Bioscience immersion: bringing industry into the classroom Scott Gevaert, Ph.D. Program Coordinator, St. Louis Community College NSF-ATE Bioscience Industry Fellowship Participant NSF #1304010

IMAGINE YOU ARE A DEVELOPMENTAL MATH INSTRUCTOR… Your goal: Learn how math is used in the biosciences to make the math you are teaching relevant Your cohort: 5 biology/biotechnology instructors 1 computer science instructor 1 physics instructor 1 academic advisor 1 USAF veteran and current student Today I am going to take you on a journey through the eyes of one of my colleagues on the fellowship. So, close your eyes, and imagine that you are a developmental math instructor. You signed up for the fellowship so you could provide real examples to your students so they could understand why math is important. You enter a classroom at Forsyth Tech to find a bunch of scientists (the grant administrators/coordinators) and your 9 colleagues: 5 bio/biotech instructors, 1 computer scientist, 1 physicist, 1 academic advisor, and 1 USAF veteran and current student. After the usual introductions, a biotech instructor at Forsyth Tech begins a lecture.

The first morning Lab Safety What is DNA? First, lecture covers lab safety then DNA. You hear words like replication, deoxyribose, and protein. Some you know, but don’t understand the significance of, while others you’ve never heard before. And after one hour…

ONE HOUR LATER… You have entered a lab for the first time. By lunchtime, you had created your first agarose gel and after lunch you had run DNA samples on your agarose gel. That developmental math instructor would describe this first day as “intimidating, overwhelming, but exciting.” Now imagine, that instead of this just being one day, that you experienced this over the course of two straight weeks. Over the next slides I will share examples from our four week immersion in the biosciences with you.

High performance liquid chromatography At Rowan Cabarrus Community College we received a crash course in HPLC and GC-MS using the capsacin content in hot peppers. This experiment is conducted in an analytical chemistry course conducted within the Biotech program at RCCC. We extracted the capsacin from pepper samples, filtered the product, created standards to set up our standard curve to determine concentration, then analyzed our results. This occurred over the period of two days.

Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry GC-MS was part of the capsacin procedure.

Cell culture & bioprocessing During the second week, we received an intro of bioprocessing and cell culture while at Alamance Community College. On the left, Bill Woodruff explains healthy cells from dividing cells in a cell culture. On the right is a fellow performing tangential flow filtration using green fluorescent protein (GFP). We would use GFP consistently throughout the second week.

Anion exchange chromatography Purifying GFP using anion-exchange chromatography at CAPSTONE CENTER.

Gowning & clean rooms Also, David Yarley of the Capstone Center demo’d proper aseptic technique and correct cleanroom procedure. On the right, a fellow shows full gowning prior to entering a cleanroom where GFP was packaged into vials. David Yarley and the three technicians who worked with us through anion exchange and gowning. Savitha Pinnepalli, BIFP Fellow

You have just finished week 2 Schedule first two weeks.

Now you start the second 2 weeks Schedule last two weeks.

Educational Institute Visits… BRITE, North Carolina Central University Food & Beverage Center, Asheville-Buncombe Tech, Asheville, NC Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Following two weeks of intense lab experience, we traveled to three different educational research institutes to learn about specialized niches within the bioscience field.

At brite, tours demonstrated… Cell Membranes High Content Imaging Automation And my personal favorite: High content imaging is being used to detect the presence of lipid droplets in liver cells; the project is to create a drug that would treat Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. In the computer image shown on the right, the cells are outlined in bright green, the liver cell nuclei in blue, and lipid droplets in red. There is also no blood test available, so they are working to develop that as a by-product of the drug trials currently done in mice. In this case, the drug treatment has had a positive impact on the mice since the number of lipid droplets is reduced compared to the negative control. This imager recognizes cell shape and identifies the fluorescent dyes added to help distinguish the different physical characteristics shown. ON the left we see an example of the automation equipment that can be found in a lab, which increases the efficiency of performing large-scale experiments. Liver Cell Nuclei Lipid droplets

Food, beverage, and dietary supplements at A-B Tech Use of U-V Spectrophotometry to identify the concentration of anthocyanins in different juices Working in pairs, we identified the anthocyanin concentrations in four different store bought juice, such as Ocean Spray. The anthocyanins change color depending on the pH of the solution and we used that information to determine the concentration. No surprise, the cranberry juice contained the greatest concentration.

Food, beverage, and dietary supplements at A-B Tech Use of GC-MS to identify different oils within a solution We also analyzed the results of a GC-MS analysis to determine what types of plant oils were found in a mixture (unknown sample). In these two images, we can see that the tall peak in our unknown on the left matches that found in the eucalyptus oil sample on the right. This type of analysis can be used at this facility to determine what oils are present in a product that is set to go to market.

Joint school of nanoscience & nanotechnology Microscopy Genomics Hydroponics Brightener as nanoparticles added to plants for improved textiles WE covered many topics at the JSNN including microscopy at the nano level, genomics, clean rooms, and as a plant scientist, I found the hydroponics most interesting. In our laundry detergents, are nanoparticles that function as brighteners. However, the idea here is if we grow fabric plants hydroponically and add the brightener to the nutrient solution, then it will be expressed in the plant. The trick moving forward will be to target the particle to the parts of plants from which our clothes are made.

Industry visits… Biomanufacturing & Pharmaceuticals Regenerative Medicine Following these academic visits, we began our tour of industry. Here I have highlighted the two main categories of industry visits: biomanufacturing/pharmaceuticals and regenerative medicine.

Biogen idec A panel of workers throughout the company discussed worker qualifications Variety of backgrounds: machine technicians, quality control, chemists Importance of soft skills! At Biogen Idec we received an overview of operations and products made. From there, four of their employees from throughout the company discussed the qualifications of workers and what they are looking for when employing people. They emphasized the importance of attention to detail and the soft skills, but we also learned that engineers, contractors, construction, marketing, are just as important careers as biology and chemistry. Here we see one of the their 2000 liter bioreactors

targacept Determined the next steps for getting a drug to market using information from the following areas Efficacy Safety Quality Value Interacted with CEO, CFO, R&D Director, Quality Assurance Director

Regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Regenerating Organs at different levels of complexity Dept. of Defense research, helping injured solders 3D Printing At the end of the fellowship we visited two different groups working in regenerative medicine: a private company, Tengion, and an academic institute: WFIRM. Here we can see an example of the apparatus WFIRM uses to create new organs, and examples of the biodegradable scaffolds in which cells from the patient are implanted and grown.

Regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Regenerating Organs at different levels of complexity Level 1: Skin & Cartilage Ear Nose Level 2: Tubular Systems Esophagus Level 3: Hollow Organs Bladder Grown in a lab on a scaffold such as that shown the slide before. Source: WFIRM

Regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Dept. of Defense research: 3D Printing Scan injured part of body Use different cell types to regenerate the area needing repair

So how do these experiences enter our classrooms? Aseptic technique without a cleanroom or biological safety cabinet New curricula aligned to industry standards Program modules for public use Mathematical applications

Aseptic techniques

New curricula aligned to industry standards Using batch product reports Using lab notebooks in proper technique Students create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Batch Product Reports (BPRs) Emphasize the importance of detailed work and accountability If you didn’t write it down, you didn’t do it!

Module development Concluding presentation using skills and industry visits Be accessible publicly and applicable to any institution to use Topics covered include: Better K-12 training Bridge high school students into a college program Improved recruitment and communication methods More interdisciplinary work: bioscience examples in developmental math

In every math class you will hear … Why do I need to know this? When will I ever use this? Did I learn how to do this in my math class? In every science class you will hear … Slide courtesy of Heather King, BIFP Fellow 2014

Basic Mathematical Concepts Proportions Equations of Lines Ratios Percents Exponents Biotechnology Applications Solving Equations Basic Statistics Graphs Fractions Formulas Scientific Notation Conversions Slide courtesy of Heather King, BIFP Fellow 2014

Linear Equations in Two Variables Standard Curves & Unknown Concentrations Rowan Cabarrus Community College Use two data points to determine the equation for the line of best fit. Slope-Intercept Form of a Line Use your equation to predict the amount of capsaicin present when the absorbance is 0.55. Need to complete the formatting here. y = mx + b Slide courtesy of Heather King, BIFP Fellow 2014

Final comments from colleagues Heather King, Developmental Math Instructor, Forsyth Tech: “I enjoyed the hands on activities the most. These activities really helped me to learn what biotechnology was all about… I also enjoyed the tour of Biogen Idec. After this tour, I really understood the purpose of a bioreactor and a centrifuge.” Daymond Lindell, Academic Advisor, Forsyth Tech: On recommending bioscience as a career to students… “Try to imagine learning/teaching/working in a discipline or career where you can truly make a difference in the WORLD...now add to that a lucrative job market and exceptional pay! Would you be interested in that?” Describe experiences of these two fellows; expand on quotes shown here.

Program Contacts Grant PI: Russell Read, rread@forsythtech.edu Grant Co-PI: Denise Schweizer, denise.schweizer@rccc.edu National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce, www.biotechworkforce.org National Science Foundation, Advanced Technological Education Provide additional details of the fellowship, that modules will become available, etc. Emphasize the greatness of the fellowship and encourage everyone to write down the information provided on the screen.

Special thanks… My colleagues within the cohort Mona Cofer, Mica Welsh, Russell Read, Amy Germuth, and Denise Schweizer (not pictured) The National Science Foundation and Advanced Technological Education The many people who taught us lab skills, took us on tours, open the doors of their company to help us understand the many different aspects of the bioscience industry Expand on the thank you’s written here.

Questions? Take questions.