University of the Sciences in Philadelphia

The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences has joined the Community College of Philadelphia and The Wistar Institute in participating in an exciting and innovative program called the Biomedical Technician Training (BTT) Program. Students in the program are trained in the growing field of basic and applied biomedical research.

University of the Sciences is one of a number of affiliate institutions including The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, The Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at Temple University, and a host of biopharmaceutical companies that play a role in the program.

The two non-University of the Sciences students, Joseph Barrett and Carres Garnett, began work on May 19 in the Pharmaceutical Sciences department. Barrett is working with Dr. Steven Neau in Industrial Pharmacy, while Garnett is working with Drs. Adeboye Adejare and Natalia Coleman in the area of Drug Discovery. These students are learning the day-to-day nuances of laboratory management, including following laboratory protocols, making detailed observations, collecting, analyzing, and recording data, and reporting experimental results. University of the Sciences looks to host two students each summer.

The BTT Program is funded entirely from government, corporate, and foundation grants. “This represents an opportunity to advance research at USP at no additional cost to USP. It also increases the window of our being able to recruit excellent community college students into our BS programs.” noted Dr. Adejare.