A grant for over $800,000 will help the University train vaccine manufacturers how to prevent pandemic outbreaks.
N.C. State’s Centennial Campus is gaining a training program that will train vaccine manufacturers from across the globe. The goal of the training is to use the best production practices possible to help prevent pandemic viral outbreaks.
Ruben Carbonell, director of the biomanufacturing training education center and profressor of chemical engineering, wrote the grant for the University.
“There will be several institutes throughout the world that will participate. We will have to train the representatives from these institutes,” Carbonell said.
According to Carbonell, the training is a short course that participates from the 11 countries will be required to attend. Thirty-six individuals are expected to receive the training this fiscal year.
“It’s a three week course on fundamentals of vaccine manufacturing, it will be attended by individuals from these countries,” Carbonell said.
According to Carbonell, expenses for this initiative will be paid by Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority which is a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Carbonell said he feels there will be a lot of positive impacts from this grant for N.C State.
“In addition to training individuals from other countries, funds generated from BARDA will help train individual from local companies like MERCK, Novartis and Pfizer,” Carbonell said.
Carbonell said he feels these trainings will add to economic development of and benefit the university in getting public exposure to outside world.
Carbonell said the grant is $861,453 and is renewable annually over five years.
“The grant is initially for one year, but renewable for a period of five years. Each year the grant will increase with inflation,” Carbonell said.
Terri Lomax, vice chancellor of research and innovation said she feels this opportunity will be beneficial for the University.
“It was an initiative of the BTEC folks and I am glad they had this opportunity,” Lomax said.
According to Lomax, this grant will lead to future opportunities as international trainees will come to N.C State for training.
”I see this as a big growth area and an excellent opportunity and we have received international recognition for this activity,” Lomax said.
Lomax said she feels it was the excellent reputation of N.C State and BTEC that made Centennial Campus a logical choice for hosting the training program.
“It validates on the international level the expertise that we have at BTEC,” Lomax said.
According to Lomax, the trainings will be conducted at BTEC on Centennial Campus..
“Trainings will happen three times during 2011. They will be three week courses and each course will have about 12 students,” Carbonell said.
According to Carbonell, trainings will be done by the staff at BTEC. There will be no student involvement in the training.
Carbonell said he feels though there won’t be any student involvement in this initiative, it will be highly beneficial for students.
“After the courses are developed, N.C State students will be able to access all the materials,” Carbonell said.
According to Carbonell, the focus of the training will be influenza vaccine.
“If these countries are capable enough, it will indirectly protect the US as well, since this training and preparation will stop influenza from spreading,” Carbonell said.
According to Lomax, this has been a big achievement by the BTEC and they achieved it in fairly small amount of time since establishment of BTEC.
“This was the intent from state and golden leaf foundation to build BTEC, I would like to congratulate them on this achievement and this international recognition so quickly,” Lomax said.