Skip to main content
Biotechnology Program (BIT)

BIT Program Newsletter 2024

Annual newsletter time!

  • Dr. Raymond Haggerty
    Dr. Raymond Haggerty
  • Dr. Emily Cartwright's drosophila vials
  • Dr. Kasie Rayman and her TA Patrick along with five students in the BIT 495/595 Microbiomes course.
    Dr. Kasie Rayman and her TA Patrick along with five students in the BIT 495/595 Microbiomes course.
  • Dr. Hayden Huggins at CSHL
    Dr. Hayden Huggins at CSHL

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 to the Program

New Faces

Since Fall 2023, the BIT Program has welcomed new people to the team and have bid farewell to a few. Former teaching postdoctoral fellows Dr. Emily Cartwright and Dr. David Bullock have left the program for other career opportunities. Our new postdocs Dr. Raymond Haggerty and Dr. Hayden Huggins dedicated their first year in the BIT Program into developing their very own courses which are offered starting in the second eight weeks of Fall 2024. Right after her graduation in Spring 2023, Francesca Balestrieri joined the team as the new lab technician, helping prepare the labs for BIT 410/510 in 2023-2024 and gaining valuable experience before applying to graduate school. She is currently an MMB graduate student who is serving as a teaching assistant for two BIT 410/510 laboratory sections. Our new postbac is Spring 2024 graduate and BIT minor Logan Cataldo who is helping to optimize the pharmacology lab in BIT 410/510.

New Course

In Spring 2024, Dr. Phillip Brown introduced his new course on CRISPR technology offered under BIT 495/595 Special Topics (Genome Engineering: CRISPR Technology). Dr. Kasie Raymann’s new course on microbiomes offered under BIT 495/595 Special Topics (Microbiomes: From Sampling to Community Analysis) has an exciting change with encouraging students to bring their own sample and conduct a microbiome project for Spring 2025. Make sure to also check out Dr. Haggerty’s course on microscopy (BIT 495/595 Quantitative Microscopy and Image Analysis) and Dr. Huggins’ course on RNA translation (BIT 495/595 Found in Translation: Mechanisms of Post-Transcriptional Control) and add them to your shopping cart for Spring 2025!

IPERT Grant

To reach and involve a diverse group of students and teachers in furthering the scope of biotechnology, six higher education institutions, including NC State, partnered up as part of an NIH IPERT grant. The six institutions, spanning North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky, are Alamance Community College, Centre College, Emory University, North Carolina Central University, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and our very own North Carolina State University. The partner institutions were awarded the IPERT grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for developing and implementing MBLEMs (Molecular Biotechnology Laboratory Education Modules) in laboratory classrooms at each institution. With this grant, we have been able to welcome new educators, introduce new courses, and help our partner institutes receive funds to run the MBLEMs!

Integrative Symposium of NC State Training Grants

On February 9, 2024, the Integrative Sciences Initiative and NC State’s Comparative Medicine Institute hosted the Integrative Symposium of NC State Training Grants. The symposium brought together five of the NIH-funded T23 programs which included the Molecular Biotechnology Training Program, NC State Comparative Medicine and Translational Research Training Program, Molecular Pathways to Pathogenesis in Toxicology, Chemistry of Life Training Program, and Comparative Molecular Medicine Training Medicine. Keynote speakers Dr. Fyodor Urnov, Director of Technology and Translation at Innovative Genomic Institute, and Dr. Lacramioara Bintu, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University, presented about the limitations of CRISPR gene technology and about the importance of understanding gene expression and chromatin perturbations to be able to apply it in the healthcare field, respectively. The symposium concluded by recognizing poster winners Alejandro Valdes, Sydney Welch, and Caroline McKinney-Aguirre. Next year’s collaborative symposium is already underway to bring the programs back together!

Reach for the Stars

Held at the McKimmon Center on April 6, 2024, the annual Reach for the Stars event brought together community members and many different science programs and organizations, including the BIT Program. Catered towards introducing K-12 students to the STEM field, each booth had interactive activities for parents and students to understand a bit about what each program and organization are currently working towards. Running concurrently with the booths were scheduled meetings where a panel of NC State students discussed their experiences with the Disability Resources Office (DRO) with parents and prospective students. Coming again next year, Reach for the Stars 2025 is scheduled for April 12, 2025!

Keeping Up with the BIT Program

The BIT Program wants you to be in the loop with all our courses and activities! Our Twitter/X has all our recent updates, including new blog articles about what the BIT faculty are up to. Connect with us on LinkedIn to hear about new job openings in the Triangle and at the BIT Program. Follow our Instagram to see all that’s happening in Jordan Hall, home of the BIT Program. While you’re at it, subscribe to our YouTube channel to learn more about our labs and courses!