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Collaborative Efforts Facilitate the Growth of an Interdisciplinary Minor in Biotechnology Abstract

Tremendous advances are being made in pharmaceutical and biotechnology discoveries and their applications (including manufacturing), as well as in health care services. As a result, there is an increasing sophistication of the products and services available and being developed, with an ever-widening scale of applications and marketing. The growth of biotechnology results in ever-expanding needs for college graduates who have knowledge of life-science based products and processes. There have been numerous reports of current and projected shortages of human resources possessing the required knowledge in the growing industry. In order to address the gap between education and the workforce, the Department of Industrial Technology has developed an academic minor in biotechnology being implemented in fall 2004.

This interdisciplinary biotechnology initiative is the result of a partnership among the Department of Industrial Technology, the Department of Biology, and the Department of Pharmacy. The program is administered within the Department of Industrial Technology. The minor is taken while the student continues his/her academic field of study and is made up of the following courses: Fundamentals of Biology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cell Biology, Biotechnology Laboratory courses, Compliance, Process Quality Control, and Bioinformatics Technology. The minor is available to any ---- University student majoring in any four-year degree baccalaureate degree program, i.e., science, technology, agriculture, pharmacy. The purpose of the minor is to offer the graduates of these four-year programs the basic knowledge and understanding of life-science based products, processes, and product quality to seek employment opportunities in the area of biotechnology and biotech-manufacturing. The biotechnology minor aims to provide a University-wide opportunity for undergraduates to acquire the knowledge and aptitudes needed in the biotechnology industry. The objectives of this paper are to describe the collaborative efforts and curriculum development that integrate the biotechnology minor into majors within multiple disciplines, including Industrial Technology.

Introduction

Indiana’s health industry is an extremely important and growing economic engine. Tremendous advances are being made in pharmaceutical and biotechnology discoveries and their applications (including manufacturing), as well as in health care services. As a result, there is an increasing sophistication of the products and services available and being developed, with an ever-widening scale of applications and marketing. This results in ever-expanding needs for college graduates who have knowledge of life-science-based products and processes. There have been numerous reports of current and projected shortages of human resources possessing the required knowledge in the growing industry.1 As reported in the meeting summary for the Pan-Organizational Summit on the U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce, technical skills combined with a strong math and science background and integrated with problem-solving, critical-thinking, and

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Clase, K. (2007, June), Collaborative Efforts Facilitate The Growth Of An Interdisciplinary Minor In Biotechnology Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2489