Interdisciplinary Degree: Pursue a Career in Biotechnology

Kent State University’s Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Chemistry offer an interdisciplinary program leading to the Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology, as a leading school for genetic engineering studies and other biotechnology pursuits.

General University Requirements

All students seeking a bachelor’s degree at Kent State University complete a series of liberal education requirements. In addition to the course work specific to their major (outlined below), students pursuing a B.S. degree in biotechnology take courses in English composition, foreign language, humanities, fine arts, and social sciences.

Biotechnology Degree Requirements

The Biotechnology program is designed to provide a strong academic foundation in biological sciences and chemistry, training in the various biotechnologies and a solid understanding of their application in industry and biomedicine. The program places particular emphasis on practical training and includes laboratories in general chemistry, cell biology, microbiology, biological chemistry, and molecular biology. The final year includes a research experience at Kent and/or an internship in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical company. In addition to the liberal education requirements cited above, students take courses in the following areas:

Year I: biological foundations, cell biology (lecture/lab), general chemistry (lecture/lab), calculus, probability and statistics for life sciences.

Year II: microbiology (lecture/lab), genetics (lecture), organic chemistry (lecture/lab), aqueous equilibrium (lecture), biological chemistry (lecture/lab), general physics, computer science, ethics.

Year III: molecular biology (lecture/lab), analytical chemistry (lecture/lab), advanced biological chemistry (lecture/lab), immunology, business, bioethics.

Year IV: biotechnology (lecture/seminar/research experience and/or internship), bioinformatics, electives.

Undergraduate Research and Internship Experience

A research experience is an important component of the interdisciplinary biotechnology degree program. Students have numerous opportunities to pursue research projects and gain experience working with state-of-the-art instrumentation under the guidance of members of the faculty. This experience is invaluable in the intellectual development of a student and in their subsequent search for technical positions in industrial, medical or government research laboratories. Students who are members of the Honors College perform undergraduate research and prepare and defend an honors thesis. Students may also gain firsthand experience of working in biotechnology through an internship experience in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry.

The Faculty

Most of the courses for this interdisciplinary degree program in biotechnology are taught by faculty from the Department of Biological Sciences and the Department of Chemistry. Many of the faculty in these departments employ biotechnological methods (i.e. cell culture, antibody technologies, recombinant DNA technologies, protein engineering technologies) and/or are involved in the development of such methods as part of their research (i.e. specific biomolecule detection and biomolecule separation techniques). Several of the faculty at our school for genetic engineering studies have been honored with teaching awards, including the Alumni Association’s Distinguished teaching Award and the College of Arts and Sciences Student Advisory Council Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Faculty research in the Department of Biological Sciences includes the areas of cellular signaling mechanisms, gene regulation, cytokine biology, biochemistry of freshwater organisms, gamete biology, antimicrobial drug delivery and cellular imaging. The Department of Chemistry maintains active research programs on many frontiers of analytical, biological, inorganic, organic and physical chemistry but has particular strengths in materials (liquid crystals, surfaces, inorganic and porous materials) and in biological chemistry (bioinorganic chemistry, biological membranes, proteins and protein engineering, enzymology, proteomics, and transcriptional and translational regulation). Several members of the faculty are internationally recognized leaders in their fields.

Facilities and Instrumentation

The Department of Biological Sciences is housed in Cunningham Hall which includes a large lecture hall, two medium size lecture rooms, and numerous teaching and research laboratories, a cell and tissue culture facility, a scanning electron microscopy facility, a greenhouse, a herbarium, and a fully accredited animal facility. In Fall 2000, an $8.5 million, 40,000-ft²addition to Cunningham Hall was opened that includes state-of-the-art research laboratories, a Cell and Tissue Culture facility, a Confocal Microscopy facility, a microscopy/imaging facility, a radioisotope facility, seminar and conference rooms.

The Department of Chemistry is housed in Williams Hall and part of the connecting Science Research Laboratory. Williams Hall houses two large lecture halls, classrooms, undergraduate and research laboratories, the research laboratories of the Separation Science Consortium and Analytical Instrumentation Facility, the chemistry-physics library, chemical stockrooms, and glass and electronics shops. A machine shop, which is jointly operated with the Physics Department, is located in nearby Smith Hall. Instrumentation available in the Department of Chemistry includes three high field NMR spectrometers, X-ray powder and single crystal diffractometers, FTIR, UV/VIS, microwave, X-ray photoelectron, and fluorescence spectrometers, two mass spectrometers, titration and differential scanning calorimeters, numerous HPLC chromatographs, centrifuges, electrophoresis equipment and facilities for DNA sequencing, PCR and protein purification and analysis. Molecular modeling software is available for the display and analysis of proteins, nucleic acids, and small organic molecules.

Career Opportunities in Biotechnology Fields

Modern biotechnology is a collection of technologies that have in common the use of cells and biological molecules. These include monoclonal antibody technology, plant and animal cell culture, fermentation technology, recombinant DNA technology and protein engineering technologies. These technologies are applied in agriculture, health care, forensics, industrial processing, and environmental management in many useful ways. For example, in agriculture, biotechnology enables the selection and transfer of select genes that produce beneficial traits that increase crop yields, allow greater flexibility in growing environments, and allow less use of pesticides. In health care, biotechnologies are employed in the development of new medicines and therapies using proteins, enzymes and antibodies, in the large-scale production of therapeutic agents and in the development of new vaccines. Over 250 million people worldwide have been helped by more than 110 biotechnology drugs and vaccines currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. There are more than 350 biotechnology drug products and vaccines currently in clinical trials and hundreds more in early development in the United States. Gene therapy is a promising new approach to treat genetic disorders by replacing the damaged or missing gene. Biotechnology is employed in the development and production of diagnostics used to detect a variety of diseases and genetic conditions. Genomic and proteomic technologies are employed to discover genes, and to identify disease biomarkers and protein targets for drug development. Biotechnology has revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry, and the same impact is expected in the industrial sector. Industrial biotechnology applies molecular biology and fermentation technologies to improve manufacturing processes, develop new biocatalysts and reduce the environmental impact of processes in industries such as grain processing, cleaning products, textiles, paper and pulp, and specialty chemicals. Environmental biotechnology employs microorganisms for a variety of applications in hazardous waste treatment, bioremediation and pollution prevention. DNA fingerprinting has improved criminal investigation and forensic science.

The prospects for employment in the biotechnology industry continue to be very good. The biotechnology industry has grown rapidly in recent years, trebling in size between 1993 ($8 billion in revenues) and 2001 ($25 billion in revenues). There are 1,273 biotechnology companies in the United States that employ more than 150,000 people in high-wage jobs. This compares to 97,000 employees in 1994, i.e. an increase in the number employed of about 55%. Market capitalization, the amount of money invested in the U.S. biotechnology industry, increased over seven fold in the last seven years from $45 billion in 1994 to $330 billion in 2001. Biotechnology is one of the most research-intensive industries in the world. The U.S. biotechnology industry spent $13.8 billion in research and development in 2001. Over 9,000 patents were granted in the biotechnology area in 1998, more than double the number granted in 1994. While most biotechnology graduates will find employment in research and development laboratories in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, there are also many employment opportunities in hospital, university and government research laboratories.

For More Information on a Career in Biotechnology :

Diane Stroup, Ph.D. Director of Biotechnology
Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Department of Chemistry
Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242
Telephone:  330 672-2405
email:  dstroup1@kent.edu