The opportunities are limitless, the industry is still in its infancy, and the applications can be as sexy as CSI -style forensic science or as significant as a cure for cancer. With the dizzying advances in digital and microtechnologies in recent decades has come an equally rapid expansion in the frontiers of biological science. 

To better prepare biology students for a world that offers growing opportunities in medicine, genetics, surgery, immunology, and agriculture—to name a few—Webster's College of Arts and Sciences has launched an Emphasis in Biotechnology option for biology majors.

"A lot of the reason for developing this emphasis has to do with the 'BioBelt' corridor developing in the St. Louis region," says Joyce Bork, associate professor and chair of the Biological Sciences Department. "There are so many advances going on in biotechnology, from genetics to forensics to surgery technology, and many more. So there is real career potential for our students, whether they want to go on to grad school or become researchers in a laboratory."

There are so many advances going on in biotechnology, from genetics to forensics to surgery technology. So there is real career potential for our students.

As managing director of Prolog Ventures, the largest St. Louis-area venture capital firm investing in biotech, Brian Clevinger is quite familiar with these trends. "Venture capital firms throughout the Midwest see St. Louis as a great place to invest in biotech," says Clevinger, a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board.

For these biotech companies and research labs, Clevinger says, "It's critical that they have highly trained and specialized scientists"—in other words, those possessing the rich science knowledge, lab techniques, and research experience that the College's biotech emphasis provides. "And these companies are looking for scientists who are also aware of the business side of things," Clevinger adds, noting that Webster's well-rounded curriculum provides students with this kind of education.

The emphasis was officially created a year ago, and the College will confer its first biology degree with an emphasis in biotechnology in May 2005. The University has a history of biology students doing internships and getting postgraduate jobs in biotech research centers such as the Danforth Plant Science Center and the cancer research lab at Washington University.

"Biotechnology is huge now, not only in direct science and research, but for all sorts of fields, such as science writing and patent law," says Stephanie Schroeder, assistant professor, Biological Sciences. "I think of biological sciences these days as almost 'pre-anything'—it's pre-dental, pre-law, pre-med, pre-graduate, pre-pharmacy. And biotech is really just the use of biologicals"—anything synthesized from living organisms or their products—"for whatever purpose you find them useful."

And though space is limited in the well-equipped labs in Webster Hall, the College continues to see growing enrollment—and swelling interest from prospective students—in Biological Sciences. "We are bursting at the seams," Bork says, "so we have to be doing something right."

Aside from the new opportunities and heightened awareness of this burgeoning field, Bork credits the department's increased enrollment to the particular needs that Webster serves. "We are a teaching institution," she says, "and since that is our focus, we have smaller classes than a large research institution, so we can be much more hands-on. In labs, that means there's more contact time, which means students get a richer learning experience."

This way, Bork says: "No one gets lost in the shuffle. If you have 500 other students in your lecture hall, the faculty member isn't going to know whether you understand anything. Whereas if there are 15 in the classroom, the professor knows what the students don't understand and can adjust accordingly." Plus, Bork adds with a laugh, "We'll also know whether you've studied or not."

While students may be drawn to courses such as Immunology, Virology, or Genome Expression by the almost sci-fi sounding possibilities in biotech's future, the courses give them a close look at the prospects of their field with hands-on experience today. Senior Research Projects, which each senior biology student must complete, immerse students in the various techniques and potential applications in the Biological Sciences.

One student of Schroeder's studied apoptosis in yeast—the process by which cells kill themselves when damaged—to learn more about the process as it occurs in humans. The function is a critical one to humans: When it goes wrong, and damaged cells multiply rather than kill themselves, diseases such as cancer can result. Schroeder says the student learned many lessons during the project—about both the process and himself.

"We attended a yeast genetics meeting in Seattle in August," Schroeder says. "He was one of very few undergraduates there who was actually a presenting author. He gained a lot of self-confidence from the experience and had a lot of people coming up to him encouraging him to go to graduate school," she recalls. "It was fun for me to watch him figure out how much he didn't know and how much he did know. And it was nice to watch the confidence build in him and to watch him learn from the talks in other areas of research, to see how much else is out there."

These projects not only enrich the students who conduct them, they also help develop the University's research training abilities, improve the prospects for grants, and lay the foundation for the students of tomorrow to further the research.

"It's our hope that these projects have a snowball effect with the students," Schroeder says. "It's one thing to be in a classroom or in a pre-planned laboratory; it's another when you're developing your own experiments, and you have to figure out how to do it and learn what does and doesn't work. All of this is important in learning how to do research and in realizing that research takes a long time." Plus, Schroeder notes, "Building enthusiasm and furthering these projects will help us to write more grants and bring more money into the program and the University."

For biology students, their community, and their program, such benefits are mutual. Schroeder notes that one Webster grad who studied lung cancer for his Senior Research Project now works at Washington University's cancer lab, which illustrates an interesting point about undergraduate science students at St. Louis institutions: While other schools in the area tend to attract science students from around the country who then return home after they earn their degrees, the vast majority of Webster's undergrad science students stay in the St. Louis region after graduation.

With the region's "BioBelt" developing at the same time Webster's science programs are blossoming, the future of biological sciences in the area looks bright—and marked with the fingerprints of Webster students.

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