The end of the semester—and the end of senior year—really wound down quickly. The biotechnology practical went smoothly, though the rest is somewhat of a blur: thesis presentations, finals, graduation, moving from New Jersey to Massachusetts, and starting a new job at a biotechnology company within two weeks of leaving Roger Williams. For the past two months, I’ve been working in a cell sciences lab in process development, where we run experiments with small-scale bioreactors. Our experiments are meant to mirror the manufacturing process for therapeutic molecules that are produced by genetically engineered mammalian cells. The upper and lower limits of production parameters, such as pH and temperature, are tested in small 1- to 2-L bioreactors (as opposed to much larger reactors found in manufacturing) to determine best and worst case scenarios. It’s pretty complicated, and there’s plenty that I still don’t understand!
The end of the semester—and the end of senior year—really wound down quickly. The biotechnology practical went smoothly, though the rest is somewhat of a blur: thesis presentations, finals, graduation, moving from New Jersey to Massachusetts, and starting a new job at a biotechnology company within two weeks of leaving Roger Williams. For the past two months, I’ve been working in a cell sciences lab in process development, where we run experiments with small-scale bioreactors. Our experiments are meant to mirror the manufacturing process for therapeutic molecules that are produced by genetically engineered mammalian cells. The upper and lower limits of production parameters, such as pH and temperature, are tested in small 1- to 2-L bioreactors (as opposed to much larger reactors found in manufacturing) to determine best and worst case scenarios. It’s pretty complicated, and there’s plenty that I still don’t understand!