Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Shire Human Genetic Therapies of Cambridge are partnering to expand training opportunities for adults who want to develop skills to get jobs in the life sciences sector.
Shire HGT has donated several pieces of commercial-scale equipment including: two large stainless steel stir tanks with variable speed controlled agitators, a stainless steel floor scale with digital display, a chromatography column, various pumps, valves, hoses and bench-top instruments.
The equipment will be integrated into the existing Bioprocessing Center at WPI’s Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park, which is a working research and development operation center in Worcester where students get hands-on training to prepare them for jobs in biotechnology companies.
Shire HGT scientists will also work with WPI staff and faculty to develop new programs that utilize the center’s expanded bioprocessing capabilities.
“The continued growth of the biotechnology industry in Massachusetts is very important to the overall economic health of the commonwealth, and WPI’s programs help assure that the industry will have the qualified workers we rely on to deliver new, innovative therapies to patients,” said Bill Ciambrone, senior vice president of technical operations at Shire HGT.
Shire HGT is a business unit of Shire plc, a global specialty biopharmaceutical company. The company focuses on developing treatments for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, human genetic therapies and gastrointestinal diseases.
