Lynn Tech receives $300G biotech grant

LYNN – A $300,000 grant is expected to bring a CSI-style program to Lynn Vocational Technical High School this fall.Principal Diane Paradis and other school officials are traveling to Waltham today to accept the grant given by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.MLSC is a quasi-public agency established to promote life sciences, a field comprised of any science that involves the study of living organisms.The grant is for equipment and supplies.”It’s aimed at bringing biotechnology to students that live in the community,” Paradis said.With an array of biotechnology companies located nearby in Cambridge, Paradis said it makes sense to expand the school’s program to offer biotech training. She said vocational schools in and around Cambridge offer similar programs.Her goal is to establish a program comprehensive enough that graduating students will be able to walk into an entry-level position with a biotechnology firm.Or, they could take the solid base they acquired at Lynn Tech to college and possibly look at a career in research.But building a biotechnology lab is difficult and expensive, she said.When Paradis explained the upcoming program to students, she told them to envision the kind of laboratory they see on television shows such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.””That’s what we are looking to establish here,” she said. “There are quite a number of steps above a regular biology lab.”Paradis said she expects the entire program to unfold in a two-year progression.”But we’re hoping we will be ready to offer an entry-level elective in the fall,” she added. “This is a very generous grant.”The center received 43 applications from high schools, colleges and workforce training programs from across the commonwealth, but only 32 were chosen by a peer review panel. The initial grant, for equipment, supplies, education and training is worth $202,434, but Paradis said the school also received a second grant as well.”We got another $100,000 just for equipment on top of that first grant,” she said. “We got over $300,000 in the last few days, all tied to biotech.”To be eligible for such a large award applicants must have matching funds or in-kind donations from an industry partner.The vocational school has teamed up with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a company seeking to change the way diseases such as hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis and cystic fibrosis are treated. Vertex will provide $102,000 and has pledged ongoing advisory support.MLSC CEO and President Susan Windham-Bannister applauds the program because “leaders in the life-science industry always tell me that they need skilled workers such as lab technicians and individuals who have had hands-on training in biomanufacturing.”