Monmouth University is a project partner for a $5.1 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor awarded to the Central New Jersey BIO-1 regional partnership (www.bio-one.org).

The BIO-1 partnership consists of key education and industry members in central New Jersey involved in supporting bioscience education and training programs necessary to support the pharmaceutical and biotechnology workforce. Educational partners include Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey, Princeton University, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey, Rider University, The College of New Jersey, and Monmouth University.

The central New Jersey corridor, including Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, and Somerset counties is home to a diverse array of life science companies including many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

The BIO-1 partnership will be working to enhance education opportunities for the life science workforce in central New Jersey and throughout the state.

Through the BIO-1 partnership, Dr. Michael Palladino, associate professor in the Biology Department at Monmouth University, will serve as founder and director of the New Jersey Biotechnology Educator’s Consortium (NJBEC). NJBEC will be funded by the WIRED grant and serve as a focal point to facilitate communication between biotechnology educators at the middle and high school levels, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities.

The Consortium will also serve as a liaison to the New Jersey biotechnology industry to help provide curricular advice and support for educators involved in training the biotechnology workforce in New Jersey. NJBEC will be a collective voice for biotechnology educators through communication of the Consortium with other regional and national biotechnology educator groups. Through curriculum enhancement and articulation agreements, NJBEC will transform and align pre-baccalaureate programs in biotechnology to create multiple career pathways from the final years of high school directly into New Jersey colleges and universities.

NJBEC will support: biotechnology educators who are training the New Jersey biotechnology workforce by providing an annual meeting as a focal event for biotechnology educators; faculty training opportunities by providing workshops delivered by member institutions with appropriate facilities and expertise; a Web site to support interaction and communication between educators and the biotechnology industry and to disseminate employment and research opportunities for students, funding and training opportunities, and related information of interest to members; a bi-monthly seminar series for faculty and students; student internships and research opportunities at New Jersey biotechnology companies and academic member institutions.

NJBEC will be established with members from the five central New Jersey counties initially targeted and will expand in the future to encompass the entire state.

Dr. Palladino is co-author of Introduction to Biotechnology, the leading undergraduate textbook in biotechnology that is used by more than 100 colleges and universities in North America as well as the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, India, and Pakistan. Dr. Palladino also serves as the Northeast Regional Coordinator for the sanofi-aventis BioGENEius Challenge, a biotechnology research competition for high school students.

Under the New Jersey Ocean and Human Health Initiative (NJ-OHHI), the Urban Coast Initiative will host workshops to foster communication among biotechnology educators, researchers, and industry members to find ways in which marine biodiversity can support bioproduct development and to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration of ocean, biomedical, and public health researchers from public and private sectors. The NJ OHHI will also seek to identify methods and technology to protect human health and coastal environments.

Mr. MacDonald became the founding director of the Urban Coast Institute in 2005. An attorney with more than 20 years of experience in coastal and ocean law and policy, he is currently a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Oceans and Human Health Advisory Committee.

For additional information about the New Jersey Biotechnology Educators Consortium, the WIRED grant, and BIO-1, contact Dr. Palladino at 732-263-5543 or send e-mail to mpalladi@monmouth.edu.

For information about NJ-OHHI contact Mr. MacDonald at 732-263-5662.