PROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 December 15, 2017 \u2013 When the 溏心vlog免费B站 established its Biotechnology Manufacturing Program at its Providence campus in 2002, the state\u2019s biotech industry was in its infancy. The region\u2019s only large biotech company, Amgen, was in need of large numbers of trained workers, so the program was initially focused on meeting that need.<\/p>\n
As the program celebrates its 15th<\/sup> anniversary this school year, it has evolved to serve the needs of a growing number of small start-up companies as well, while also providing a launching point for students entering medical school or seeking to pursue other careers.<\/p>\n Ed Bozzi, the 溏心vlog免费B站 clinical professor who directs the program, said interest in the program has increased dramatically through the years, with class sizes more than doubling from 8 students to 20 or more.<\/p>\n \u201cInitially it was developed as a program for non-traditional students \u2013 those seeking to change careers or re-enter the workforce \u2013 who could complete a year of coursework and be ready to get a job,\u201d he said, noting that almost no one leaves the program after just one year any more. \u201cNow, half of our students are traditional students coming straight from high school, where many of them have already had an introduction to biotechnology.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re also getting more and more post-military students,\u201d Bozzi added. \u201cIn this year\u2019s class, all four branches of the military are represented.\u201d<\/p>\n One thing that hasn\u2019t changed is the internship opportunity. Every student completes a summer internship at a local biotech company following their freshman year, and about half of the students are offered part-time work at those companies by the end of the internship. Among the companies hosting interns from the program are Neurotech, Agcore Technologies, Kineteks, ProThera Biologics, Vitae Industries, Labonachip, EpiVax, InCytu and many others.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd because of the credit they get for their internships, many students can complete their bachelor\u2019s degree in only three or three-and-a-half years,\u201d Bozzi said.<\/p>\n He also said that several students have graduated from the program and continued on to earn graduate degrees from schools of medicine, dentistry and physician assistants.<\/p>\n Lindsey Chammas of Providence was attracted to the program by its small class sizes and the availability of faculty members to work one-on-one as necessary.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really has a family feel to it,\u201d she said. \u201cThe professors are always there to help you, the students work together to help each other. It has a homey feel to it.\u201d<\/p>\n Chammas, a senior, was also impressed with how much she learned in a short period of time. She is now considering enrolling in a doctoral program to become a genomics researcher, something she never before had envisioned.<\/p>\n Rebecca Ralston was also impressed with the support the program offers its students, not to mention the useful experience she gained.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hands-on, which reinforces what you\u2019re reading and makes it real,\u201d said Ralston, a senior from Uxbridge, Mass., who enrolled in the program to change her career direction after her mother became ill. \u201cThe lab experience builds our confidence in our abilities to perform the experiments and develop our techniques, which gives us an advantage in the work place.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always thought there was a better way to cure people of disease,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2019m determined to make my mark in the science world and hopefully help find a cure for something, or lay the groundwork for someone else to discover something, to make people\u2019s lives better in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n When Marilyn Le graduated from the program in 2014, she continued on to earn a master\u2019s degree in pharmacology at Brown University, and now she works for pharmaceutical company KaryoPharm Therapeutics in Newton, Mass.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first enrolled in the program, I figured it would be a good stepping stone for anywhere I might want to work afterwards,\u201d said Le, who lives in Attleboro, Mass. \u201cIt\u2019s a very versatile degree. I could go into science, med school, pharmacy, wherever.\u201d<\/p>\n That has proven true for Le. Today she manages vendors that conduct the clinical trials for the cancer drug her company has developed, and she plans to eventually branch out into business development in the pharmaceutical field.<\/p>\n \u201cI can use that biotech degree and go wherever I want to go with it,\u201d said Le.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 December 15, 2017 \u2013 When the 溏心vlog免费B站 established its Biotechnology Manufacturing Program at its Providence campus in 2002, the state\u2019s biotech industry was in its infancy. The region\u2019s only large biotech company, Amgen, was in need of large numbers of trained workers, so the program was initially focused on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73574,"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-73572","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\/73572","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=73572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}