National Science Foundation grant to fund FCC biotech training

Jillian Atelsek, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
Updated ·2 min read

Oct. 12—A $350,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will let Frederick Community College offer low-cost training programs for aspiring cell and gene therapy technicians.

The training will address what the college says is a "growing need" for two different positions in the Frederick region: cell therapy technicians and flow cytometry technicians.

Cell therapy technicians handle the process of modifying or replacing diseased cells in the body, the college wrote in a news release, while flow cytometry technicians analyze the quality and purity of those therapies.

Both jobs require specific training that's expensive and often inaccessible, said Savita Prabhakar, who manages FCC's biotechnology program.

"So we're trying to bridge that gap," Prabhakar said.

Cell therapies are mainly used to treat cancer and rare diseases, Prabhakar said. Technicians need to learn how to prepare and preserve samples, and they must be familiar with specific types of costly machinery, she added.

"It's not something that's very difficult to train. It's just that the opportunity to do it is not there," she said. "Because the instrument itself is expensive."

Often, students or professionals hoping to get trained in these techniques have to pay thousands of dollars for a three- or four-day workshop, Prabhakar said.

In those cases, they have to learn fast — and they don't have a facility they can go back to afterward to practice or refamiliarize themselves with the process.

"You have to be in a research lab to be able to get the chance to work with this instrument," Prabhakar said. "But we want to make it accessible to anybody who wants to enter the field."

The grant will let FCC offer seven-week courses both to FCC students and working professionals who want to expand their skill set, Prabhakar said.

The trainings are set to begin in the spring. Prabhakar said she hopes to have trained at least 25 people in the next three years.

Prabhakar said the courses could help meet the growing demand for workers with these skill-sets in Frederick, a hub for biotechnology companies.

And the focus on flow cytometry "will make FCC one of the first community colleges in the country to offer education in this innovative technique," the college wrote in a news release.

The grant is part of the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program for two-year higher education institutions to educate technicians in fields that drive the national economy.