NEWS RELEASE

Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 9, 2006

Contact: Contact: Mike Emery
713.743.8186 (office)
713.415.6551 (pager)
pemery@uh.edu

NEW BIOTECHNOLOGY DEGREE PROGRAM FOCUS OF
$1M TO UH COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
Texas Workforce Commission Grant to Help UH Develop New Curriculum, Training

HOUSTON, Aug. 9, 2006 – Whether it’s advancing health care, enhancing food science or supporting agriculture, biotechnology has become a high-growth industry. Now, universities must prepare students for careers in this emergent field. Recognizing a need for trained professionals in this area, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) awarded $1 million to the University of Houston’s College of Technology to develop a new biotechnology baccalaureate program.

Titled “Bridges to the Future – Initiating a Comprehensive Biotechnology Program at UH,” the grant will assist the college’s Center for Life Sciences Technology (CLiST) in creating an interdisciplinary bachelor of science degree in biotechnology and short-term training programs aimed at industry professionals.

Rupa Iyer, UH research associate professor, is designing the program’s curriculum. Two of its courses are project-based laboratory classes developed by Iyer in collaboration with Melinda Wales, Texas A&M associate research scientist and chief scientific officer of Reactive Services, an Austin-based biotechnology company. These laboratory classes will integrate bioinformatics, bioprocessing and nanobiotechnolgy and will be connected through a common theme, a soil bacterium that encodes a pesticide degrading gene, placing the program’s emphasis on environmental biotechnology.

“This will take students right from the process of scientific discovery to its applications in biotechnology,” Iyer said. “To my knowledge, no other institution in Texas has done this at an undergraduate level.”

The degree program is expected to be presented to the UH System Board of Regents in spring 2007 and then to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for approval.

CLiST’s short-term training programs will be targeted toward biotechnology professionals needing to upgrade their skills. They will be taught both in person and online. Titles for short courses in development include Current Good Manufacturing Practices, Biotechnology Regulatory Environment and Biotechnology Techniques.

“Bridges to the Future” is the second major grant received by CLiST this year. In March, the Office of the Governor presented the center with $372,000 from its Wagner Payser Grant program. Using these funds, CLiST initiated its first steps in creating a consortium of higher education institutions and private sector enterprises to address biotechnology education and training requirements and developing the Web portal www.TexasBioTech,org to disseminate industry information.

“Receiving this kind of support validates our mission,” said Chris Baca, director of CLiST. “It shows that the state is indeed interested in supporting the infra-structure of the biotechnology industry.”

Biotechnology is the application of technology using biological systems to develop products or provide
solutions for industries such as medicine and agriculture. Its most recognized applications are in the development of drugs such as those used in treating cancer and heart disease. It is also employed in food science and nanotechnology.

“The biotechnology and life sciences industry needs a skilled and experienced workforce for developing, manufacturing and selling products such as small-molecule and biological therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices,” said William Fitzgibbon, dean of the College of Technology. “Because these products and their manufacture are complex and often highly regulated, the professionals needed for the businesses that sell them require extensive, often lengthy, technically specialized training.”

The U.S. Department of Labor has cited biotechnology as a high growth industry, and identified its three primary workforce issues as recruitment, training and education. In 2002, Texas Gov. Rick Perry established the Governor’s Council on Science and Biotechnology Development describing the industry as “the wave of the future when it comes to health care.”

UH’s College of Technology offers undergraduate and graduate degrees related to practical technology and consumer science. Its curriculum includes programs in engineering technology, information technology, logistics, merchandising and life sciences technology.

About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000 students.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.