The Cullen College of Engineering hosted 14 college freshman and sophomores from eight states, representing 12 different community and four-year colleges and universities, as part of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals eXperience @ University of Houston’s program (NIIMBL eXperience @ UH) earlier this summer.
The NIIMBL eXperience @ UH is a one-week, all-expense paid learning program for early-college students designed to educate and encourage the students toward promising careers in biomanufacturing while promoting workforce development for many related industries. The program was funded with a grant from NIIMBL, with Professor Yuheng Lin serving as Principal Investigator and Professor Albert Flavier as Senior Personnel.
Participating students visited four biomanufacturing companies around Houston, where they engaged with industry professionals and gained insights into their various roles and career trajectories; these included Cell Therapy Manufacturing Center-Resilience, Neurogene, Immatics and Lonza Houston, all of which are involved in the development and manufacturing of cell and gene therapy products for the treatment of assorted cancers, neurological, autoimmune and genetic disorders. “We are always grateful to our industry partners for graciously hosting students and sharing their valuable insights on careers in biomanufacturing,” Lin noted.
Participants also toured the Texas Medical Center, where many hospitals serve as pivotal research and clinical trial centers for testing investigational drugs, as well as the TMC Innovation Center, which houses numerous pioneering innovators and medical startup companies. The students also visited the research laboratories of Biotechnology professors in UH Sugar Land where they learned about plant biotechnology, microbiome engineering and their contributions to plant productivity, synthetic biology and metabolic engineering for drug production, industrial products from mushroom and algae, and disease bioinformatics and personalized medicine.
In addition to these uniquely-Houston experiences, students received expert guidance in professional soft skills such as personal branding from Jay Clancy, lecturer with UH Human Development and Consumer Sciences, and resume crafting and honing interview and networking skills from Dr. Michelle Fernandez of Yoh, a life sciences staffing company. Jeff Wade, J.D., Chairman of the Board of BioHouston, also spoke about the rapid growth of Biomanufacturing companies in the Greater Houston area. Cullen Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering assistant professor Jerrod Henderson and Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Program Director Tina Kazemi spoke to the group about their own respective career paths, from academic and mentorship experiences to ongoing university research.
UH also partnered with the San Jacinto College Center for Biotechnology, under director Nicole Bradley, in their new, state-of-the art facility in Generation Park to offer hands-on training in various biomanufacturing skills. The students learned about chromatography, cell culture and sterile techniques. They practiced aseptic tube welding and sealing, clean-room gowning, contamination control and biosafety cabinet procedures.
This is the third consecutive year that UH successfully hosted NIIMBL eXperience participants. Flavier added that “UH has clearly been very effective in advertising the NIIMBL workforce program and in promoting biomanufacturing as a promising science and career path to a broad audience of students from Texas and throughout the country.”
More information about the NIIMBL eXperience can be found at https://www.et.uh.edu/niimbl-experience and https://www.niimbl.org/workforce/niimbl-experience/.
NIIMBL eXperience @ UH was developed under a Project Award Agreement from the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) and financial assistance award 70NANB21H086 from the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology.