Establishing a Hub to Support Education of Biomanufacturing Technicians in Cell Therapy and Immunotherapy

最近的创新使新疗法的发展，重新设计人体的免疫系统。这些疗法包括使用生物工程细胞的医学治疗（细胞疗法）和使用改变免疫系统功能的药物或其他分子的医学治疗（免疫疗法）。 随着这些疗法的快速发展，美国生物制药行业在治愈一些社会上最具破坏性的癌症和疾病方面取得了重大进展。这些疗法的生产需要大量熟练的生物制造技术人员。然而，由于相关制造工艺的相对新奇，很少有社区大学的培训计划专注于细胞/免疫疗法的生物制造。因此，美国具有这些技能的生物制造技术人员的劳动力严重短缺。有了这个奖项，海岸线社区学院建议开发一个细胞/免疫治疗中心，目标是增加该领域熟练的生物制造技术人员的数量。 这些技术人员将帮助填补快速发展的细胞/免疫疗法生产领域的地区和国家劳动力短缺。这支劳动力队伍对于维护国家健康、安全和经济增长至关重要。项目团队将利用其过去举措产生的知识，推进细胞和免疫疗法的突破性创新。该项目有三个目标：1）在国家一级开发全面的劳动力市场和细胞/免疫治疗技术人员的技能差距分析; 2）开发外展和管道开发的最佳实践，以包括来自代表性不足的群体和高中生的人在这些职业中;和3）成为知识来源和催化剂其他社区学院开发细胞/免疫治疗技术人员教育计划和课程。这些努力将有助于建立一支具备知识和专业知识的多样化生物制造队伍，以满足细胞/免疫治疗生物制造行业的需求。该项目将举办高中教师讲习班，以确保青年人了解技术和相关的职业机会。 其计划制作外展及招聘材料，重点关注受COVID-19疫情影响的团体的个人。该项目将向全国的高中、社区学院和行业利益相关者传播调查结果。这项工作不仅将提高技术人员的技能和晋升机会， 虽然它对生物制造业的影响很大，但它有可能加速快速增长的美国细胞/免疫疗法部门的竞争力，以及致命疾病治疗药物的生产。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recent innovations have enabled development of new therapies that reengineer the body’s immune system. These therapies include medical treatments with bioengineered cells (cell therapy) and medical treatments with drugs or other molecules that alter immune system function (immunotherapy). With the rapid development of these therapies, the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry has made major advancements toward curing some of society’s most devastating cancers and diseases. Manufacture of these therapies requires large numbers of skilled biomanufacturing technicians. Yet, due to the relative novelty of the relevant manufacturing processes, there are few community college training programs that focus on biomanufacturing of cell/immunotherapies. As a result, the U.S. has a significant workforce shortage for biomanufacturing technicians with these skills. With this award, Shoreline Community College proposes to develop a Cell/Immunotherapy Hub, with the goal of increasing the number of skilled biomanufacturing technicians in this sector. These technicians will help fill regional and national workforce shortages in the rapidly expanding field of cell/immunotherapy production. This workforce is essential for maintaining national health, security, and economic growth.The project team will build on knowledge generated from its past initiatives to advance the groundbreaking innovations in cell and immunotherapies. The project has three goals: 1) develop comprehensive labor market and skills-gap analysis of cell/immunotherapy technicians on a national level; 2) develop best-practices for outreach and pipeline development to include people from underrepresented groups and high school students in these careers; and 3) become a knowledge-source and catalyst for other community colleges to develop cell/immunotherapy technician education programs and curriculum. These efforts will contribute to a diverse biomanufacturing workforce equipped with the knowledge and expertise to meet the demands of the cell/immunotherapy biomanufacturing industry. The project will deliver high school teacher workshops to ensure that youth are aware of the technologies and related career opportunities. It intends to produce outreach and recruitment materials focused on individuals from groups that have been disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will disseminate findings to high schools, community colleges, and industry stakeholders nationally. Not only will this work improve the skills and advancement opportunities for technicians in the biomanufacturing industry, but it has the potential to accelerate the competitiveness of the rapidly growing U.S. cell/immunotherapy sector and the production of curative medicines for deadly diseases. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation's economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.