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Workshop on Advanced Materials Biotechnology and STEM Education
Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar Ethiopia
December 27-28 2018
Contact: Dr Tesfaye Shiferaw email: tesfaye2002@yahoo.com
The discovery of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s lead to the emergence of genetic engineering as a new industry in biotechnology. Genetic engineering allows the cloning of desired DNA sequence into bacteria or other desirable expression systems and large-scale production of recombinant proteins. In 1982, Genentech successfully cloned and produced the first recombinant human insulin and secured FDA approval for human use. Since then the technology has evolved and enabled to manufacture much more complex therapeutic proteins such as monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of several disease indications in cancer, immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. These products are referred as biologics or biopharmaceuticals to differentiate from small molecule pharmaceuticals made through traditional chemical synthesis. Advances in bioengineering have benefited millions of patients, created thousands of jobs, and the biologics market is expected to reach ~400 billion by 2025. Before the approval of these products for human use, the process that will be sued to manufacture at large scale needs to be developed and refined through extensive studies at small and pilot scale. These include optimization of the bioreactor condition for optimum protein expression, purification steps for consistent product quality, and formulation condition for reliable protein stability. This presentation will highlight process development focus areas required for the reliable production of a recombinant therapeutic protein.
VII. Workshop on STEM Education Resources: Introducing the BBC Micro Bit- Robotics for Ethiopia (Promoter: Abebe Kebede)
Information and communication technologies help students access learning materials that enhance their classroom learning. The most recent STEM learning tools and environments allow students to gain practical and pointed experiences for deep learning. These practical experiences engage the students in both hands activities that allow students to learn methods of measurement, plot graphs, and determine physical quantities interactively. The recently introduced BBC Micro Bit and products similar to it are widely used in STEM education. In this workshop we will review STEM and education resources and introduce the BBC Micro bit. Students will learn coding, operate autonomous robots.