Eilene Lyons discusses how St. Louis Community College worked with the government, local industry and research centers, such as the Danfrorth Plant Science Center, to build a strong and vital program in biotechnology education and a contract research lab in BRDG park.

1. Leveraging Government, Business, and Grant Support to Grow the Biotech Workforce Eilene Lyons Acting Dean, STEM Division STLCC-Florissant Valley STLCC Biotechnology Program Founding Coordinator

2. First Biotechnology Program in Missouri Founded Fall 1999 Research and Development based AAS and Certificate in Biotechnology Half of declared majors - BS or higher

4. 64 Declared Majors currently

6. Timing is Everything… 2001 – 2002, St. Louis plant and life science sector exceeded average national growth. Employment grew 56.6 percent. Added 3,676 new jobs in one year.

7. Plant and Life Science R&D Nodes

8. Vision for Growth: Step 1 Battelle study, January 2005 “St. Louis Community College offers an Associate of Applied Science in Biotechnology degree but the program is limited by space. As the region’s start-up companies expand, there is likely to be greater demand for technicians than can be produced currently. An option that might be considered to enable STLCC to expand their biotechnology offerings would be to provide lab space for the college in the new multi-tenant building being planned…”

9. Bio-Research & Development Growth Park (BRDG Park) At The Danforth Plant Science Center

10. Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Not-for-profit scientific facility Founded in 1998 by The Danforth Foundation Through an alliance between University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne Missouri Botanical Garden University of Missouri-Columbia MO Monsanto Company Purdue University Washington University St. Louis

11. BRDG Park’s Mission To help fledgling companies transition from innovative ideas in plant and life science to commercial successes

12. BRDG PARK DANFORTH CENTER MONSANTO WORLD HEADQUARTERS

13. BRDG Park Initial phase: 60,000 square feet of wet laboratory and office space Two additional buildings planned, 500,000 total square feet

14. St. Louis Community College 10,500 square feet on first floor

16. State Tax Credits $500,000

17. NASA Grants $1,100,000

18. MO Dept. of Ed. Grant $213,000

19. Monsanto Fund $250,000 $2,563,000

22. Missouri State Government Support Current Governor Jay Nixon 2009 Former Governor Matt Blunt 2006

23. Vision for Growth: Step 2 Addition of a contract research lab within BRDG Park Modeled after InnovaBio – Salt Lake Community College

25. Primary Goal Continue the education of our students Provide a real world lab experience

26. Secondary Goal Resource for start-up companies Lab space High end equipment and instrumentation Lab assistants STLCC Biotech Interns

27. BIO-BENCH Projects 2010-11 qPCR expression analysis of a mouse model for sepsis qPCR expression analysis, protein analysis of human astrocyte cell line

28. BIO-BENCH Projects 2010-11 Genotyping transgenic plants Algae to biofuel Biofermentation of Archaea for fuel cells Genetic analysis of rare bleeding disorder

29. BIO-BENCH Interns (9) Divergence (BRDG Park) – 2 graduates Phycal LLC (BRDG PARK) – 1 graduate MOBIO and Golden Soy LLC – 1 graduate Interns currently at the CRO – 3 Intern at Phycal LLC – 1 December intern/graduates seeking employment - 2

30. Elaine Johnson and Bio-Link Tamara Goetz and Craig Caldwell, SLCC Missouri Senator Christopher ‘Kit’ Bond Missouri Governors Jay Nixon and Matt Blunt Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Wexford Corporation Monsanto Acknowledgements: