Purdue University's biomanufacturing research develops and scales processes for producing valuable bioproducts from renewable resources, advancing workforce development, and fostering a network of collaboration and innovation. This webinar will include an overview of Purdue’s biomanufacturing research and how Purdue can support your company and lab with continuing education and joint research programs; a feature on the LORRE lab which transforms renewable bioresources into products, fuels, and biomaterials through innovative bioprocessing and bioseparation techniques and how you can develop new research and education partnerships; and an overview of Purdue’s program on metabolic engineering of plants for chemical production and how you can partner to advance research projects. 

Session details

• Purdue Biomanufacturing Research | Nate Mosier
• Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering (LORRE) | Mike Ladisch and Karthik Sankar
• Metabolic Engineering of Plants for Sustainable Chemicals | Professors Natalia Dudareva and John A. Morgan

Welcome to the 2025 InnovATEBIO series of virtual ATE project talks.  This series features leaders in biotechnology workforce education from across the US sharing their work on exciting projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.  The ATE program supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy.

Talk 1:  The NOBLE project: Cultivating Tomorrow's Biotechnology Professionals

This talk will describe the NOVA Biotechnology Leadership in Education (NOBLE) Project, aimed at recruiting, retaining, training, and placing a diverse population of students from the Northern Virginia area to work in the biotechnology industry. This project emphasizes a combination of technical skills and professional skills training.

Speakers:  David Fernandez, PhD (PI) Northern Virginia Community College, Manassas, VA

Additional speakers:  Xin Zhou, PhD, NOVA Biotechnology Program Head; Vijaya Gandreti, Associate Professor of Biology and Biotechnology

Go beyond focusing solely on presenting yourself as the optimal candidate and utilize the interview to determine if an internship/job opportunity is a “Good Fit” for you! In this workshop you’ll gain strategies to clarify your career and educational goals and frame questions to obtain accurate information to assess if a workplace will support those goals, while also learning to recognize potential misalignments.

Workshop participants will come away with strategies to:

• Define what a ‘bad fit' or 'toxic work environment’ is
• Outline and clarify your own goals before the interview
• Use questions during an interview to determine whether a workplace is in alignment with your goals and values
• Articulate strategies and practice language to frame questions
• Describe examples of verbal and non-verbal red flags indicating the opportunity may not be a “Good Fit”
• Describe factors that can make it difficult to recognize and weigh the potential impact of red flags during and after an interview

Presenter: Naledi Saul, MPM, Director, UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development

Welcome to the 2025 InnovATEBIO series of virtual ATE project talks.  This series features leaders in biotechnology workforce education from across the US sharing their work on exciting projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.  The ATE program supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy.

Talk 1:  Module Development for Bioindustrial Manufacturing Workforce Readiness

BioMADE and member Delgado Community College recently received a National Science Foundation grant to develop pioneering new industry-driven curricula for bioindustrial manufacturing that will build the technical workforce needed to support this growing sector. This webinar will cover the modules that will be developed, the topics they will cover, and opportunities to participate in the project.

Speaker:  Louise Petruzzella (BioMADE)

Talk 2:  Work-based biotech education

Speakers:  Michael Fuller, BABEC

Welcome to the 2025 InnovATEBIO series of virtual ATE project talks.  This series features leaders in biotechnology workforce education from across the US sharing their work on exciting projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program.  The ATE program supports the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy.

Talk 1:  DNA Subway 2.0

Enhancing DNA Subway 2.0 as a Shared Resource for Bioscience Workforce Development - this project has partnered with Oxford Nanopore Technologies to make its MinION device an accessible and affordable solution to bring DNA sequencing into teaching laboratory. At the same time, this project has redeveloped DNA Subway 2.0 as a mobile-first application designed to work equally well on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. Together, these advances enable the sequencing and analysis of DNA barcodes in the field, in school, or at home—by anyone, at any time. This session will introduce you to nanopore sequencing and its surprisingly low cost.  You will be guided you through the entire bioinformatics workflow to analyze DNA barcodes produced by nanopore sequencing.

Speaker:  David Micklos, Executive Director, Dolan DNA Learning Center

A career conversation with your mentor-manager is essentially a negotiation. It's a time to discuss your career path, what types of support your mentor-manager is willing and able to offer, and the level of productivity they'll need to see to continue to support you. Using best practices from Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Stone, Patton, Heen and Fisher), participants will go through the steps of preparing for a negotiation (including identifying conversational goals and concerns about the conversation, assessing their research mentor's position and preferences, etc.), brainstorm different conversational tactics for each stage of a negotiation (including opening the conversation, negotiating different issues, coming to agreement and ending a conversation) and consider steps post-conversation.

• Workshop participants will come away with strategies to:
• Identify the steps to prepare for a career conversation
• Consider how your mentor-manager would prefer to have this conversation
• Develop talking points to keep the conversation on track
• Discuss how to open, have and exit the conversation
• Identify strategies if a conversation becomes contentious
• Describe next steps post-conversation(s)

Presenter: Naledi Saul, MPM, Director, UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development