Professional Development in Biotechnology

The world of Biotechnology is transforming every day. Keeping up on the latest trends and research is a must for biotech professionals who want to create impact in an ever-changing landscape. Advancements in technology are happening quickly and creating vast opportunities for professionals seeking to develop or enhance their career in biotechnology. In this episode, Dr. Antonio Moreira talks us through the latest trends, the advances, and the needs of this industry. He also shares information about UMBC's professional development suite of non-credit courses for biotech professionals who want to keep up on their skills and the technological advances in the field. 

Learn more about Non-Credit Option-Biotechnology Courses.

Also, learn more about UMBC's Biotechnology graduate programs.

About Dr. Antonio Moreira

Dr. Antonio Moreira is Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He has previously been Chair of the Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs. He joined UMBC after 10 years in industry where he held senior positions with International Flavors and Fragrances, Inc. and Merck & Co. (then Schering-Plough Corp.). He led the biotechnology development group at Merck that brought alpha interferon to the market.

Dr. Moreira obtained a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Porto, Portugal and MS and PhD in chemical and biochemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He was honored by the President of Portugal with the National Order of Public Education and awarded the title of Comendador. He is an Honorary International Member of the Brazilian Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and is currently Chair of the Board of the International  Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering Foundation.

Transcript

Dennise Cardona  0:00  
Welcome to this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up podcast. My name is Dennise Cardona from the Office of Professional Programs. We are joined today by Dr. Antonio Moreira, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at UMBC. He has previously been chair of the Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, Associate Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs. He joined UMBC after 10 years in industry, where he held senior positions with International Flavors and Fragrances Incorporated, and to Merck and company then called Schering-Plough Corporation. He led the biotechnology development group at Merck that brought Alpha interferon to the market. Dr. Maria obtained a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Porto, Portugal and MS and PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He was honored by the President of Portugal with the National order of public education and awarded the title of Comendador. He is an honorary international member of the Brazilian Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and is currently chair of the board of the International Society of pharmaceutical engineering Foundation. We hope that you enjoy this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up, Dr. Moreira. Welcome. So nice to have you here with us today.

Dr. Moreira  1:28  
Thank you very much. I'm delighted to join you today and talk about one of my favorite topics biotechnology,

Dennise Cardona  1:35  
Yes, it is a wonderful industry. I've talked with thought leaders in the industry. I've spoken with faculty, and it is really a great program. I have also spoken to alumni of the program, and they just what great opportunities there are out there in the field. And it's such an important industry really is yes, yes, it to get started, can you give us a little background on your current role at UMBC and what sort of led you to being here at UMBC as part of the community?

Dr. Moreira  2:05  
Sure. Well, as you know, I'm Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. And I'm also a full professor in the Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering. I've been here for 32 years. And actually I came to UMBC, as chair of the department back then. And also in my role here at UMBC, I am the graduate program director for the certificate, the graduate certificate in what we call biochemical regulatory engineering, which really is the certificate in bio manufacturing. We just came with a more evolved name, but really, it addresses bio manufacturing. And what brought me to UMBC is the fact that I came out of industry, I worked for Merck for about 10 years, snd I got interested in UMBC back then, not only because of what I saw in UMBC, but because I had the fortune of being able to start a new department in which I could focus in biotechnology and bio manufacturing, which to me was truly a major goal in terms of coming from industry and being able to influence the careers of students in academia and contributing to preparing them to go back to industry and really perform the goals that I had been in for almost a decade or so. So that opportunity was just very appealing. And so I came to UMBC to start that and 32 years later, I'm still doing it and still loving it because I think it is the best thing we can do today even more than ever truly prepare our students to be prepared in careers in today's fabulous world of biotechnology.

Dennise Cardona  4:05  
Absolutely. And we were talking before I hit the record button for this episode of how I started at UMBC 15 years ago, and when I first came on board, the biotechnology program was just being born. And we had the open house and then two years later, we met at the first cohort's graduation. And so I just remember I remember that time and I remember biotechnology was such, and it still is, but it was such a hot topic, a hot a hot field. And it was fun to market it. It was fun to take it from the ground to from the roots and just help to see it flourish and bloom. And it's really come a long way. And I've talked to so many students in the program, alumni of the program, and they just have some fabulous things to say about the opportunities that they've gained as a result of being a student at UMBC, taking those courses. What do you enjoy most about the biotechnology industry?

Dr. Moreira  5:05  
As I went into the industry about 14 years ago now reveals my age. But as I went to industry, I couldn't see anything more enticing, more truly attractive than work in the field, that the ultimate goal is make patients lives better. And because every day that you work in this field, and you are either in research or development or manufacturing, and my area is clearly more development and manufacturing aspects. But you're truly producing or developing new medicines that are going to make a difference in someone's life. And, and I can't just ever forget that, again, at Merck I worked on the first product we developed was, under my leadership was the Alpha interferon antiviral anti cancer drug back in the mid to late 80s. And just knowing that individuals that whose life was really a life and death situation, we're going to be able to have that product administered to them and possibly their life saved or at least made much better, into something that you can't experience otherwise. In this case, for instance, even 30 years later, at UMBC, we have a very close friend of mine here on campus, who had a cancer situation. And this individual's life was saved by alpha interferon, the same drug that I developed 30 or some years ago. And just that feeling, you know, it really brings, you know, tears or whatever you want to say to your eyes, because you really feel that it's a field where you are doing something for mankind, truly important, truly impactful. And that has been through all these years I've been involved with with the biotech industry, it continues to motivate me to keep doing it. And in many ways, I wish I could be still 25 years old, to get to do it all over again, if I could, because it has been a phenomenal career and opportunity to deliver something that you are, literally feel that it is best you can do for anyone.

Dennise Cardona  7:34  
It sounds so purposeful. And I got chills when you just talked about that the person who works at UMBC, your colleague, and wow, I mean, talking about talk about making a difference in the lives of others, it really truly is a phenomenal industry that allows you to be able to do that. Absolutely. Yes. What do you want most for your students in the biotechnology industry? What do you want most for them?

Dr. Moreira  7:59  
I'll be very honest, I want for the most for them to have the same experience I've had in my life. I just think it's such a privilege to be in this industry to make this difference or be part of making this difference, that I wish that all of them have that opportunity to have that possibility of using their skills, their knowledge, their innovation, in continuing to develop and bring into the market these kinds of products that really make a difference in someone's life. And so I hope that they will find those positions, they will feel realized by participating in this industry. And from our point of view, I want to make sure that we are preparing them to be successful. And that's why especially the courses that we'll be talking about today are so to me, so important. And we started them on our campus, already some of them for a long time now. But they really make a difference in preparing the students to understand what it takes to bring these products to market and approval under the regulatory requirements that they have to fulfill that I think there is nothing more I want than my students, our students to have that opportunity to truly go and impact the world by developing these products that are so important and so needed. And we saw that in COVID. I mean, what better period for the pharmaceutical industry than where we are right now, where in a matter of months, we were able to bring to the patient population, the products that were needed to take care of the COVID situation. So again, that's just right now that's why I'm saying I wish I were 35 years old. Because there's so much to be done. The industry has evolved so much that I think the career possibilities and the impact that someone any individual can have over his or her lifetime is just just unbelievable.

Dennise Cardona  10:05  
I was talking with a recent graduate of the biotechnology program and he talked about his role working with a biotechnology firm and helping with the COVID vaccine. And he couldn't have been more proud. I mean, it was just, it sounded like such a wonderful moment for this person's life, to be there, educated properly, to be able to go forth and put that effort and be able to really make that difference out there.

Dr. Moreira  10:32  
Yes, yes, yes. It's just something that only once you have done it, you really understand the magnitude of the impact that you are having on someone's life, and that someone can be your spouse, your son or daughter, your your mother, your father, it can be that close. And it has been that close in my own life.

Dennise Cardona  10:56  
My that's powerful. Can you talk about the current trends that are happening in biotechnology and how UMBC is addressing them with its degree programs, and also its non credit courses?

Dr. Moreira  11:08  
Sure, sure. As I said, the industry is just growing phenomenally, and I wish, again, I was young enough to have another life in this area. The trends are just, again, we're talking about COVID. And that's just a great example of how the industry is responding to a need that was global. And we globally were able to bring these vaccines and therapeutics to the market very quickly. And again, we still lost, unfortunately, many, many, many lives, but many more could have been lost if we hadn't really developed these products. So I think that the trends are truly to accelerate, to be agile, to be flexible, and bring to the market as quickly as we can these novel products that, again, make make a difference in someone's life. Making them globally, I think these products are needed globally, not just in the US, not just in the Western world, but truly all over the all over the globe. And that is a challenge, that is a challenge to bring them available in such a large scale as COVID was necessary. So it's this agility, this flexibility, this experience in getting the product to the market, working with regulatory authorities to develop them as quickly as we can, still safe still. Safety first always, of course, but very important to bring this technology as quickly as we can. And then the trend is new approaches. You know, we'll be talking about cell and gene therapy, we'll be talking about monoclonal antibodies, antibodies are conjugates. And personalized medicine. The possibility of having what I call a one shot product where you have a shot, and it cures you for life, don't need to keep taking the product on a daily or weekly basis. But you know, gene therapy and cell therapy are now getting those kinds of possibilities available. The possibility of self administering these drugs, not having to go to the hospital or to the doctor's office to receive the drug. But again, through the combination products, through the auto injectors, prefilled syringes, those kinds of technologies, the patient can administer himself or herself, these new products in which it makes again, much more comfortable life for everyone because you can do it when you need it. And also the technology that now exists with what we call telehealth, where the doctor is essentially always in touch with you. Because now through the internet, and cloud computing and all of those, you can truly have all the your bio data being transmitted back and forth between you and your doctor. These are just trends that I think are accelerating the availability of these new medications to patients. And I think it's revolutionizing the industry in a way that is bringing to life, though when it comes back to the academic question, there is a tremendous need for a qualified workforce that can actually work in these new technologies, can actually bring them to life and into the market. And that's where UMBC plays a key role because by having programs that we have, we are preparing our students and to me the critical point is to prepare them to be ready to from day one as they work in these wonderful companies to contribute to the development and availability of these products. And so it is on us at university to develop the courses, the training, the research, so that our students are truly exposed to these new technologies. They are immersed in them. They also understand how it works in the private sector. And that's why it's so important to have the courses that we have. So that when they go to these companies, it's not news to them. They already know what's coming in. They have been trained at university to be ready for these leading edge fields. And to me, that's a critical component that we are trying to do here at UMBC that I think distinguishes us from possibly other universities, because we are very much in tune with what is needed in the workplace in what I call the real world. And make sure that our students are the best prepared we can make them prepared for those kinds of job opportunities.

Dennise Cardona  15:46  
Speaking of let's talk about some of these upcoming suite of noncredit courses that you're going to be leading in biotechnology at UMBC. I understand there are four of them. Could you go into some detail on on on them? 

Dr. Moreira  16:02  
Yeah, so it's music to my ears. I love talking about our courses. As I said, one of our major focus has been to develop courses that do prepare the students to be ready to participate in these extraordinary adventures, if you will, and challenges in the jobs that they will be working on as they leave university. So our approach, our courses are very focused on bio manufacturing. And we develop them in a way in partnership with industry and also the FDA. I have to really acknowledge here the contributions that the FDA has made to our program, because it will benefit from being relatively close to the FDA so that's very helpful in the connections we have with the colleagues there. But, but the courses that we have, we'll have a course in what we call development in the regulation of biopharmaceuticals. So that course will go into how do you engage into the early stages of developing a new biological product, and developing it under conditions that, again, are going to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory agencies. But we certainly work closely with the FDA. So the students understand in order to learn in that course, not only what is the preclinical studies that need to be done, the clinical studies that needs to be carried out, but they also work on topics that deal with the development of the manufacturing processes, the R&D, the early development, the scale up, and  again, understanding all that needs to be done. And it culminates with them actually preparing what we call a pre-IND package. That is what the company has to submit to the FDA to be authorized to go into the clinical trial in human patient with this product. So our students get exposed to that. And again, that's a unique feature of our program. And why you'd say that we are lucky that we have FDA colleagues that actually listen to the presentations by the students and critique them, as if they were actually making a presentation to the FDA.

Dennise Cardona  18:21  
That is powerful.

Dr. Moreira  18:22  
That's powerful. Exactly. So that's one course. The other course is on quality control and quality assurance of biotechnology products. You need to have in place all the quality systems that allow you to know what it is that you are manufacturing. Are those products, meeting the quality standards necessary to again be safe and efficacious. What are the analytical tools that you need for assuring that your core materials, your in process materials, your final product, has the they have the quality attributes that make them safe and efficacious? That's a very complex question that is, especially in biotechnology. There are 1000s of tests that need to be carried out, validated, and essentially developed in a way that you can trust the results that you are getting really are true and really give you a good measure of the quality of these these products very important. The other course will be on combination products. I already mentioned that a little earlier. So the trend now in biotech and in the pharma industry is these combination products where you put together for instance, a device in the drug or biologic, and this leads to self administration of these products, again, make it much more convenient for the patients. To my knowledge, there are very few universities that are training their students on how you develop these combination products. How do you get them through the regulatory review? How do you design them? How do you understand for instance, the human factor errors that go into the design of these of these products? If you think a prefilled syringe sounds very simple, just put the stuff inside the syringe and you have it. Well, what if the patient is someone who has arthritis, and it's this individual has difficulty in grabbing the syringe and pressing the piece and all of that. So we need to think about how to design these combination products so that the patient can self administer that product to himself or herself. So the development, the design, the human factors, all of those are topics that we discuss in this course. And again, as I said, very unique course that I don't think it's available in many other universities. And I am delighted that we are going to offer for the first time this fall a course on cell and gene therapy, which is, again, I think it's just so needed, because the explosion in this area is just tremendous. There are probably 1000s of companies that are now getting into the cell and gene therapy. Again, this leads into personalized medicine. This is what I call the One Shot medication that you genetically introduce modifications that can cure you with one dose essentially for life. We hope. We don't know yet because it's so new that we need to have the long term studies. But that's coming. And so again, what are the regulatory requirements for selling gene therapy products, quality requirements, manufacturing systems, all of those complexities of a brand new field, that here in Maryland, especially, we are becoming one of the capitals in cell and gene therapy. And I think there is a tremendous need right now for individuals qualified in this area. So we are delighted to have the first course. And main characteristic of all of these courses is that we teach them in partnership with industry. And as I said, also with collaboration with the FDA. And so this is not me only or an academic teaching these courses, but we have two leaders in industry, almost every week we have colleagues from, and I won't name the companies not to leave anyone out, but think of any company that is a leader in this field, and probably we'll have someone from that company engaged in our courses. And they provide their lectures, and these are individuals that are doing this on the same day. And so our students, I've heard our students in, especially on the non credit side, who are saying, gee, I'm going tomorrow to my office, my company, and I'm going to implement what I heard in class last night. Because that's the kind of information that we are providing in our courses. It's from industry leaders who are sharing on their own time, are sharing the knowledge, again, without going to any confidentiality, of course, but they are sharing truly what it takes to develop these products. What are the key questions, and how is industry addressing them in partnership with regulatory agencies? And that to me is a unique feature that our courses have, that I believe distinguish them from what may be available at other universities or organizations that have not had the opportunity to grow these courses in partnership with our industry colleagues.

Dennise Cardona  23:29  
The potential and the advantage for students is it's just it's huge.

Dr. Moreira  23:35  
It is it is yeah, yeah.

Dennise Cardona  23:39  
Yeah, now you're talking about the non credit courses. These courses also are available as graduate courses in the graduate program, but specifically the non credit format courses, who would they designed to support?

Dr. Moreira  23:54  
These are designed to support individuals who are already working at companies and to provide them with this knowledge. Because what happens very often, again, as I was saying earlier, universities have not traditionally prepared students with, what I call, the real world knowledge. And I know that by my own example, I did my PhD, top notch Ivy League school with probably one of the number one person in Biochemical Engineering at the time. But as I went to Merck, and I was also at the IFF international flavors and fragrances. On day one, I realized that I knew nothing. You know, I knew a lot, but when it came to really, how do you do this in the real world, I was very green, as I said. Throw me first to industry to really learn that. So so that is it, again, we're doing a great job at the university, but there is a need to really prepare the students with this understanding of the real world. And so many individuals in companies, they are doing fantastic job, of course, and they have learned on the job, what it takes to develop, manufacture these products, but again, because of the nature of their job, they are very focused on what they are doing. And so, they may not have all the, what I call the broad vision, really the full field of what it takes to really develop this product. So they need to be very good in doing, you know, running a bioreactor or the downstream process or developing a formulation, and though there are experts and they know that inside out, but when having the really the understanding of why do we do it that way? What are the regulatory requirements? How does that specific unit operation link to everything else in the manufacturing of the product? That's what they learn in our courses. And so I think individuals who are at companies, yes, they're doing the job, they're doing great, great work. But our courses help them understand what they do, how it links and interfaces and everything else that happens with that product. Do we have participants who come back and tell us, gee, I didn't realize that what I do in my job today, if I don't do it, right, it can really impact something else somewhere else in the manufacturing process, and really, totally waste what dozens of people have been working on for weeks and months, because I didn't realize that what I did, maybe wasn't quite correct and that impact on somewhere, other parts of the process of manufacturing. So that's what we try to do is we try to really provide the industry participants with that understanding of what they do links to everything else. And the interconnection of the various steps in manufacturing is so important for the overall product to meet the quality specs that it's supposed to meet. So that's what they are learning in our courses.

Dennise Cardona  27:04  
It sounds like it's really set up for that motivated person who is out there in the field, who is in learning mode, always, as you know, we all should be really always in learning mode, and wanting to professionally develop themselves and to be able to be the best they can be out there in the field.

Dr. Moreira  27:23  
For sure. They will understand, as I said, the impact of what they are doing in their own job, on other aspects of the process. They will also understand sometimes, what is it that they have to do what they do? Because again, they do it, they learn it, they do it very well. But sometimes, all the reasons behind it, they just don't have the time to absorb that. These courses, help them understand fully even the nature of what they are doing.

Dennise Cardona  27:50  
Yeah, and how can offering these courses improve a company's efficiency, productivity, and bottom line?

Dr. Moreira  27:59  
Well, number one, because again, we cover the development, we cover the quality control, we cover the combination products. So participants from companies are learning these tools, are hearing about these technologies. And again, they are hearing this from experts in peer companies or sometimes in their own company, where lecturers, where their employees work in our courses. And again, they don't have the time within the company's framework to spend the time explaining that. And so the course is to help them allocating the time to really think about what's behind what they're doing on a daily basis. So it's just it helps them really be better at what they are doing. And that's important, obviously. But again, I think also because they get through the courses this exposure to the overall manufacturing steps, to the interactions with regulatory agencies, to the to the quality characteristics that these products need to have. They learn that. And so as they perform their own work in their positions, they understand what's at stake, they understand what's going to come next or what came before, the reason why they're doing what they're doing. Why the regulatory agencies have the questions they have and the companies have to provide information. They will understand, for instance, the example of the prefilled syringe, why is it that I spent so much time playing around with the size of the syringe and the type of needle and the shape of it? Because again, that's very important for the patients to be able to use the product otherwise, if they can't administer it safely and effectively, it's just not going to have a product, right? So at the end of the day, all of this is knowledge that the participants are gaining that helps them, not only to do their jobs better, but also understand overall how the processes work, how the manufacturing systems are developed. And consequently, they will be able to contribute much more effectively to the company's bottom line. Because hopefully they will have ideas, they will have... Because when you understand how something works, and interacts with the other components of the system, you're going to be more effective, you're going to hopefully, there will be less mistakes made. It will be more efficient, you will, you will have ideas that will allow you to improve and develop your processes better, more efficiently, less time. So all of this is going to help the companies in terms of the quality of the workforce that they have, which is so critical for the success that products.

Dennise Cardona  30:57  
Now for professionals who might want to enroll in the degree program at a later date, can they transfer these non credit courses for credit if they apply to the graduate program?

Dr. Moreira  31:08  
Again, we have a developing, what we call an articulation, internally, but essentially, there is a possibility, there are some constraints on it, they for instance, they will have to take  the courses and get a grade a B or better. So they are there is the academic quality standards here. They also have to do it within two  years. So if they took a course, four or five years ago, that's not going to count because, again, technology has evolved. And, and as I said in our courses, we have professionals that are doing it on that same day at their companies lecturing for us. And the science is evolving so rapidly, the regulations are evolving so rapidly that in two or three years, you can be outdated if you haven't kept up. So we really have to your limit in terms of giving the graduate credit. And also I believe they can only do that up to six credit hours. So only two courses can be transferred to the degree program. But the bottom line, answer is yes, they can transfer within some constraints. But they can do that.

Dennise Cardona  32:16  
Absolutely. And my last question is IXL at UMBC offers group discounts for companies, how does a company arrange that?

Dr. Moreira  32:26  
I think the best is to just call and ask. So companies can call me or contact me. Feel free to put my email on the on the publication here, or call or contact Lamar Davis. He is the director of the IXL program. It's all the names again, if they go to the UMBC website, umbc.edu, they'll they can find us. That will be the best just contact either Lamar or myself, and we'll be happy to work on it and guide them to the right locations to get their group discount, as we say, but that we'll be happy to do that.

Dennise Cardona  33:06  
Excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Dr. Moreira. This has been a really wonderful conversation. I've enjoyed it. I love talking about biotechnology I'm very interested in in the field in terms of how it advances us forward as a species as human beings and being able to make life better for people. It's just such a wonderful, wonderful advantage that we have out there in the world. And it's great that UMBC is at the forefront of educating people to be able to go out there and make that mark on the world.

Dr. Moreira  33:37  
Yes, absolutely. Well, thanks for having me. And, again, I hope this was informative and hopefully inspirational for potential students who are interested in this field. Also, I offer anyone who would like to talk to me and learn more or learn not only about my experience, but again, I'm very plugged in with the pharmaceutical industry. I'm on various boards, with many colleagues from industry. So I think I have relatively good understanding of what's happening in the field. And so I always enjoy talking about it and sharing what I know with anyone who is considering entering this field and are already perfecting their, their skills. And I think that's what we're here for at UMBC.

Dennise Cardona  34:26  
Thank you so much Dr. Moreira.

Dr. Moreira  34:27  
Very welcome. Thank you.

Dennise Cardona  34:30  
Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of UMBC Mic'd Up. We hope that you enjoyed it. If you'd like to learn more about UMBC as biotechnology graduate programs, or some of the courses mentioned in this episode, please check out the link in our show notes.