Since 2008, USciences, along with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and The Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at Temple University, has joined the Community College of Philadelphia and The Wistar Institute in participating in an innovative program called the Biomedical Technician Training (BTT) Program.
Over the past few years The Wistar Institute and USciences have developed a fruitful collaborative relationship in training students in stem cells. According to William Wunner, PhD, professor and director of Outreach Education and Technology Training at The Wistar Institute, students are very curious about the function of stem cells and their role in biomedical research.
Every enrollment there are students who have specifically requested to do their laboratory rotations in Dr. Natalia Coleman’s laboratory at USciences. Dr. Coleman, a research assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, hosts students who are not only experiencing how to be a research assistant, but they receive an education about stem cells, what these stem cells are capable of doing in the body and how they differentiate, grow and mature in cell culture. The trainees work on projects that Dr. Coleman is most interested in, such as the role of NMDA receptors in NF1 drug discovery using a mouse embryonic stem cell-derived neurofibromatosis disease model. Ms. Yoane Dinata from the BTT Program started her three-month internship in Dr. Coleman’s laboratory in mid-May.
This year, Dr. Coleman has been invited to give a talk on stem cells as a part of BTT Program curriculum.