges.edu | (919) 807-7181 |
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