State education program supports biotechnology
Mon U. professor to serve as director of biotech educator's group
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH - Monmouth University was awarded a portion of a $5.1 million grant to be used to ignite a biotechnology education program in the state.

The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor was awarded to the Central New Jersey BIO-1 regional partnership, which consists of key education and industry members in central New Jersey involved in supporting bioscience education and training programs necessary to support the pharmaceutical workforce.

According to Dr. Michael Palladino, associate professor in the Biology Department at Monmouth University, New Jersey is "behind the eight ball" compared to other states in terms of biotech education.

"Other states have the lead," said Palladino in an interview last week.

"New Jersey traditionally has been more of a pharmaceutical environment, but the lines between pharmaceuticals and biotech are being blurred, and [pharmaceutical] companies are now looking into biotech," he said.

The BIO-1 partnership will be working to enhance education opportunities for the life science workforce throughout the state, according to a press release from Monmouth University.

Educational partners in the program, in addition to Monmouth University, include Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Princeton University, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey, Rider University and The College of New Jersey.

Palladino will be serving as founder and director of the New Jersey Biotechnology Educators Consortium (NJBEC), according to the release.

The NJBEC will be funded by the WIRED grant and serve as a focal point to facilitate communication between biotechnology educators at the middle and high school levels, community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, according to the release.

The NJBEC will act as a hub to allow for better communication between biotech educators from the middle school to college level, according to the release.

The NJBEC's primary goal is to create a better way for colleges to communicate, according to Palladino.

"Our intent and hope is that there will be a trickle-down effect," Palladino said, "that it will reach all high school and middle school biology curriculum.

"In New Jersey we have a nice range of biotech educational experiences," Palladino said. "We have two biotech high schools, one in Monmouth County and one in Bergen County.

"We also have a number of community colleges that offer associate's degree programs for bio tech," he said. Research and laboratory work are

important to biotech, according

to Palladino, who added

that students should also

be educated in "controversial

topics" such as

genetically modifying

foods and stem-cell research.

He said he believes there should be programs implemented to train students to better market biotech, as well as understand the ethical and legal issues associated with the science.

Biotech uses living cells to create both medical treatments and other products that "can make the world a better place," Palladino said.

Biotech is capable of producing therapeutic proteins such as insulin, according to Palladino.

He further explained that biotech can also be used to genetically enhance crops or clean the environment through a process called bioremediation, which uses modified plants and bacteria to remove toxins in soil.

The NJBEC will initially be composed of the five counties of Central New Jersey: Monmouth, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset.

"We hope for it to eventually be statewide," Palladino said. "We want the five-county thing to be a catalyst."