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Spring 2023 Newsletter

Spring newsletter time!

The Biotechnology Program is an interdisciplinary environment that will allow you to explore the exciting and changing world of science, while also forming professional relationships with those around you. – Madison Routh

New Faces

There have been some changes in who you see around Jordan Hall. Dr. Hasley finished his time with BIT after the fall semester, taking his service dog Shade with him to consult for the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Dums and Dr. Sjogren will be associate teaching professors at the University of Delaware and Penn State University, respectively, after this Spring.  

As much as they will be missed, we’re excited to see so many new faces joining the community. New postdocs Dr. Bullock and Dr. Cartwright, as well as our new lab manager Robert, all joined this fall. Dr. Brown, another new post-doc, joined the staff this past January. Madison has also been a wonderful addition to our team as the postbac for this academic year. 

Teaching

What’s the best part about being involved in a program designed around education? Getting to teach! This year we enrolled 170+ students in BIT 410/510 and offered 20 courses, including 15 different half-semester special topic modules. Introduced just this year is Assay Development, a new laboratory course designed and taught by Dr. Noel which prioritizes student-led hypotheses and immunology. Other neat classes that were offered include Dr. Meiklejohn’s Next-Gen DNA Forensic Analysis module and Dr. Fikes’ module on Illuminating Disease with Chemical Biology.

Outreach

As much as we love being in the classroom, biotechnology is more than being in Jordan Hall. This year we participated in numerous outreach events, including representing the BIT program at the 2022 NC State Open House and hosting the MBTP Research Symposium poster and speaker sessions. We also hosted the Catalyst students at The Science House and gave an interactive lesson on ELISAs, epidemiology, and “zombies.” At the end of April, we hosted high school students from the NC School for the Deaf to explore modes of observing plants and to tour the new Plant Sciences Building. For the second time, Dr. Chen’s BIT 402/502 course worked with students from Nagoya University in Japan in collaboration with the COIL pedagogy program. 

BIT SURE 2022

Last summer, we took on the most BIT SURE students that we have had in a cohort since COVID. With 14 NC State students doing research in many different fields, the lab was bustling all summer. The 10-week, part-time, paid research experience is done with a BIT mentor, but students get to make connections with all of the instructors and fellow researchers. Students not only conduct individual research, but each week they gather with the mentors to discuss current literature in their fields in a student-led discussion. At the end of the summer, students presented posters (and 3D models if they were lucky!) at the OUR Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium. We are excited to work with our new cohort of 12 students for BIT SURE 2023, starting in a few weeks!

Keeping Up with the BIT Program

Our online presence has been expanding, and we want you in on the fun! Follow our Twitter for the most recent updates, including hearing about new blog articles and seeing what our faculty are up to. If you want to hear more about job offers in the Triangle and within our program, connect with us on LinkedIn. Or, if you want to see the fun things happening in Jordan Hall, follow our new Instagram account. Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about lab techniques, subscribe to our YouTube channel.