Ashley
Bolden entered the University
of Missouri-Columbia (MIZZOU) planning a career as
a medical doctor. But four years of undergraduate research—washing
lab dishes her freshman year and working up to a nationally
recognized project on the effects of estrogen on rats—opened
her eyes to new possibilities.
“When I began as a researcher, I felt unsuited to be among other
undergraduate and graduate research students, but I have proven
to myself I can work with the best,” she says in a profile on
the MIZZOU website on undergraduate research. “I have re-evaluated
my career goals and am now focused on becoming a biomedical
researcher and going to graduate school.”
The University encourages all undergraduate students to participate
in research projects—either related to their field of study
or in another area of interest. Bolden took part in the MU Life
Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (LU UROP),
which helps students find internships on campus, sponsors travel
so students can present their work at regional, national and
international meetings; conducts workshops for undergrads interested
in research careers and helps line up summer internships and
jobs at other schools.
The MIZZOU program is one of many ways universities and colleges
in the St. Louis region are preparing students for careers in
the life sciences, as the area develops into a BioBelt with
a surging demand for researchers and technicians at all levels.
By some estimates, at least three “bench” scientists are needed
to support the work of every Ph.D. lead scientist on a project.
“Such individuals play a critical role in a research institution,”
says Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton of Washington
University in St. Louis, which—with nearly a half-billion
dollars in on-going research—plays a dual role as recruiter,
as well as educator of scientific talent. “I just want to underscore
the importance that people with a background of science play
in the success of a research institution.”
A homegrown workforce of bench scientists and technicians is
vital because they don’t have the same economic incentives as
Ph.D.s to uproot families and move to the region. To that end,
almost every school cultivates students to fill the scientific
employment ranks.
And, if there’s one word that describes the trend in educating
a life sciences workforce, it’s mobility—mobility across disciplinary
boundaries, combining computer sciences with biology, or biology
with chemistry. But the word also encompasses an ongoing educational
process, one on which a scientist moves up the ladder from lab
tech to Ph.D., or from strictly scientific employment to business
and research management.
Jack Kennell, professor of biology at Saint
Louis University (SLU), says that both science and
technology are advancing so quickly that a scientist must plan
on a lifetime of continual education to keep up with the mutations.
He’s been nurturing a collaborative program with regional life
sciences companies to place student interns in working labs.
It should blossom next year into a certificate program in integrative
bioinformatics—a broad term that covers the intersection between
computer science and biology. The idea is to train people to
manage the vast amounts of new data being generated by advances
in genetics. Eventually, Kennell would like to create a Master’s
program.
“This is the era of biology,” says Kennell, who’s slated to
become associate chairman of SLU’s biology department in July.
“It’s a very dynamic time and there are careers here—good careers,
meaningful careers and, in some cases, very well-compensated
careers.”
The state, too, is encouraging careers in the life sciences.
Under the Missouri Advantage Repayment Incentive Option, students
who join the state’s life science workforce may have up to $2,500
a year in educational loans forgiven, for a total of $10,000
over four years.
Larger universities like SLU, Washington University, MIZZOU
and the University of Illinois
are spinning off so many new life-science-related programs it’s
impossible to list them all.
MIZZOU, for example, has—among its many other programs—a long-standing
commitment to interdisciplinary science education. The school
established two interdisciplinary programs in the 1980s, Food
for the 21st Century and the Molecular Biology Program. The
Life Sciences Center, dedicated to interdisciplinary life sciences,
was dedicated in 2004.
At the University of Missouri-St. Louis, students in the three-year-old
Biochemistry and Biotechnology Program take classes in both
the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and the Department
of Biology, to earn either a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
They take more classes in biochemistry than a typical biology
major and more in molecular biology than a chemistry major.
They also cross disciplines in advanced lab classes, to prepare
them for work in the biotechnology sector. The Master’s program
caters to part-time students who are working full-time. Already,
more than 100 undergraduates and more than 25 graduate students
have enrolled in the program and the first batches of students
are finishing their degrees.
Mark Burkholder, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, says
he envisions similar collaborations between the departments
of biology and physics, and in the field of bioinformatics,
combining courses in biology, chemistry and computer science.
The university enrolls more than 1,600 students every year in
life science classes.
Webster University is also
encouraging cross-fertilization of disciplines, with its Biological
Sciences degree combining chemistry and biology, with an emphasis
on biotechnology. Joyce Bork, chair of the department, says
enrollment in science-related degree programs has tripled since
she joined the faculty in 1993. On one recent day, she had five
phone calls before noon from high school juniors inquiring about
the program.
“We already have 10 graduates at Monsanto,” she says, “six more
are working as lab techs, five are in private companies and
four are at Washington University in research at the med school.”
Another student is getting his degree courtesy of his employer,
who is paying the tuition.
Another big push at Webster addresses the business side of life
sciences. The Master of Arts in Professional Science Management
and Leadership is in its first year, and aims at providing scientists
with the skills needed to make the transition to management.
The first students are now enrolling in a Master of Arts program
in Patent Agency, designed to prepare a professional for managing
intellectual property without going to law school to become
a patent attorney.
Across the river, Southern Illinois
University Edwardsville (SIUE) got good news from
Gov. Blagojevich in March, when he pledged $70 million in state
money to replace the school’s 40-year-old science building.
SIUE Chancellor Vaughn Vandegrift said last year that the school’s
first priority is a new science building.
“The lack of a new science building is the single most important
factor limiting the future growth of SIUE,” Vandegrift said
in his annual address. Science related programs, including nursing,
pharmacy and biotechnology management are among SIUE’s most
in-demand programs. Their growth is limited at the moment by
the lack of lab space.
St. Louis Community College
(SLCC), Chancellor Henry Shannon calls life science the “silver
bullet” for students who want long-term careers. The school’s
biotechnology program trains the ranks of scientific workers
in all aspects of the scientific process, putting them in demand
at companies and research institutions such as Centocor, Monsanto,
Sigma-Aldrich and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
The biotech program, started in 2000, offers its 40-some students
two options—a certificate of proficiency, which readies them
for immediate employment in a lab, or an associate’s degree,
which transfers to four-year institutions. SLCC even has a tech
prep program that offers high school students the chance to
earn up to 12 credit hours that will transfer to credit at the
college when they graduate.
“The challenge we have is keeping folks in the program until
they graduate,” says Shannon. Many get job offers before they
finish.
Bryan Sisk, another student featured on MIZZOU’s website, says
his experience in the undergraduate research program played
a significant role in structuring his life at the university.
As a freshman, Sisk was “clueless about how to get involved
in research” he said. A professor helped him connect with another
faculty member who put him to work with a post-doctoral researcher.
His first-year experiences, which included literature searches
and microsurgeries on lab animals, fed a passion for research
that continued with internships through his sophomore and junior
years.
Sisk also learned some of the frustrating realities about investigative
research—that it can go from the “most exciting to the most
mundane and back again, in a rather short time.” Luckily, he
added, “One successful experiment will quickly make you feel
better.”
