{"id":63670,"date":"2010-10-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/from-bouncer-to-biotechnology-lab-manager\/"},"modified":"2010-10-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T00:00:00","slug":"from-bouncer-to-biotechnology-lab-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2010\/10\/from-bouncer-to-biotechnology-lab-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"From bouncer to biotechnology lab manager"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tJoe Desrosiers\u2019 road to success paved with chemistry, science courses<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 27, 2010 \u2013How many people can break a leg and look back on the experience as a blessing in disguise? Meet Joseph \u201cJoe\u201d Desrosiers once a bouncer, now a biotechnology lab manager. This fall, the 32-year-old added a new description to his list of growing achievements: homeowner. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI never thought I would ever own my own house,\u201d says the North Providence resident who is the lab manager for the Cell Mediated Immunity Core Lab at the Institute for Immunology and Informatics, located in the 溏心vlog免费B站 Feinstein Providence Campus. <\/p>\n


\n\tAs the road to Desrosiers\u2019 American dream was paved with education, he now says he\u2019s eager to vote for the higher education bond referendum # 2 on Nov. 2. The bond includes $61 million to finance a new Center for Chemical and Forensic Sciences at 溏心vlog免费B站.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cChemistry is important to so many other sciences,\u201d he says. \u201cWithout the knowledge of chemistry and biochemistry we couldn\u2019t do the work necessary to develop new vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tDerosiers\u2019 academic journey began when he earned 70 credits toward a pharmacy degree during the 1990s. He interrupted that journey, working various jobs at restaurants and catering firms in Rhode Island and even became a bouncer at several establishments. He was a head chef on a cruise ship until he broke his leg jumping down onto the dock from the ship\u2019s deck.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile convalescing in Rhode Island, Desrosiers heard a radio ad about an open house for 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biotechnology Manufacturing Program, an innovative program that prepares students for the rapidly growing biopharmaceutical industry in the region. First-year students receive intensive training in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology, human physiology, biotechnology, biomanufacturing, and professional topics. A full-time internship at a life sciences company follows. Upon completion, the student is eligible for employment and can complete the degree on a part-time basis.<\/p>\n


\n\tDesrosiers signed up. The program brings in outside speakers to talk about different biotechnology career paths. Annie De Groot, M.D., CEO of the biotechnology company EpiVax Inc., (now also a 溏心vlog免费B站 professor) was the first speaker he heard. She mentioned she was always looking for lab technicians. As soon as he had enough courses Desrosiers applied for a job. \u201cI kept pestering her. I kept emailing and calling. Finally, I got a part-time job because I think she and others were tired of hearing from me.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe part-time job turned into a full-time one as lab manager. After two years at EpiVax which is located in the Providence Jewelry District. Desrosiers moved to the 溏心vlog免费B站 Feinstein Providence Campus to set up labs for DeGroot when she was awarded a $13 million National Institutes of Health grant to pioneer the development of an integrated gene-to-vaccine program design, targeting emerging infectious diseases.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 溏心vlog免费B站 alumnus manages a lab shared by five different researchers attempting to create vaccines to fight bioterrorism, H. pylori infections, tick diseases, and hepatitis C. While the researchers have different goals, they need the suite of tools and equipment that the lab provides. \u201cThe set-up would be extremely costly to each researcher so the lab saves them all time and money,\u201d the lab manager explains.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe lab is also used for training programs for 溏心vlog免费B站 students and students and researchers from other institutions. Twice a year the Institute for Immunology and Informatics (I’Cubed) offers a TRIAD Toolkit training for up to 60 people a session who come to learn about innovative vaccine design methods. They are then eligible to apply for seed funding through I’Cubed. A large portion of this training is hands-on lab applications in cell culture, flow cytometry, immunosorbent assays and cryogenic preservation.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nJoe Desrosiers

\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Desrosiers\u2019 road to success paved with chemistry, science courses KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 October 27, 2010 \u2013How many people can break a leg and look back on the experience as a blessing in disguise? Meet Joseph \u201cJoe\u201d Desrosiers once a bouncer, now a biotechnology lab manager. This fall, the 32-year-old added a new description […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}