COLLEGE TO OPEN BIOTECH CENTER STUDENTS TO GET TRAINING IN 'CLEAN ROOM' LAB.

Byline: Daily News

VALENCIA - College of the Canyons is putting the finishing touches on its new biotechnology center, part of a two-year project to create a state-of-the-art laboratory for the life sciences and engineering program.

The new College of the Canyons Biotechnology Center is about five miles from the main campus. It occupies 4,700 square feet in the Mann Biomedical Park in the Valencia Industrial Center, and it includes a 2,000-square-foot ``clean room'' lab like those in industries regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.

``This enables students and industry trainees to experience conditions such as those when working in an FDA-regulated environment or lab setting and thereby better preparing them for employment in the life-sciences field,'' said Dena Maloney, the college's dean of economic development.

An open house and ribbon cutting will be held at 3 p.m. Oct. 10 at Mann Biomedical Park, 25102 Rye Canyon Loop.

The project was conceived and coordinated by biology faculty member Jim Wolf and Maloney. The modular clean room itself was donated to the college by 3D Systems, a Santa Clarita-based producer of digital manufacturing equipment.

``What sounds like science fiction is rapidly becoming science fact at College of the Canyons,'' Maloney said. ``The training our students will receive in this facility will catapult them into the high-tech, high-pay and high-intensity world of science that will only grow in the decades to come.''

Recognizing regional industrial growth in biotechnology and biomedical device manufacturing, officials at College of the Canyons and Ventura College teamed up in the 126 Biotechnology Collaborative. With a grant from the California Community College Chancellor's Office, a biotechnology laboratory was developed at either end of Highway 126 - one in Ventura as well as the one in Valencia.

At Ventura College, the grant financed two biofermentation devices used to train technicians needed in pharmaceutical, agricultural and other ``wet lab''-based biotechnology applications.

At College of the Canyons, the grant supported the creation of the facility for both wet lab work, as in tissue engineering and histology, and for ``dry lab'' work in microelectronics, nanotechnology and biomedical-device manufacturing. A core curriculum of clean-room science, involving 20 hours of hands-on training offered three times each semester, will serve as the educational gateway for a range of courses conducted in a clean room.

Faculty members, students and industry partners will be able to participate in training across a broad range of biotechnology and engineering disciplines. The college is also offering precision-assembly educational programs to prepare entry-level employees for microassembly positions in the biomedical-device industry.

``Once a student enters a clean room, there is a real possibility that the room will no longer be clean,'' Wolf said. ``One quick motion, a misplaced hand or even a simple spoken word, may contaminate a substance.

``This facility will allow a very accurate re-creation of the major elements of a clean-room facility and is, in fact, a real facility capable of reaching Level 5 cleanliness,'' with only about 10,000 particles per cubic foot, Maloney explained.