NCCU prepares to launch its new BRITE programhttp://web.nccu.edu/publicrelations
By PAUL BONNER, The Herald-Sun
December 3, 2005 11:02 pm
http://www.herald-sun.com/sports/nccentral
DURHAM -- When Research Triangle Park was conceived back in the 1950s, one university was conspicuous by its omission from the triumvirate of N.C. State University, Duke and UNC that defined the region, even though it is closer to the park than the others.
But that is changing, as N.C. Central University becomes a player among the life-sciences enterprises that, along with microelectronics, have fueled RTP's continuing growth.
Under former Chancellor Julius Chambers, NCCU staked its claim in biotechnology -- and named its Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute after him when it opened six years ago.
Now, NCCU is set to secure its role in the field as it prepares to launch its Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise, or BRITE.
The university is hiring faculty and designing a 52,000-square-foot building that will adjoin its 120,000-square-foot Mary M. Townes Science Complex that opened this fall.
The BRITE facility won't open until 2007, but university officials plan to start a bachelor's degree program next fall in the Townes Building. The university intends eventually also to offer master's and doctoral degrees in the field.
Luring research and facilitieshttp://www.nccu.edu/brite/
NCCU is part of a consortium with N.C. State and the N.C. Community College System to provide biotech training and research to help lure more research and biomanufacturing facilities to the state.
As a historically black university, NCCU has a track record in career training for such traditional fields as education, business, law and nursing. But updating those prospects, along with more high-level research and advanced-degree offerings, has been a goal.
"It puts us in a position that we've wanted to be in for a very long time," NCCU Chancellor James Ammons said of BRITE. "As I have gone around the state and the Research Triangle and looked at the work force doing this kind of science, far too little of that work force is African-American, women or Hispanics. NCCU has the potential to change the face of the scientific work force in the Research Triangle, North Carolina, America and globally."
The tobacco lawsuit settlement-funded Golden LEAF Foundation has granted nearly $18 million toward BRITE, plus a $1.5 million matching grant toward what NCCU says will be $5 million worth of top-of-the-line lab equipment. A state institutional appropriation of $2 million this year is being spent on hiring faculty.
BRITE's director
In June, NCCU hired Li-An Yeh as BRITE's director. She came from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly & Co.'s Indianapolis headquarters, where she was a biological research adviser. Before that, she directed biotech research at several companies and academic labs, including the Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair.
She received her Ph.D. in biochemistry at Purdue University, a master's degree in chemistry from Kent State University and bachelor's from the National Taiwan University.
Among other start-up tasks, Yeh has been devising a curriculum for a degree in biology or chemistry with a concentration in biopharmaceutical sciences. On Nov. 16, NCCU's trustees approved the curriculum, along with a new Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Law Institute in NCCU's School of Law.
Next fall, NCCU will offer 10 full scholarships to academically qualified freshmen and 10 transfer students in the concentration. The scholarships will cover tuition, room and board. The university will provide each student a new laptop computer and an internship with a biotech company.
"I think it will be a good opportunity for them to get a competitive edge to get a job a biomanufacturing or biotechnology research company, because they will have hands-on experience and they are familiar with all the equipment in the lab," Yeh said.
BRITE will focus on the advanced scientific underpinnings of biotechnology, while the community colleges' BioNetwork program -- in which Durham Technical Community College participates -- and N.C. State's Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center will focus more on worker training, Yeh said.
Biotech on the rise
About 20,000 people in North Carolina are employed in biomanufacturing and related pharmaceutical manufacturing, a number that is projected to increase by 10 percent a year, said Barry Teater, a spokesman for the N.C. Biotechnology Center in Durham.
A skilled work force is the foundation to building a hub for the industry, Teater said.
"If you don't have people to fill these jobs, you won't attract those jobs," he said.
There are 16 biomanufacturing companies in North Carolina, with 24 to 30 related pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, he said.
"We've got a fairly big population of these companies, and they're going to be expanding," Teater said.
They also drive economic growth, Ammons said.
"All you have to do is look at California, Massachusetts and parts of Maryland, especially around Johns Hopkins University, and you see the power of this discipline and what it can do for the economy, and what it can do for the quality of living for people who are in those industries," he said.
"We're now in position to be part of building the new economy of North Carolina and a big part of the new economy of America. The industry is looking to NCCU to produce a large share of its work force. We haven't been in that position before."
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