As one of the top three bioprocess-manufacturing regions in the United States, North Carolina is challenged to meet the personnel needs of its growing biomanufacturing industry. North Carolina's new Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) at North Carolina State Universityis ensuring that, as the industry grows, the state continues to educate and grow a job-ready workforce. Working with funds from the Golden LEAF Foundation and in partnership with innovative programs, including BRITE at North Carolina Central University and the North Carolina Community College System's BioNetwork, and industry collaborators, BTEC will expose students to the only curricula in the country that offer degree programs utilizing large-scale, current good manufacturing practices (cGMP)-simulated applied biotechnology.

BTEC opens its doors in the fall of 2007 on North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus in Raleigh. At more than 85,000 square feet, the $45 million BTEC will be the largest facility of its kind in the nation.

BTEC simulates a biomanufacturing facility capable of producing biopharmaceutical products and packaging them in an aseptic environment. It also features classrooms, laboratories, and process utilities to support educational programs.

BTEC offers:

• More than 63,000 square feet of laboratory training space

• 9,000 square feet of high-tech classrooms

• Three scales of bioreactors

• Bioseparation and protein purification-process operations

• Aseptic processing operations

• Remote learning and data acquisition capacity on process-scale equipment

• Bench-scale labs to enable learning in next-generation biomanufacturing technologies, including disposables, animal-cell and tissue culture, cell therapy, protein and metabolic engineering, miniaturization and high-throughput technologies, and bioanalytical methodologies

The facility is outfitted so that students gain cGMP experience using large-scale equipment found in biomanufacturing. Indeed, NC State's bioprocessing and biomanufacturing education provides a breadth of knowledge to produce job-ready, cross-trained graduates who contribute immediately in their professions. Since bioprocessing is the interaction of several disciplines, an NC State bioprocessing education blends theory with application, analysis, and synthesis of diverse concepts into a coherent whole. Undergraduates can analyze, interpret, and control experimental results and learn to utilize data mining to direct their research. Obtaining these skills often results in professionals with the confidence to act decisively and with the ability to produce products that reach the market faster and safer.

Opening in Fall 2007, NC State's BTEC will contain three scales of bioreactors.

NC State provides students with skills specific to bioprocessing and pharmaceutical manufacturing needs. Two new programs - a BS in bioprocessing science and a chemical and biomolecular engineering concentration - equip students with broad scientific preparations in chemistry, mathematics, physics, and biology. Each program prepares students for careers in the biopharmaceutical, vaccine, and commercial-enzyme industries as well as in traditional chemical-process industries and the emerging renewable-energy industries related to biofuels. NC State, growing the economy by degrees.