Higuchi Biosciences Center - University of Kansas

Higuchi Biosciences Center and National Science Foundation- a Partnership for Innovation

Doctors do it. Plumbers do it. So do lawyers, teachers, accountants and electricians. Lots of professions need to continually update their training and education in order to remain current with rapidly evolving job requirements. Not so for laboratory scientists, at least in a formal sense, despite the fact that theirs is a rapidly evolving field. Yet, for the biotechnology industry, keeping up with rapidly evolving techniques is of paramount importance for competitive success. The solution for most businesses is to send their scientists off to short courses to learn specific techniques at considerable expense and lost time.

For life science companies in the greater Kansas City area, there is now a new option. KU’s Division of Continuing Education teamed with the Higuchi Biosciences Center to win a grant from the National Science Foundation “Partnerships for Innovation” program. The grant, “Life Sciences Work Force Development: Partnership for Innovative Laboratory Training,” seeks to help bioscience industry professionals receive the continuing education they need to remain successful and productive. With Vice Provost for University Outreach and Dean of Continuing Education JoAnn Smith as Principal Investigator, and Charles Decedue, HBC Executive Director, as Co-PI, the NSF grant is designed to create a sustainable program that will allow professionals in the Kansas City metro area to participate in a series of intensive 1-2 day short courses in a variety of techniques important to life sciences work.

KU and area faculty and researchers conduct classes based upon suggestions made by an Industrial Advisory Board. The Industrial Advisory Board is made up of representatives of the partners on this grant, including representatives from: Aptuit, Inc., Xenotech, LLC, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, SAFC/JRH Biosciences, Inc., Penn Valley Community College, Clinical Management Research Services, Inc., Bayer Health Care, LLC, Kansas City Area Development Council, Midwest Research Institute, Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation, PRA International, and Hills Pet Nutrition.

“We try to pair a univeristy faculty member with an industry scientist for each course,” says Karen Krumme, Program Manager in the Division of Continuing Education and point person for the grant program. “By doing that, we make sure to approach the course from not only the academic side, but also the industry side.” One of the upcoming pairings includes Decedue and the technical writing director from Midwest Research Institute collaborating on a technical writing short course. Examples of other courses that have been or will be offered include: laboratory safety, basic and advanced cell culture, FDA, OSHA and EPA compliance, introductory biostatistics, introductory epidemiology, statistical computing, advanced HPLC, mass spectrometry and gas chromatography, among others.

Feedback from class participants and industrial advisors is a vital part of the success of the partnership. Therefore, as part of the grant, Dr. Karen Multon (University of Kansas Psychology and Research in Education Professor and Chair) and Dan Suiter (Graduate Research Assistant in Counseling Psychology) developed assessment tools to gather feedback and determine each course’s effectiveness.

Multon and Suiter have designed a three-tiered system to survey course participants, and the participants’ employers as well as the instructors. Participants and instructors complete an in-class evaluation. Six weeks later, participants are encouraged to complete an online evaluation to determine if the material they learned in the course was useful in their everyday work.

The participants’ employers are also contacted 6-8 weeks after the class to determine if they observe improved performance or implementation of new skills. “The company feedback is the most integral and objective,” says Suiter. “We want to know if the employees’ participation in the course is reflected in their work.” Any feedback gained will aid in development of new classes and refining of current ones.

One particularly innovative aspect of the partnership, was the creation of the “Metropolitan Student Bioscience Institute” in conjunction with Penn Valley Community College in Kansas City. The Institute offers introductory level short courses for interested community college students throughout the Kansas City area to introduce them to bioscience careers and offer specialized bioscience training. Decedue noted, “This part of the grant is particularly exciting because it exposes these students to rewarding science careers that they may not otherwise have considered.”

While the grant itself is a three-year program, the biosciences workforce development program will continue. According to Krumme: “The NSF grant supplies ‘seed money’ to start the program.” The ultimate goal is for the program to become self sustaining by the end of the grant period.

For more information about HBC’s “Workforce Development in the Biosciences” program, please contact Karen Krumme (kkrumme@ku.edu) and read this article from the Lawrence Journal World newspaper.

Higuchi Biosciences Center
University of Kansas
2099 Constant Avenue
Lawrence, KS 66047-2535
785-864-5183
hbc@ku.edu