Utah State University Biotech Expertise Recognized in Pacific Rim Countries

Utah State University Biotech Expertise Recognized in Pacific Rim Countries

Kamal Rashid, associate director of education at Utah State's Center for Integrated Biosystems (formerly the Biotechnology and Genomics Center) is organizing a training program in Singapore, set for November, at Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Cache Valley company Hyclone Laboratories will also be involved, giving a boost to Utah’s growing biotech economy and its outreach to Pacific Rim countries.

Singapore is the perfect place for this kind of a conference, Rashid said. "The country has focused heavily on high technology since gaining independence in 1965."

"Singapore is a small island with virtually no tangible natural resources, and so its government is cultivating the country’s intellectual assets—the intelligence and work ethic of the four million people who live there," Rashid said.

The week-long program is hands-on intensive and covers techniques in mammalian and insect cell culture, as well as production of mammalian cell-based biopharmaceutical products and purification techniques.

This is not Rashid’s first international outreach project. He has conducted training programs in Egypt, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and Thailand.