Blogs

This summer two Del Mar College students are working at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), which is part of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL) in Berkeley, CA. John F. Ramirez and Lorie Leyva are working on projects that involve E. coli membrane protein expression, isopentenol tolerance, production, and secretion for use as a potential biofuel. Some membrane proteins improve isopentenol production and a knockout strain of E. coli also improves membrane protein expression. John and Lorie are also testing the effects of multiple plasmid transformations have on the growth dynamics of their production strains of E. coli.

John... Read more

Dr. Thomas Tubon is at Bluegrass Community and Technical College this week to present his awesome workshop, The Stem Cell Teacher Academy . This is the second day. Most all the participants are from local high schools in BCTC's service area, with a few exceptions. However, there is tremendous diversity amongst them:

There is a new group in town, ASCN, Accelerating Systemic Change Network. I attended the first meeting two weeks ago and realized everything they were talking about is what we are trying to do in Texas and Kentucky! Read more

Kentucky's Governor, Matt Bevin, wants all Kentucky high school graduates to leave with at least nine hours of college credit. The announcement came from Gov. Bevin and Workforce Development Secretary, Hal Heiner, at a recent visit to Russell County High School. The Kentucky Dual Credit Scholarship Program will provide $15 million over the next 2 years for any high school student to earn dual credit at no cost to students. Eligible dual credit courses include general education classes, and career and tech education courses that are in a state-approved career pathway leading to an industry-recognized credential. The Kentucky Community and... Read more

Bluegrass Community and Technical College (BCTC) hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking April 20 for the Newtown Campus, Science Education Center, at 500 Newtown Pike, Lexington. The new building is projected to open in January 2018.

The Science Education Center will support up-to-date laboratory experiences and feature dynamic classroom technology. It will include labs, classrooms, student support areas, and offices for 20 faculty. The 64,000 sq. ft. building will also be home to two technical programs, Biotechnology and Environmental Science.

“With this facility, we are growing the campus to support excellent STEM education,” said Dr. Augusta Julian, president of BCTC.... Read more

The brain is a tricky organ to treat, being both important and complex! Not like the appendix for example, which is as close to disposable as you can get as far as internal organs are concerned. To add to the trickiness the body has a barrier system to protect the brain from "intruders" whether harmful or beneficial, making delivering a drug to the brain somewhat akin to storming a castle.

However Austin-based Mystic Pharmaceuticals is building a drawbridge. The company's recently issued patent "Dose-Dispensing Containers" (US Patent 9,248,076 B2) facilitates their development of non-invasive nose-to-brain delivery... Read more

Kentucky's newly elected governor, Matt Bevin, had to make some tough budget cuts in order to rescue the state's underfunded - really, really underfunded - like $30 billion underfunded - retirement system. Almost all state agencies will feel the pain, with the exception of statewide K-12 education and Kentucky State University in Frankfort. University and college budgets will be cut 4.5 percent over the next two years, down from Bevin's proposed cut of 9 percent. The funding bill does not address the governor's 4.5 percent cut to higher education in the current fiscal year, which is being left for the... Read more

On April 6, 7, and 8, the AC2 Leadership Team met for the first time at Austin Community College for our inaugural meeting of the National Visiting Committee (NVC). According to NVC members, it went well. They commended the Leadership team on their accomplishments given the short 3-month time frame since implementation. Kudos to us!

Based on NVC feedback, we are tasked with rebranding our contract service organization (CSO). They think industry already has a preconceived idea of the typical CSO - that is, a for-profit organization that steps in to the development process and provides high-level, high-security services... Read more

A goal of the AC2 Bio-Link Regional Center (AC2) is to incorporate LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems) in to biotechnology classes, possibly as a component of bioinformatics instruction. This is reasonable because students entering the workforce will have advantages over others if they have some experience with such systems. Also, CSO's and incubators need to consider LIMS to manage lab operations, train students in modern practices, and support their clients.

Sounds easy.

Getting, planning, building, using, and maintaining LIMS is a challenging endeavor. So challenging in fact, that there are countless systems available, a world of consultants, and... Read more

Tapping into a goal of providing collaborative learning in our S-STEM scholarship grant, our scholars were challenged to submit a research proposal to the EPA p3 Sustainable Design project. ("p3" stands for "people, planet, and prosperity".) Different teams that included students in the biotechnology, environmental sciences, engineering, and geological sciences programs developed their own ideas for a research proposal during fall of 2013. Following team presentations of their research proposals to their peers, our scholars voted on which project they wanted to submit, using feasability, potential impact, and commercial viability that the project might have on society. The winning team... Read more