This article is excerpted from Breakthroughs magazine.
In one vision of the Capital Region’s economic future, the area’s already thriving life sciences industry expands to, well, not exactly rival Boston, but certainly provide companies with a viable alternative to that high-cost, tightly packed tech hub.
Key to making that vision a reality is the Stack Family Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training, affectionately known as “C-BET.” Now settled into a new home on the northwest edge of campus, outfitted with glistening modern laboratories, CBET is primed to do its part in jumpstarting the region’s biopharmaceutical industry.
“Every institution is really strong,” CBET executive director Michelle Lewis (pictured) said of the region’s many educational institutions, business incubators, economic developers and industry players. “What would it look like if we’re all working and growing in the same direction for the region?”
Her vision aligns with that of ACPHS President Toyin Tofade, who seeks to build what she calls “intentional collaborations” with community partners through myriad programs that benefit both the College and the region.
The brainchild of ACPHS President Emeritus Dr. Gregory Dewey, CBET is engaged in training the workforce needed to achieve the dream of a regional biopharmaceutical hub. Its first location, from September 2021 to April 2023, was the Albany NanoTech Complex, about six miles from ACPHS’ campus on New Scotland Avenue. It was a tremendous resource that some ACPHS students, without their own cars, found challenging to get to. In April 2023, it moved “home” to the newly acquired Life Sciences Innovation Building. The center now shares space – and the creative synergies that can only come from close proximity – with scientists from New York State’s public health laboratory and the National Toxicology Center, among others.
In its few years of existence, the center has already begun to deliver on its promise. CBET does work under contract with biopharmaceutical industry clients; in Summer 2023, it was engaged in seven commissioned projects ranging from testing equipment for a novel application to development of a biologic for gene therapy; in the past, staff have grown cannabinoids from yeast cells. Students take classes at the center and also have the opportunity to work alongside industry partners on these projects.
In the fall of 2022, CBET secured the largest contract in ACPHS’ history – $1.9 million – to design and deliver a training program on mRNA-based vaccines for employees of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This semester, it was awarded a three-year $400,000 grant from a National Science Foundation program called EPIIC (Enabling Partners to Increase Innovation Capacity), which supports institutions of higher learning that are creating external partnerships to advance biotechnology and other emerging technologies.
Through its collaborations, CBET’s training programs open a door to ACPHS students seeking opportunities in an emerging industry, while its success also depends on its ability to welcome communities that remain unaware of the potential that industry holds for them.
Key to achieving that second goal, Lewis said, is a demystification of science. The field is traditionally viewed as lofty, even shrouded in mystery, she said, with secret experimentation behind laboratory doors closed to all except elites with special access.
“A lot of people don’t realize that they can do science,” Lewis said. “If you can change a tire, we can train you to run that bioreactor.” She pointed to one of the shining new devices used to create cells used in gene products, as she showed off newly renovated labs at the LSIB.
“We have a workforce here,” she added, “we’re just not tapping into it.”
Lewis is on a mission to change that. She has led efforts to open CBET’s doors to Capital Region residents who might not have viewed a private college with a rigorous curriculum as accessible. An articulation agreement with Hudson Valley Community College signed in May 2023 will facilitate enrollment at ACPHS programs leading to a degree in biomanufacturing for students who may not have known about the industry before. And in June, CBET hosted students participating in what is known as the NIIMBL eXperience – a program from the Delaware-based National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals that provides underrepresented minority students completing their first or second year of college a glimpse into the biopharmaceutical field.
CBET was one of only three institutions chosen to host the NIIMBL eXperience in the organization’s first year offering the program regionally. For a week in early June 2023, 18 students from public and private schools across the country visited nine academic institutions and industry sites engaged in biopharma research and development. By all accounts, the week was a success, and NIIMBL has asked CBET to reapply to host the program again in 2024.
ACPHS sophomore Dancan Sandy’s Oruko was among the participants. The pharmaceutical sciences major learned about the intersection of two key interests – biopharmaceuticals and computer software.
“I was able to engage with real people doing real projects right at the interface of software and pharmaceuticals,” Oruko said. “Now I feel like I know exactly what I am doing, why I am doing it and what I may want to explore.”
That desire for exploration fits in perfectly with Dr. Lewis’ perspective of CBET’s role.
“We should be growing with the industry as it figures out the science, logistics and economics of these life-saving industries,” she said. “We should be training students for jobs that don’t yet exist.”