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Dual Credit for High School Juniors & Seniors

By: 
Deborah Davis
KY Gov Mat Bevin

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

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Kentuckydual credit
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Groundbreaking ceremony for BCTC Science Education Center

By: 
Deborah Davis

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

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Kentucky
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Stop and smell the.......Medicine?!

By: 
Elizabeth Stewart

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

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industry
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Good news, bad news

By: 
Deborah Davis

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

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KentuckySTEM Education

A rose by any other name...

By: 
Deborah Davis

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

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Kentucky
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To succeed with LIMS, you must first fail

By: 
Todd Smith
LIMS Suck
A favorite way to learn what other thinks is...

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

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computer skillsbioinformaticsLIMS
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Austin Community College collaborative research project

By: 
Patricia Phelps
Field-testing a prototype solar sanitizer
Students grabbing samples for field-testing solar disinfection prototypes.

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

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Environmental samplingS-STEM
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Del Mar SEA-PHAGE student John Ramirez wins first place at AAAS!

By: 
Daisy Zhang

Del Mar College was one of the few and first 2-year schools accepted into the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science Education Alliance (SEA) program. The SEA program allows undergraduate students to participate in actual research in multiple disciplines across biology such as molecular biology, microbiology and finally the emerging field of bioinformatics.

Our SEA-Phage Team (Drs. Daisy Zhang, R. Deborah Overath and J. Robert Hatherill) recently sponsored five DMC students to present at the student poster competition at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting held in Washington DC, February 11-15, 2016. AAAS is... Read more

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phageSEA PhagesAAAS
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Construction begins on the ACC biotech incubator

By: 
Sandra Porter
Groundbreaking work on an incubator at Austin Community College.

Austin Community College began work Feb. 4th on the Advanced Commercialization ACCelerator in ACC Highland with industry representatives and community leaders in attendance. Biotechnology students participating along with up to 200 guests.

From the ACC web site :

The business incubator will provide companies with the specialized equipment, wet-lab space, and conference areas they need to transform their research and concepts to marketable products. ACC students will be able to take advantage of real-world learning opportunities.

“We’re going to see hundreds of millions of dollars of additional economic activity and thousands of jobs... Read more

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incubatorACC Bioincubator
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On the problem with race-based medicine

By: 
Linnea Fletcher
Dorothy Roberts explains why race-based medicine is bad medicine...

This morning I watched an amazing TED Talk on how medicine uses “race” in diagnosing disease. I thought it was particularly good based on the point of view of the presenter. This woman socially identifys with being “black” but ancestrally is of both European and African descent based on her “white” father’s and “black” mother’s ancestry. The talk made me reflect on how I am classified when I check that box Caucasian—such a broad classification. Especially when actually ancestrally I am ¼ Swedish and ¾ Scotts-Irish –not just Caucasian. Genetically I carry the gene for Factor V Leiden, a blood... Read more

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genetics
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