BREP: 125 Students

Whenever someone asks me how I ended up where I am today I always start with my experience at the BSF.

I started at the BSF when I was a junior at the University of Maryland with an interest in working in a lab environment to strengthen my application to medical school. Little did I know that I'd end up discovering what I'm truly passionate about and meeting a great mentor along the way in Ben Woodard.

At the BSF I learned the foundation of what makes someone successful in this industry; how this industry operates, how to work with others, and the importance of a good work ethic. I learned important technical skills the way such as how to operate fermentation vessels of varying size and aseptic technique.

The BSF was critical to me getting into the industry. The BSF has a great reputation in the greater DC area for putting intelligent, effective, and personable employees into the workforce.

It without question helped and prepared me to get a job when I graduated during the economic crisis. Since I left the BSF, I've been able to pass this along by hiring a current BSF student as an intern and helping other BSF students gain employment in the industry.

Without the BSF, I wouldn't be in this industry and responsible for delivering drugs to patients in need.

Since I left the BSF, I have been a core team member during the startup of two new cGMP manufacturing facilities. I led a project to establish internal drug product manufacturing that encompassed aseptic filling through packaging and labeling. After this capability was established I moved into the role of managing that business function within a 7.5 billion dollar market cap company. Recently, I started at a new company where I manage contract development and manufacturing organizations across multiple countries to deliver innovative therapies to cancer patients in need.
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Could I have done any of this in the first decade of my professional career without the BSF? The short answer is no.

The BSF gave me industry experience before I ever stepped foot into the workforce.

As a professional who has been responsible for hiring people over the last 5 years that's incredibly valuable and exceptionally rare.
-- Chris Oesterling

My experience at the BSF played a critical role in helping to get my career off the ground after I completed my education.

It’s difficult to overstate the value of coming out of school with multiple years of hands-on experience in bioprocess development/scale-up and tech transfer, across prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems.

Combining this experience with the networking opportunities presented by close collaboration with our industry clients allowed me to successfully transition to a rewarding industry job immediately after completing my education.

Having transitioned from my education to the workforce and progressed my career, the BSF network has also served as an invaluable resource for my hiring needs. When you see a resume for a recent BSF graduate, you already know that the candidate has been able to work directly with highly technical systems to solve complex problems. You know that they have been challenged to think critically and independently to tackle these problems in a high-performance environment. It is exceedingly difficult to find entry-level job candidates with this unique set of experiences and skills anywhere outside of the BSF.

As we (myself and my fellow BSF alums) have continued to develop our careers, many of us have moved away from the core functional area served by the BSF. I eventually went back to school for my MBA and transitioned to Commercial/Marketing roles in Biotech, and more recently Vaccines. Now, almost 20 years after I graduated from UMD, the BSF network continues to play an important and enriching role in my professional network and career development goals. My fellow BSF alums now work in a wide array of functional areas inside and outside of the industry. I know that I can always reach out to another member of the “BSF family,” even if we didn’t directly work together at UMD, for help or advice regarding the pharma/biotech industry or career development in general – and I always make time for BSF alums when they call on me for the same.

In my 20+ years working in industry in and around Maryland, I have never seen another program that offers the development and enrichment opportunities afforded to undergrads by the BSF.

Many of the startups/early-stage companies that we served when I was an undergrad are now household names. The BSF and larger BREP programs play a critical, and not easily replaced, role in promoting the development of industry in Maryland, and promoting the development of skilled personnel to join these companies and help drive their continued growth.
-- Nitin Goel

I truly enjoyed working at the BSF during my undergraduate career at the University of Maryland. As a microbiology major, I was able to apply the scientific content that I was learning in the classroom through the projects I worked on at the facility. I now teach Advanced Placement Biology at a private high school in Houston, Texas where a significant number of my students plan to pursue STEM degrees and have aspirations to become engineers, researchers, or to work in the biotech industry. I reflect on my BSF experience often when I am planning instruction. As an educator, I am responsible for equipping my students with the 21st century skills they need to succeed in collegiate programs, internships, and ultimately in their careers. My time at the BSF has allowed me to know first- hand what foundational skills my students need once they leave my classroom. When I share information about my experiences at the BSF with my students, it provides them with insight into what the practical applications of science truly looks like and it gets them excited about their future. The perspective I’ve gained from my work at the facility has enabled me to tailor lessons and lab experiences so that students develop and polish skills that will enable them to work and contribute meaningfully to organizations like the BSF. As a 2006 graduate of the BSF/BREP program, I've had the chance to reflect on my career in biotech and the impact my undergraduate BSF experiences had on my career progression and opportunities. The program was the primary driving factor for my career pursuit in the life sciences, which would not have been the likely direction selected in its absence. Having that tangible exposure allowed me to understand the fundamental power of how biotechnology is capable of transforming our world. As a BSF employee, I was able to learn development and pilot scale equipment, advancing me years in what would have normally been learned slowly over time on the job. This advancement set the foundation for my career enabling me to succeed at multiple Maryland biotechnology firms, both large and small, and gave me the capabilities needed to operate and grow my own life sciences consulting firm, AllianceBio (ABIO). The firm has a significant regional life sciences presence and currently employs 12 people, of which 4 have ties to the BSF/BREP program and UMD. Students exposed to the BSF/BREP program are better positioned to perform on the job directly out of college compared to standard Clark School graduates. Hence, the program accounts for the primary resource pool that we target for entry level talent and we hope to continue to do so in the future, further growing our company and bolstering the life sciences industry in Maryland. I certainly wouldn’t be able to educate my students as well as I do if it weren’t for my experience at the BSF.
--Jessica (Willis) McKenny

I am actually on my first business trip in Vancouver, Canada. Drafted this up because I believe the mentor-ship you all provided to us students is extremely valuable and should be a primary focus for your group.

Looking back on my time at BSF/BREP, there are several things that come to mind on the things I gained and how the experience applies to my current job working as a biomedical engineer for a Targeted Temperature Management (TTM) medical device company, called BrainCool Inc. This environment allowed me to grow as a professional, taught me how to promote a learning environment within the workplace, and understand pharmacokinetics. From a professional perspective, Curtis was very transparent in communicating client needs and his thought process on how to achieve their desired outcomes. This helped me in learning the interactions that are made with clients to derive an in vitro study and then determine the appropriate deliverable based off of the customer requests. A large part of this process was constant troubleshooting until finally, after several trial and error studies, a suitable deliverable could be achieved. In addition to this, Curtis, Ben and Kevin have all shared insight in to what goes into writing their NIIMBL grant proposals and how this process tends to work, which helped significantly in submitting my first grant proposal for my company.

BrainCool brought in a biomedical engineer to help troubleshoot and fix the devices that are in their current accounts as well as convey to their salesforce, clinical team, and hospital physicians how the TTM technology is being utilize within the device and understand this so that they can all be maximizing the efficacy of the device. Curtis, Ben and Kevin have always shown interest in the students and have broken every process, machine, and technology down to a level that was easily understandable, which I believe has helped me grow in the ability simplify complicated solutions/topics.

In regards to pharmacokinetics, TTM within neurology focuses on combating fever in neurologically ill patients through cooling and I have learned an extensive amount in the systemic effects of fever and hypothermia therapy. However this process was made easier due to the knowledge that I gained from BREP in understanding the importance of temperature in optimal cell health and growth and the instability/other negative effects in deviating from their optimal temperature. This is what I have found to be most applicable knowledge to my current role at BrainCool.

This is a good program that is very good at giving students the opportunities they need to succeed in industry and as a professional.
‍--Bryan Wand

My first introduction to the BREP program was in the spring of 2001 as part of a campus tour for admitted high school seniors. I had declared my major of Chemical Engineering and a facility tour concluded in the Bioprocess Scale-Up Facility (BSF). I introduced myself to the facility’s manager, Ben Woodard, and asked if he was hiring any part-time undergrad lab assistants. Ben asked me to leave me some contact information and he would be in touch if anything became available. Ben followed up with me a few weeks later and asked if I would be interested in starting work at the BSF that summer. I could not have answered, “yes” any quicker. More importantly, I did not realize that Ben had just offered a position to me that would single-handedly open doors leading to the position I have today – leading the Gene Therapy Manufacturing Sciences Group at Biogen.

My experience as an undergrad working at the BSF taught me two key lessons: (1) a job in the biotechnology industry is a tight-knit community that values internships (2) supplementing textbook information with practical biopharmaceutical knowledge leads you to rewarding career opportunities. I spent all five undergraduate years at the BSF gaining critical knowledge under the leadership of Ben. He taught me how to steam sterilize a fermenter, pack a chromatography column, lyophilize a recombinant protein, and probably more importantly, why it is important to show up to work on time, communicate effectively, and how to present yourself professionally.

After spending almost 5 years at a local vaccine development and manufacturing company, I returned to the BREP program in 2011 to lead a newly commissioned core facility focused on mammalian cell culture production and purification. The position created a platform for me to grow as a manager, hiring full-time research staff and the critically important undergraduate researchers. The staff and I created industrial workshops, training biopharmaceutical professionals on cell culture techniques, eventually evolving into a workshop on viral vector manufacturing strategies. We produced and purified viral vectors for critical pre-clinical gene therapy studies, developed scale-down production models for commercial monoclonal antibody platforms and built stronger connections for the University of Maryland to NIST and the FDA. The investments the University made to furnish the lab with modern equipment, upgrade supporting laboratory facilities, and build a trained work staff created a pillar of success for the BREP program in one of the most important biopharmaceutical regions in the world – the 270 corridor in Montgomery County.

I left the BREP program to join Biogen in 2017, but will never forget the lasting impact the BREP program has made on me and my family. The BREP program was a key catalyst in my career and personal development. As a BREP employee, the program offered a platform to drive innovation and education in the highly dynamic field of gene therapy. As a BREP student, the program offered key connections in the industry, invaluable training programs, and a place to grow as a future employee of the biotechnology industry. Most importantly, the state of Maryland is lucky to have Ben as a key asset to foster education, technology advancement, and mentorship to future and current students, employees, and employers.
‍--John Kerwin

I graduated with a B.S. in Psychology in 2012. I then got a job working at the Marcus Autism center in Atlanta Georgia. I worked there for one and a half years. I found the job to be one of the hardest things I have ever done. Between dealing with violent children and parents who refused to apply the behavioral interventions we developed, I realized that I could not continue to work in that field. After much contemplation, I decided that I should follow my childhood dream and become an engineer. I began taking classes at a local community college in 2015, part-time at first, and after I decided I wanted to be a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineer, full-time. It was at this time, in May of 2017, my then fiancé got a job in Washington D.C. Although it was a little late for the fall semester I applied to the University of Maryland at College Park and prayed for acceptance. A few months later I received an email that changed my life. I was going to be a Terp. I was excited for this new experience but I did not know how life changing my experience would truly be.

When I finally got to orientation, it was the last possible date of registration for transfer students, I realized that I had an uphill battle in front of me. The transfer process was as turbulent as possible. I did not receive credit for several classes, I did not get into the school of engineering, I was a letters and science major cast adrift in a place where I knew no one. The first two semesters at UMD were incredibly difficult for me. I had never lived anywhere outside of the Atlanta area. It was much colder here and my classes did not make me feel any warmer. To be completely honest my grades suffered. I was taking out sizeable loans to pay for the exuberant out of state tuition and I began to become worried about my ability to get a job after graduation. My second semester at UMD I finally got accepted to the engineering school and began taking Chem. E. classes. At a particularly tough moment I remember speaking to the then president of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AICHE) president, Kyle Fitzpatrick. I told him how worried I was about all the loans I was taking out and my anxiety regarding future job prospects. He casually mentioned that he knew someone who worked for the Biotechnology Research and Education Program (BREP) and that he could put me in contact with them. At that moment my future was decided.

I remember my first time at the BSF, it was an interview with Kevin Knapstein, the long-time Bio-process Scale-up Facility (BSF) lab manager. He said “You can treat this job as just a job where you come in and do your work and leave. Or you can do a lot more, you can do your own research, you can learn specific techniques, what I am trying to say is that you can get from this job whatever you put in. Initiative is rewarded here; it is up to you what you get out of this.”. It was at that moment that I realized that this was the opportunity that I needed. This was how I could prove that I was a capable engineer. I have now been at UMD for 2.5 years and I have never found a place where students have the opportunity to decide their own experience.

I decided to make the most of this exceptionally rare opportunity. To say that I have learned things that I would never learn in class is an understatement. I have gained an amazingly unique opportunity to not only gain skills which are directly applicable to the biotechnological industry in the state of Maryland but to understand what it takes to be a successful manager. Through the tutelage of Ben Woodard I have learned how to run an efficient organization. From the intricacies of networking, to the day to day operation of a biotechnology lab, I have learned more than I ever could have through school.

I would be working as a server or cleaning houses if I was not working for BREP. As a non-traditional student, it is crucial that I bring in an income to at least pay for monthly loan payments. Instead of wasting my time making money in a random service industry job I can pay for my loan doing work which makes me a better engineer. There is no other place in UMD where this is possible. In the past two years, I have learned more about the biotechnology /manufacturing industry in Maryland then I could in any class. By working at the BSF I have found a reason to stay in Maryland and to work here and have my family here. Through BREP I have found purpose as a student and as a Marylander. I would not be a Terp today if it were not for the BREP, and the mentorship of Kevin and Ben
‍--John Starkel