Some 200 students, faculty and community leaders gathered Monday to dedicate the 52,000-square-foot Biomanufacturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise (BRITE) at North Carolina Central University.
Visitors were then invited to tour the facility's brand-new laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment, teaching laboratories, and classroom space. Faculty and students led the tours and talked about the program's role in facilitating drug development and improving biomanufacturing.
Through BRITE and its college of science, NCCU will offer bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in the pharmaceutical and related life sciences. The specialized academic program was actually started in the fall of 2006, graduating four students this spring. Currently there are 65 undergraduates and 28 graduate students enrolled in the program, with an ultimate goal of 200.
The facility completes the three-pronged plan established several years ago by industry, the Biotechnology Center, the UNC System and the North Carolina Community College System's BioNetwork. The partnership, called NCBioImpact, aims to train workers for biomanufacturing operations that are ready to work their first day on the job. The BRITE facility complements the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center opened in September at NC State University.
Golden LEAF has provided nearly $70 million from the state's tobacco settlement for this effort, and industry has donated about $14 million of equipment and materials.