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BTEC Receives Grant to Train Global Vaccine Manufacturers

Oct 7, 2010

North Carolina State University will use a new grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to train vaccine manufacturers from across the globe to use best production practices to help prevent pandemic viral outbreaks.

Fueled by a $861,453 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), NC State's Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) will conduct the training, The trainees—who will come from countries with developing and emerging economies such as India, Indonesia and Brazil—represent agencies responsible for producing viral vaccines such as seasonal or H1N1 influenza. Thirty-six individuals are expected to receive the three-week training this fiscal year.

The grant is renewable annually for five years.

Dr. Ruben Carbonell, director of BTEC and a professor of chemical engineering who has designed a filtration method to eliminate disease-causing agents from transfused blood, says the effort is another example of how BTEC and the university apply and extend knowledge for the common good.

“In the event of a pandemic, manufacturers across the globe will be expected to rapidly produce vaccines to save lives,” he says. “This training will increase the world's infrastructure for safe vaccines and, by extension, help protect the United States from pathogens borne by air or other sources.”

Part of the university's College of Engineering, BTEC is capable of yearly training up to 2,000 community college students, undergraduates, and graduate students for jobs that produce medicines, vaccines, diagnostics, enzymes, amino acids, veterinary medicine, and related products that improve lives, create jobs, and boost North Carolina's economy.