Biotech tour gives students taste of career opportunities

It helped to bridge the gap between the concepts, techniques and equipment we learn about in class, and the actual jobs in industry that are available to them.

This semester at Coventry High School, Julie Pankowicz is teaching her biotechnology class about the upstream and downstream processes, from scaling up cell cultures to purifying the protein product.

On Thursday, April 17, Pankowicz and her students traded their classroom for a live lesson in biopharmaceuticals through an innovative partnership with Alexion Pharmaceuticals in Smithfield, RI, and Rhode Island NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

With transportation provided by Rhode Island NSF EPSCor, the Coventry group spent the morning at Alexion, first receiving an overview of the company and then donning protective eyewear and lab coats for a morning of facility tours.

Alexion staff detailed the work done in support of manufacturing the company’s drug, Solaris, the world’s first and only approved terminal complement inhibitor.

(According to Alexion, Soliris is approved in nearly 50 countries as a treatment for patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, PNH, and in the United States, European Union, Japan and other countries as a treatment for patients with atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, aHUS.)

From immunology to chemistry, raw materials, and stability, scientists in each area described their daily responsibilities as well as their educational and professional backgrounds.

Pankowicz said the Alexion experience was invaluable: “It helped to bridge the gap between the concepts, techniques and equipment we learn about in class, and the actual jobs in industry that are available to them.”

The equipment and instruments Alexion scientists demonstrated were the same ones students learned about in class.

Coventry junior Sam Wright quickly found his area of interest: “My favorite job at Alexion is in the Microbiology Lab, where they swab surfaces and test air quality all day!  They have the coolest equipment there!”

Equally important, Pankowicz said, was the contact and engagement with young scientists early in their careers, talking about how they got to this point at Alexion and the details of what they did everyday.

“They took the time to discuss the many careers available in the biotech industry, and how a post-secondary education in the STEM-related fields can yield a wide range of professional options for my students,” Pankowicz reflected after the experience.

It is so nice to see professionals feel so passionate about their jobs, and what they do for a living.  At the end of the day, they feel like what they did at work today is helping to save someone’s life.

Company employees also reinforced the importance of skills students learned in their high school science classes, from using pipettes to documenting procedures. The review and signatory process alone is multi-step and highly detailed at every point in the process, students learned. Essentially, the message was, if it’s not documented, it wasn’t done.

Pankowicz’s class that toured Alexion was filled with students like seniors Amanda Loomis and Andrew LeCampion, both looking at bright futures in the STEM fields.

Next year, LeCampion will embark on the mechanical engineering track at the University of Rhode Island, enrolled in the prestigious International Engineering Program; Loomis also will be at URI, her sights set on pharmacy and health sciences.

From his perspective, LeCampion said, “It is so nice to see professionals feel so passionate about their jobs, and what they do for a living.  At the end of the day, they feel like what they did at work today is helping to save someone’s life.”

Loomis agreed: “As I am hoping pursue a degree in pharmaceutical sciences next year, I found it so interesting to see the work, behind the scenes of pharmacy, that goes in to helping sick people feel better.”

Story and photo by Amy Dunkle