Biotech business thrives in Maryland
Feb. 6 , 2007
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon@fredericknewspost.com
FREDERICK — Advanced Product Enterprises LLC, a biotechnology company, has been so successful, it outgrew a four-room suite on two floors in a business park on Industrial Way.
Incubators, digital scales and shelves lined with jars, syringes and plastic tubing fill the lab. Banks of test tubes seem to hover in water, held together by foam pads that double as flotation devices.
The miniature cauldrons hold proteins used to help pharmaceutical companies with research and development, preclinical testing, and quality control.
A partition divides an office meant for one person, giving Joseph Garner and Bhavesh Joshi each a space not much bigger than an airline seat to work on a computer or file paper work.
Garner started the company more than two years ago as a sole proprietor.
He had one client.
Now, three scientists serve nearly 20 customers, including the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, National Cancer Institute and Fort Detrick.
The success of companies like Advanced Produce Enterprises is part of a widespread boom in biotechnology that has helped spur the growth of other industries. Construction, real estate and financial services are expanding with the county’s swelling population — about 217,000 in 2005, up from about 195,000 in 2000, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
These linked fields are considered among the best employment prospects in Frederick County. As the county’s industrial and commercial base grows and consumer spending increases, so does demand for entry-level service jobs in the hotel, restaurant and retail industries.
Mary Nagle, assistant director of Frederick County Workforce Services, said the biotechnology industry influences the economy and growth of the region.
“As more people move to Frederick, you’re going to see all these industries continue to grow,” she said. “But, a lot of that growth goes back to Fort Detrick, which itself has tremendous growth potential, as that work force expands and other businesses follow.”
Fort Detrick has long been the center of biotechnology research and development in Frederick County, attracting researchers, workers and businesses. Its latest expansion is a $1.2 billion biodefense campus that includes the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which will help draw more biotechnology businesses to Frederick.
As many as six more people could join the staff at Advanced Product Enterprises before the end of the year, adding to the need to move to a bigger space. Next week, the company will be making proteins at its new home at the Frederick Innovative Technology Center on English Muffin Way.
The center — the second of its kind — coaches, trains and finds money for technology companies to help them succeed in business. The English Muffin Way location opens Feb. 12.
Stacks of boxes clutter the office and hallways at Advanced Product Enterprises, but the lab cannot be packed away yet.
“We have to keep the cultures alive,” Garner said. “So we’ll be up and running until 30 minutes before the movers arrive.”
The new suite will give the company more lab space, twice the office space, a conference area and room to grow. The look and purpose of the building will add to its credibility.
“Now we’ll have a space to mirror our credentials,” Garner said. “It’s a nice fit for us.”
Life in a glass vial
Biotechnology — the industry that is driving the county’s economy, according to Nagle — is a common term that is often misunderstood. It’s basically the use of biological processes to come up with a solution to a medical problem, and, it does not necessarily require a Ph.D. to be successful.
Choosing a place to grow was easy, but Garner expects finding the right people to hire could be tough. Smaller companies have niches that require workers with particular skill sets.
Knowing how to control amino acid sequences encoded by a cloned gene is not common knowledge, but it can be learned on the job.
“Of course an education in biochemistry helps, but (workers) can also be taught,” Joshi said. “Enthusiasm. That’s important.”
Many biotechnology companies use interns. Their passion for science and hunger for experience often make them good workers.
Garner likes hiring interns because it helps save money while he learns their work habits and personality.
Internships help students learn skills, which could lead to employment. One of Garner’s past interns now works with nanotechnology at Fort Detrick.
While internships often help students gain experience, certain qualities of successful biotechnicians must come naturally.
Some traits seem contradictory, Joshi said. Workers must be logical, yet imaginative.
“And you have to have a good sense of humor,” he said. “Because this work is very frustrating.”
Workers spend much of their time doing mundane tasks, such as cleaning or filling test tubes one-by-one. The tedium is magnified when something goes wrong. Experiments must be done over and over until they work.
“You spend 99 percent of your time trying to figure why an experiment didn’t work and 1 percent dancing in the halls because you made it happen,” Garner said.
Some people find the work schedule unattractive. A biotechnician’s time revolves around the building blocks of life that drift in glass vials.
Biochemistry doesn’t stop at 4 p.m. every Friday. Biotechnicians often endure marathon work sessions to figure out a problem or meet a deadline.
“You’re dealing with biological systems,” Garner said. “You have to work on their schedule.”
Careers in biotech
While many associate biotechnology with working in a lab, like all industries, biotechnology has a need for office managers, sales representatives, marketing associates and regulatory affairs agents.
Alex Euler, spokesman for biotechnology advocacy group MdBio, said the industry employs workers with varying experience and educational backgrounds.
Workers with a high school diploma might keep track of records in an office or take care of animals in a lab, he said. College graduates often enter the workforce as a lab technician.
While clerks and caretakers may be paid about $20,000 a year, lab technicians often are paid about $35,000 a year. Workers with a background in nursing often start as clinical research associates, who are paid about $45,000 a year.
“There is a lot of opportunity and plenty of training programs,” Euler said. “The work can be interesting, it pays above average and the long-term prospects for the industry as a whole are good — I think it’s a good place to go.”
Bob Young, dean for workforce development at Frederick Community College, encourages students to explore biotechnology as a career.
“More companies are getting into the production side, not just research,” he said. “They’re producing vaccines through biological and chemical processes, so they need production floor supervisors and workers who are ready to work in a lab.”
FCC prepares students for work in the industry or to transfer to more advanced programs. Students in the biology program transfer to universities to pursue a bachelor’s degree that could lead to a career in ecology or medicine.
The biolab program was phased out in 2006 because of low enrollment, but a panel of industry experts helped set a new focus — a bioprocessing technology program.
Keri-Beth Nagel has been a science professor at the college for more than three years, and was hired in August as the manager of the new program. Since then, she’s revised the curriculum to reflect what the industry needs.
“Our focus is giving students the best training they can get for the jobs around here,” Nagel said. “And giving them the biggest possibility for transferring without losing credits.”
The program, scheduled to start this fall, offers students two paths.
High school graduates or college freshman may earn an Associates of Applied Science degree. The program combines core academic classes, such as English, math and history, with bioprocessing classes. Students learn about lab techniques, such as how to harvest enzymes and antibodies, and have internship opportunities.
The other option, a certificate program, is for students who already have a degree. The certificate track focuses on learning skills needed in a bioprocessing environment.
“Some people get a biology or chemistry degree and have been in the workforce for some time, but don’t think they are marketable enough,” Nagel said. “This gives them a leg up.”
To help ensure sufficient enrollment, Nagel has been recruiting students from FCC and area high schools. She’s also encouraging students from Project Lead the Way to attend.
Project Lead the Way is a national, nonprofit educational program that prepares high school students for two- and four-year college careers. Since the local chapter is based at FCC, many students have continued their studies there.
Charlene Bonham, supervisor of career and technical education at Frederick County Public Schools, runs the county’s Project Lead the Way. While it has prepared engineering students for years, a new biomedical science program is under development.
The biomedical science concentration will help students better understand the fundamentals of science and prepare them for the bioprocessing technology program.
Nagel will teach the first class in 2008, but FCPS will hire a full-time science teacher to take over in 2009.
The bioscience program will also be piloted in six other states and nine other sites in Maryland, Bonham said. The state awarded $25,000 to each site to buy software, equipment and curriculum materials.
The introductory class, principles of biomedical science, will start January 2008. Each year, a new class will be added.
Human body systems starts in 2009, followed by medical intervention in 2010 and science research in 2011. That research class will bring scientists from Fort Detrick into the classroom. By 2012, all four courses will be offered to high school students.
“The advantage educationally is we’ve got a college biologist faculty member teaching our high school students,” Bonham said. “And we have a tightly knit curriculum that addresses the job market.”