New Center for Biotech and Biomed Sciences Opens
With the opening of the new Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences, Merrimack College is responding to the growing need for a highly educated and skilled workforce to support the rapid growth of biotechnology and biomedical sciences.
Caption: A ribbon cutting ceremony officially opened Merrimack College’s Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences – a suite of renovated labs with state-of-the-art equipment to train the next life sciences workforce. Pictured here, (left to right) Rep. Barbara L’Italien; Rep. David Torrisi; Dr. Josephine Modica-Napolitano, interim dean of science and engineering at Merrimack College; Dr. Laurence Demers, chairman of Merrimack’s Board of Trustees; Robert Coughlin, president/CEO of Massachusetts Biotechnology Council; and Dr. Ronald Champagne, president of Merrimack College.
Massachusetts alone has more than 400 biotechnology companies, and Gov. Deval Patrick approved $1 billion to increase life sciences in the Commonwealth.
About Merrimack’s Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences
- A suite of three new labs with state-of-the-art equipment now trains students as the next workforce in biotechnology and biomedical sciences;
- Wyeth Pharmaceuticals donated over $60,000 worth of surplus laboratory equipment to support student/faculty research in the program. Merrimack’s biology department secured $50,000 in funding from the Alden Trust Foundation and a matching gift award of over $60,000 from LI-COR Biosciences, which will be used to purchase a DNA sequencer;
- The Center will provide cutting edge laboratory training for traditional undergraduate students enrolled in degree programs through Merrimack’s Division of Science and Engineering, and students enrolled in the newly established Certificate in Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences program through the School for Advanced Studies.
- The Center will also provide a site for training high school life science teachers in issues and applications in biotechnology in a summer course offered through Merrimack College's Graduate Institute for Teachers.
Why Biotechnology and Biomedical Science at Merrimack?
Need: The biotechnology and biomedical field will need well trained professionals with an excellent academic foundation sufficient to meet the rapidly evolving opportunities and challenges facing biological scientists in the 21st century.
Uniqueness: Merrimack College’s new Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences is distinctive in its offer of undergraduate academic programs that provide an excellent foundation in both the theory and practice of science within the context of a strong liberal arts education. The graduates of the Center’s programs will be “thinker/doers,” scientists who have the skill sets necessary to carry out the daily “hands-on” activities of the scientific enterprise, as well as the ability to plan, execute and trouble-shoot experiments, critically read and analyze the scientific literature, solve problems and draw valid conclusions from available data, and most importantly, successfully adapt to the rapidly changing industry demands and technologies of the future.
Location: Merrimack is at the heart of the life sciences industry, just north of Boston and Cambridge – areas highly populated with life science companies. These companies, and Merrimack College students, will mutually benefit from internships, cooperative education, and professional mentoring opportunities
For more about the Center, click here.
Dr. Josephine Modica-Napolitano, Interim Dean, Science and Engineering, and Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences, Merrimack College:
“Our new Center for Biotechnology and Biomedical Sciences at Merrimack College was established to provide high quality educational experiences for undergraduate studentsn majoring in the life sciences, to promote interdisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities with the potential to engage all students within the Division of Science and Engineering, and to encourage collaborative efforts between Merrimack College and local industry, academic, and government partners to support workforce development in the commonwealth’s growing life science industry.”
Media Contact: To learn more about Merrimack’s new Center, contact Heather Notaro at (978) 837-5195 or heather.notaro@merrimack.edu.
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