Dedication of New Duke Energy Biotechnology Lab at Gaston College Draws Support from Throughout the State April 13, 2006
DALLAS, N.C. - Biotechnology scientists, industry professionals and educators from around the state will celebrate the opening of a new state-of-the-art biotechnology laboratory at Gaston College. A dedication/open house for the Duke Energy Biotechnology Lab will be held on Friday, April 21, 2006 at 1 p.m. in the Rauch Science and Fine Arts Building on the Dallas Campus.
“Duke Energy is extremely pleased to partner with Gaston College to launch this important new education and training initiative,” said Randy Broome, director of business development, Duke Energy. “This state-of-the-art biotech lab will be a key asset for the growing biotechnology cluster in North Carolina. It is vital that industry and academia partner to help prepare our workforce for the advanced technology of tomorrow's workplace.”
In September, the College received a grant for $173,626 from the Duke Power Community College Grant Program to purchase the highly specialized equipment and instrumentation equipment for the biotechnology laboratory.
“The new lab will support our programs, courses, and workforce training for current and potential jobs in local biotech and pharmaceutical industries,” said Dr. Patricia Skinner, President of Gaston College. “This semester, the lab will support our new course offerings of genetics and biotechnology, industrial engineering technology with a biotech option, and bioinformatics,” she said.
The College is the first community college in the Charlotte economic region to offer two new credit courses for college transfer students in BIO 250: Introduction to Genetics; and BIO 280, Introduction to Biotechnology. These courses provide adaptable high-tech career training as the biotechnology industry develops locally-including opportunities for high school science teachers and other area professionals to update their credentials, Also, this training will ultimately be part of the new curriculum for biotechnology and bioprocessing in industrial engineering technology.
According to Melissa Armstrong, Ph.D., chair of the Gaston College science department and director of this project, “This grant has allowed us to begin offering training in biotechnology several months and years ahead of other colleges. We have been offering workshops through the spring semester to the college's science and non-science faculty, staff and students to introduce techniques and concepts of biotechnology.” She added, “We are currently looking for opportunities to expose and train high school teachers and high school students to biotechnology in the laboratory.”
Specialized equipment purchased with the Duke Energy grant includes:
State-of-the-art, automated thermalcycler to conduct PCR reactions (to enable making up to a billion copies of DNA of interest), incubator with digital temperature and humidity controls to enable culture of bacterial and animal cells, - 80 C freezer to ensure long-term stability of reagents and enzymes, high-tech UV/VIS spectrophotometer to calculate quantity and purity of nucleic acids (such as DNA) and proteins, and explosion-proof refrigerator/freezer required to meet the storage requirements for specific reagents such as ice-cold ethanol.
Todd Steck, Associate Professor and Director of the masters program in biology for UNCC said, “This lab will give Gaston College and colleges collaborating with their program the ability to produce better workers in the biotech industry. Training with hands on experience using state-of-the-art technology supported by a solid education increases ability to compete in a rapidly growing field throughout the state.”
Also, Gwen Perkins, Interim Director of the Textile Technology Center at the college's East Campus in Belmont said, “Many of our local and regional textile companies will benefit from our lab. It will help us consult and assist existing and new companies moving into the region that need to develop high-tech niche markets and in prototyping new concepts for nanotechnology, biotechnology, and other innovative developments in textiles.”
Skinner also noted that the development of this biotechnology initiative is the result of a strong partnership with other area colleges and local economic development agencies. The initiative has led to Gaston College's recent receipt of several grants from the Golden LEAF Foundation through the North Carolina Community College System office (NCCCS) for onsite and distance learning biotechnology programs. Among these grants was a $320,000 award to establish and host a statewide BioNetwork Center to develop and deliver biotechnology training courses and continuing education modules called the BioNetwork BioEd Center.
The BioNetwork is an initiative by the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) connecting community colleges across the state that provide specialized training curricula and equipment to develop a world-class workforce in biotechnology. It intends to play a major role in attracting and growing this industry in North Carolina and preparing citizens for good-paying jobs in manufacturing and tech-support positions. The specific role of the BioNetwork BioEd Center at Gaston College is to develop employer-driven continuing education and training products and to lead the conversion of non-credit short courses into optional credit modules.
Duke Energy is a diversified energy company with a portfolio of natural gas and electric businesses, both regulated and unregulated, and an affiliated real estate company. Duke Energy supplies, delivers and processes energy for customers in the Americas. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DUK. More information about the company is available on the Internet at: http://www.duke-energy.com/.
For more information about the Duke Energy Biotechnology Lab or course offerings in genetics and biotechnology at Gaston College, please contact Melissa Armstrong at 704.922.6458.
