Two years later, Ofori, 25, has nearly two years of laboratory experience. She routinely performs ELISA tests to check for immune responses and runs PCR procedures on mice DNA. She has worked for Jan Erikson, an internationally respected lupus and autoimmune disease researcher. Yet, Ofori just entered an undergraduate program at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia this summer. "I didn't expect I'd be able to do [research] so soon," she says. "On the normal path, I would get a bachelor's degree.... If I'm lucky, I'd get to do some research my senior year.... My first hands-on experience would be [on] my first job."
Ofori is one of the first five graduates of the Biomedical Technician Training Program, a project sponsored by the Wistar Institute and the Community College of Philadelphia. Wistar launched the program to help build a cadre of lab technicians; but it has also opened scientific ...
