Episode 1: Why Biotechnology

Welcome to BioTech: Impacting Tomorrow, Today, a new podcast exploring the ins & outs of the booming biotechnology industry, and the career pathways available within it. In our premier episode, “How Biotechnology Heals the World,” host Terri Quenzer is joined by guest Jim DeKloe to help guide us through an introduction to the world of biotech. 

Jim is a Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing at Solano College. He has developed and delivered industry-driven curriculum in biomanufacturing that incorporates training students in the skills required to work in companies in the biotech manufacturing space. 

In their conversation, Jim and Terri touch on the many different career pathways that are available in the biotech industry, and why having a science background is not necessarily a prerequisite for many of the employers. They also explore the benefits biotechnology is having on our economy, our environment, and our healthcare system. It’s an excellent and thorough introduction for anyone curious about this fascinating industry. 

Transcript

Episode 1: How Biotechnology Heals the World

Intro VO (0s):

Welcome to Biotech: Impacting Tomorrow, Today. We are here to explore the ins and outs of biotechnology and the diverse career paths available in this science driven space. Biotech is a booming industry with a monumental impact on health and medicine, climate change, food, textiles, cosmetics, and more. Join us as we speak to leading biotech experts who are advancing the biotech field with their knowledge and passion for building a better world. And now here's your host, Terri Quenzer.

Terri Quenzer (32s):

Hello and welcome to Biotech: Impacting Tomorrow Today. I’m your host, Terri Quenzer, Executive Director for the Bioscience Workforce Development Hub at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, California. This podcast that you're joining us for today is about promoting awareness of biotechnology and related fields. So, I'd like to start by introducing today's guest. He's a distinguished professor of biological sciences, biotechnology, biomanufacturing, and founder of the Industrial Biotechnology Program at Solano College, located in Vacaville, California, which is halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento.

Terri (1m 12s):

He's developed and delivered industry driven curriculum in Biomanufacturing that incorporates scientific, technical, engineering, quality, regulatory and business aspects of the Biomanufacturing field. Please welcome Jim Dekloe, a thought leader in the field of biotechnology.

Jim Dekloe (1m 31s):

Thank you very much, Terri, thank you. It's good to see you and thank you for inviting me. I'm a huge advocate of biotechnology, you can probably find no greater advocate because it is going to change the world and at the same time provide really high paying careers with tremendous opportunity for upward mobility. So, I'm really enthusiastic to be here to talk about biotech.

Terri (1m 54s):

That's great, and I'm excited to jump into this with you. So, I think as a lot of us are hearing these days, our planet is in crisis. We have climate change, we hear about global warming, greenhouse gasses, deforestation for cattle, overfishing, plastic in an island and floating around in the Pacific, for example. So, tell us how might biotechnology solve our problems?

Jim (2m 24s):

There are a lot of people in biotechnology that are explicitly tackling all of these problems. And the goal is to build a bio economy, an economy that is based on biology rather than on petrochemicals that are taken out of the ground. And so the idea would be to use plant material that took the carbon out of the atmosphere in the first place, and then take that material and use genetically engineered organisms in order to create the products that we're currently creating from petrochemicals. And so plastic precursors will be created and then you don't have additional carbon going in the atmosphere.

Jim (3m 5s):

Ultimately, fuels will be created in this way and other materials, textiles, and foods. And so by doing this, by creating a bioeconomy, you can have a circular economy where the carbon comes outta the atmosphere before it goes in and there's no net carbon added to the atmosphere. And therefore, we stop the greenhouse gas emissions and we can address climate change. Biotech and the bioeconomy they have big plans to tackle these gigantic issues facing our society and facing the world.

Terri (3m 43s):

Well, so you just mentioned biotech and biotechnology, and that sounds like a very tall order. What you're saying is exciting, but let's break it down and let's take a step back, and I'm gonna have you define biotechnology. What is biotechnology?

Jim (4m 0s):

Biotechnology uses living cells and very often genetically engineered cells in order to produce a product, in order to do something useful, in order to have a service that will alter our economy. And so, in biotechnology written large, we will be making new products. Right now, the main concentration is making medicines, but in the future, everything that you eat, everything that you touch, everything that you wear, all of the fuel that goes into your cars, all of that will be impacted by biotechnology. So, what is in common with all of these is a living cell is involved of some type or another.

Terri (4m 48s):

And those living cells are factories in and of themselves, correct?

Jim (4m 53s):

Yes. So, we can make cells do most anything and produce most any molecule. Probably the audience is aware of penicillin, which was one of the first real biotech products. That penicillin, the antibiotic, can be most economically produced by growing the fungus that produces it and then collecting it from the fungus. You could use chemistry to make penicillin, but it can't compete economically with feeding sugars to the right fungus, to the right mold, and then having the mold make it, it just is the easier and best way to do it.

Jim (5m 33s):

So, a living cell is involved there, and that's true of all of our antibiotics.

Terri (5m 37s):

That's great. So, we're basically putting ourselves to work for us on a completely different scale. And you know, we hear a lot of other terms, there's biotechnology, but we also hear terms such as life sciences or biosciences, biomedical and pharma, bio industrial, biomanufacturing. Can you break those down for us?

Jim (6m 1s):

Yeah, you can call it the life science industry or the biological industry. Most people now are using the term, the bio economy, and within that are many, many jobs, many, many careers, and many, many functions of these cells. And so biomanufacturing is making materials using living cells, and as I said before, currently biomanufacturing mainly focuses on medicines. And the top five of the top 10 medicines are produced by living cells rather than the traditional way that pharmaceutical manufacturers do it, of mixing chemicals in a giant tank and having them have chemical reactions.

Jim (6m 43s):

But living cells are involved. In the future, the bioindustry or biomanufacturing, will also produce other molecules. There are really fun companies that are producing spider silk and then weaving it into silk ties, producing proteins that then can substitute for milk proteins or could substitute for collagen, which is used in surgery. Or you can make fuels using biotech, and again, what you have to do there is compete with a petroleum industry that has a multi-trillion dollar and a hundred-year head start.

Jim (7m 28s):

And so, all of these terms do sort of mesh, but they all come back to using a cell as a factory and then making a product or having it perform a useful function for us to advance the economy.

Terri (7m 45s):

So, in that case, what you've just described is using a cell to form some sort of a product that we can use, and it could be in various fields. It can be medicine, it can be therapeutical, so it can promote better health, but it can also be in food production, it can be in clothing and textile productions and silk, silk ties, and other areas too. And cleaning up the environment as well, and I think that's pretty exciting. It sounds much safer than the chemicals that this could be replacing, or it already is replacing.

Jim (8m 21s):

And that's what I tell students. If you think about it, when we grow cells, we can't add anything to the growth media, to the materials that are surrounding the cells, that would harm the cells. Well, if those chemicals can't harm the cells, they can't harm you either. And likewise, when we harness their products, which are using proteins, we can't have any chemical that harms the proteins. Well, you're made out of protein. When I'm looking at you, what I see is protein. And therefore, if a product or if the chemicals surrounding the protein are safe for that particular protein, that is the product, they're safe for you. And so often this way of producing commodity chemicals, or this way of producing a product or carrying out a function, is much safer and much more environmentally friendly than the purely chemical alternative.

Terri (9m 14s):

Right. And we just had a real, a great example of this with our recent pandemic and the application of biomanufacturing in terms of producing vaccines for us in terms of producing tests and such.

Jim (9m 32s):

The pandemic was a tour de force of the biotech industry. So, I have many people that worked on those vaccines and when you talk to 'em, they are so proud of what they accomplished in a short period of time. Usually vaccines take five years, maybe 10 years to produce. If you think about it, the pandemic started in China in 2019 and December 2019, the sequence was published January 11th, 2020. Most of the biotech companies that produced the vaccine, they got started sort of in March and they had to develop their process, they had to develop the cells that would produce the DNA that produced the RNA, that produced the vaccine.

Jim (10m 14s):

And then they had to figure out a way to grow them, a way to harness the DNA, a way then to produce the RNA, a way to patch the RNA in a lipid nanoparticle and how to freeze it and how to ship it and how to store it. And then they had to go into clinical trials, phase one, phase two, and they compressed that under operation warp speed, and then to get emergency use authorization, and ultimately a full FDA approval proving to the FDA that it's safe, all by the end of the year. So again, it was a tour de force of what biotech can do and how quickly this field can respond to an international challenge to our economy.

Jim (10m 60s):

I have to tell you, I thought our economy was going to collapse. I thought we were going to have a depression, not a recession, but a full-on depression. And a lot of the reason that we didn't was because of this very, very rapid, and very, very robust response by the biotech industry and good for them. I have nothing but praise for the way that they handled them.

Terri (11m 26s):

That's amazing. So that's a great lead into my next question and that is, there's been massive growth in biotech in California and in other states. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

Jim (11m 40s):

Yes. So, there was a recent paper by Schmidt Futures, a think tank, and they project a 30 trillion-dollar global bio economy by the end of this decade. Thirty trillion! Now that is a huge number. The current GDP of the United States is about 21 trillion, so this is 50% bigger than all of the goods and services that are currently being produced in the United States. And so, there was a recent summit at the White House that responded to President Biden's executive order, and one of the speakers there from the advisory committee to the president said, “that's a really big number.”

Jim (12m 27s):

“So, I had my people check it. Is that the real number? Thirty trillion dollars is the real number.” So, this is going to be a huge economy. We're going to need about a million more people. Now locally here in California, the bio economy is increasing at about 11% per year. It is red hot, there are jobs everywhere. Most of the graduates from our colleges are hired before they even complete their program. We have a near a hundred percent placement rate, and that's especially true in the hotbeds of biotechnology around the country, which are San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Boston, North Carolina.

Jim (13m 9s):

North Carolina is red hot around the Philadelphia area. Austin, Texas, Houston, Texas is coming on, Madison, Wisconsin, and most every state has a biotechnology effort trying to attract biotech companies to their state and trying to encourage homegrown biotech companies. And that will happen. So, in the next phase of biotechnology where we move from medicines into more commodity chemicals, those likely are going to be located in other areas of the country where they are closer to their carbon sources, where they're closer to the material that will serve as a sugar supply for the cells. 

Jim (13m 52s):

And so that'll be the Midwest, that'll be in the Southeast, that'll be in Appalachia, that'll be in the Central Valley of California. And we have to prepare for the expansion of this field. And it's going to be urban, and it also will be rural. And so, I'm excited to see it expand and everyone, every study says there's going to be a dramatic expansion and every study says we're going to need a lot more people.

Terri (14m 22s):

So that brings me to my next question. Is the talent production keeping up with this industry growth?

Jim (14m 28s):

The short answer is no. So, I'm on a couple of workforce committees through Nimble, one of the manufacturing USA centers and BioMade, another of the manufacturing USA centers. And then I'm working with staffing agencies like Kelly Scientific, and what they're seeing is they're seeing a shortage. And so, what we have to do is get busy and recruit more people into this field because we need them, and it's good. It's a really good career. It's a career that starts with a livable wage and then has tremendous opportunity for upward mobility. Many of my students that started out 25 years ago, now have supervisors and managers in their names, and they've moved up and it really has provided a steady career with advancement for them and for their families.

Jim (15m 20s):

And, and so it is stable, it's relatively recession proof. That is during the recession of 2008-2009, when construction was crashing, biotech still modestly increased. You didn't see the tremendous growth that we're currently seeing, but even during a recession, this is relatively recession proof. So, it's an excellent career that I recommend for anyone. And it isn't only the science side of it, it's less science-y than you would think. There are also jobs for people that can write well, especially technical writers, that can interact with regulatory agencies, especially in the pharmaceutical manufacturing side, that can write reports, that can do investigations.

Jim (16m 10s):

And so, it's active and interesting. So anyway, I recommend it to everyone, and at the end of the day, if you're in pharmaceutical manufacturing, you get to save somebody's mom. At the end of the day, if you're producing commodity chemicals, you did your part to reduce greenhouse gasses and to try to prevent global climate disruption. So, at the end of the day, these are efforts that you can feel good about that you were part of.

Terri (16m 46s):

So, at the end of the day, you are having a direct impact on the world.

Jim (16m 50s):

You and your team. Absolutely.

Terri (16m 54s):

That's exciting. And I've heard rumors and tell me if these are rumors, that companies are even poaching employees from other companies because of this workforce shortage.

Jim (17m 6s):

Yes. They don't like to say that, but the shortage, that is what it means. I have a graduate of our program and he is working for a biotech company, and he said he's getting several calls a week by a different company. Say, “What would it take for you to move over to us?” Now what that does, of course, is shortages create higher wages and better working conditions. And you know, the companies have to do their best to keep their employees happy. We're across the street from Genentech and Genentech has always done a good job at this. They have company picnics where the headliner might be P!nk, or it might be Justin Timberlake, or it might be Bruno Mars, or it might be the Eagles, or it might be Bob Dylan, or it might be Earth, Wind & Fire.

Jim (17m 56s):

And so anyway, they really take care of their employees in this field. And so, they're gonna have to continue to do that and continue to nurture talent.

Terri (18m 5s):

True if they wanna keep their talent since they're short on talent these days. So, there are lots of opportunities for people to get into biotech. What would you tell someone who's listening here that maybe thinks they're not good at science or math and that makes them think that they couldn't work in biotech? What would you say to them?

Jim (18m 27s):

I would say to them that it's less science-y than it sounds. Really, if you have mechanical ability, that's really what they want. Because in Biomanufacturing you are running giant tanks and things break and they want somebody who isn't afraid of a wrench and can jump in and fix it, or can say, “okay, this is beyond my ability to fix it, maintenance, come over here.” And so really, it's much more important to have really a good set of employability skills. You have to work in a team. If you can work in a team and get along with people, that is skill number one. You have to be nimble and have time management.

Jim (19m 11s):

If you can manage your time, then they want you. And one thing that I find my students often undervalue is that they undervalue the other jobs that they've had early in their career. Especially, “Oh, I worked in fast food, I'm not even gonna put that on my resume.” Of course you're gonna put that on your resume. You learned valuable workplace skills in that job. “Oh, I worked at the mall, I worked retail, I'm not gonna put that on my resume.” No, if you can do that, you can work in this field if you were successful there. Record keeping, record keeping is important. If you're working retail, if you're working fast food, you're working the cash register, you have to do record keeping because the cash register has to balance at the end of the day.

Jim (19m 59s):

So, all of those skills can be applied in this field. It's less science-y than it sounds now. Now, the more science that you can get, the better off that you will be. And the science is fascinating and changing and interesting and it's something that makes me want to go to work every day to learn what's new. And there are new companies emerging, different trends emerge and keeping up with it. It's just a fantastic field.

Terri (20m 31s):

It is. And I've also been aware of many companies that have tuition reimbursement programs. So, your comment about getting more science-y, many people have the opportunity to do that once they're working in a company. So, it doesn't end with getting their foot in the door with their first job.

Jim (20m 51s):

Yes. I want to make the point, what I make the point to students is, this is a career. So sometimes a student will come to me and say, “I got a job.” And I'll say, “No you didn't, you initiated a career.” So, you're going to go in at entry level perhaps and then always look to move up, move up, move up. We have a project; do I have any volunteers? Yes, I volunteer. And along the way you are going to also increase your education and you can take your education part-time and the company typically will reimburse you for your tuition. So, you can get the company to pay for your college and end up going out of college without debt.

Jim (21m 34s):

And so that is just a tremendous opportunity. So, jump in really with a couple of classes, you can go into this biotech field. But while you're working in biotech, take additional classes, get certificates, additional certificates, get an additional associates, they'll pay for your bachelor's degree, they'll pay for a master's degree. You can go as far as you want on your educational pathway. You can exit and take some time off to spend some time because you have a young family. But then as your family matures and then there at school, you have additional time to go back to school. And so, you pace it, whatever your particular family situation demands, but jump in, start getting a paycheck and then move up, move up, move up.

Jim (22m 23s):

And you can do that in this field. Very, very often, the head of the plant, this is really often, very often, the head of the plant started with that company at technician level one and moved up, moved up, moved up. This is a career where you can go as far as your ability and as far as your ambition will take you.

Terri (22m 45s):

Well. It's amazing. So, what's the best way for people that are listening to get started?

Jim (22m 51s):

The best way probably is to jump into your local community college. Find one that has a biotech program and there are many of them in California and many other colleges are starting just because the field is so hot. And so, Google your local college and biotechnology and see if they have a program and take that first class, take the first class and see if you like it. The class that doesn't have a prerequisite and see if it's for you. You'll find out pretty quickly whether or not this is a field for you and many, many students that do that then they become hooked and then they'll take the full program. They'll get additional training; they'll take additional certificates and then we'll go on and earn their bachelor's degree and maybe a graduate degree.

Jim (23m 42s):

So, you can go as far as you want.

Terri (23m 44s):

Right, and even if you take an intro class and decide, maybe biotech itself is not for you, but maybe you are working on a certificate in computer science or computer technologies or a lot of other fields that are related that we use in biotech. So, there's opportunities there for doing other things that you love within the biotech industries. So that's something to consider too.

Jim (24m 14s):

Well sometimes we forget being in California what a bargain we are. So, the community colleges are $46 a unit. I travel a lot; I was just in New Orleans. Their community college is $140 a unit. Most community colleges around the United States are several hundred dollars a unit, and so California really is the least expensive education system in the country. And very, very often, there's something called the board of Governors fee waiver. Very, very often, if you're coming from modest means, the tuition will be free, it will be, it'll be paid for by the state.

Terri (24m 51s):

Well, are you talking about the promise program?

Jim (24m 53s):

The promise program. Most colleges have a promise program where if you are new then you will not have to pay for your first year.

Terri (25m 4s):

Right, and up to two years if you qualify financially, so that's a great discount. And what would you say about the community colleges? Is the perception that the community colleges are just junior colleges that you go to to fill time, but is that true or?

Jim (25m 22s):

Community colleges do a good job with transfer, but in this case, the community colleges have an advantage because for years they had what are called career technical education courses. That is what we used to call vocational ed. And we are used to having programs that get people into jobs. In this case, the jobs also include an ability to gain a bachelor's degree and to go to graduate school. And most community colleges are really well equipped. Community colleges have a mechanism for funding facilities that CSU and UC don't have. They can pass a local bond and then take that money and build a new building.

Jim (26m 5s):

And so, there's a new science building at most community colleges in California and that's been really exciting to see that. A lot of investment by the state into the community college system and into workforce development. And so, the state of California really does care and they have put a fair amount of money into this and it has echoed back in building this mammoth industry. Biotechnology is a California story; the science was invented here in the San Francisco Bay area and the business was invented here. The business model came right out of the Silicon Valley's model of venture capital. And we're willing to take a huge risk on something that we are not quite sure is going to occur, is going to come through, but that huge risk paid off.

Jim (26m 55s):

California is a leader in the biotech field. You can be, I'll tell students, you're in no better place than anyone in the world being in California for this field. You're in no better place and no better time. The field is about to explode. It's about to just go crazy and you can be part of it.

Terri (27m 17s):

And you can get trained. All you have to do is want to join and make a difference. And you can go to any community college with a biotech program to learn more. So, Jim, what I just want to ask you is if you have any final thoughts? We've covered a lot of ground today and there's a lot to think about, especially getting into an exciting career in biotechnology. Any final thoughts that we didn't get to or didn't cover, or you'd just like to add?

Jim (27m 48s):

I would. So, in medicine, this field is going to alleviate human suffering. If you think about it, these are medicines that are treating unmet medical needs. What that means is they're treating diseases for which currently we have no treatments. I'll say that again, not no cures, but no treatments. With gene therapy and cell therapy, we are, for the first time, talking about curing cancer. For the first time, we're talking about treating children who have an inherited disorder. And we are really talking about the blind will see, the deaf will hear, and the disabled will walk. With stem cells, replacing knee cartilage, replacing the damaged neurons.

Jim (28m 34s):

And then project forward where if we can get more of our industrial processes to be part of the bio economy rather than the old petroleum economy, then we really can stop the production of greenhouse gasses. We really can improve environmental conditions and at the same time provide high paying jobs with upward mobility and a tremendous sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. And I think you can ask for nothing better.

Terri (29m 7s):

It sounds wonderful and I think it's a very exciting place and time to be here because of the technology and what's available to us. So just to circle back, our planet is in crisis and Jim Dekloe has been here sharing with us a lot of great ideas for ways that we can use biotechnology and biomanufacturing to solve these problems. And we need you, we need your help to do this. And there are so many opportunities to come into biotechnology and find your niche within biotechnology. It might be in therapeutics and in developing medications. It might be in developing new food sources, it might be in developing ways to clean the environment.

Terri (29m 51s):

It might be in developing new cosmetics that are safer or it might be in developing skis, even using algae. So, there's a lot of different applications right now and it's an exciting field and we need you, We really need you to come in if this sounds something interesting to you, if it's something you might like to do and whether you are in high school, there's community colleges, often there's dual enrollment programs where you can get college credit while you're still in high school. There's also opportunities if you're already working or if you've been home raising your family and you're ready to go back to work and you want to find something new and interesting to do. Look for a community college near you.

Terri (30m 39s):

All you have to do is go to Google and type in the name of your local community college and biotechnology. And any biotechnology that's offered will pop up and you can find opportunities to take these classes. Many of 'em are online too, so the introductory classes especially, so that you can get a sense to survey these classes just from the comfort of your home. And it could be a college that's in another part of the state, but at least it gets you started. Well, thank you for joining us for our first episode of Biotech: Impacting Tomorrow, Today. This is Terri Quenzer and a special thanks to our first guest, Jim Dekloe.

Terri (31m 20s):

Thank you Terri.

Outro VO (31m 23s):

Thank you for listening to Biotech: Impacting Tomorrow, Today. If you enjoyed this podcast, please be sure to share it and subscribe. To learn more about biotechnology, career paths or how to enter this booming field, check out the show notes and get in touch with us. Thank you again for listening. We hope that we have impacted your tomorrow, today.