UAlbany Hosts NIIMBL eXperience Students for Day of Experiential Learning

NIIMBL eXperience students and UAlbany faculty pose for a group photo in the RNA Institute auditorium where the grad school panel discussion was held. (Photos by Patrick Dodson)
From left to right: Tom Begley, Arun Chandrasekaran, John Cleary, Gabriele Fuchs and Humphrey Omeoga.
Pauline Carrico leads students in a nucleic acid experiment.
Pauline Carrico leads students in a nucleic acid experiment.
A NIIMBL eXperience student conducts a nucleic acid experiment.
Pauline Carrico leads students in a nucleic acid experiment.

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 13, 2023) — On June 6, University at Albany faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences and SUNY Poly faculty from the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering together hosted 18 “NIIMBL eXperience” students for a day of hands-on learning.

Led by Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in partnership with regional academic and research institutions, the week-long NIIMBL eXperience aims to excite undergraduate students from all backgrounds about biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing by exposing them to biotechnology career opportunities and pathways. The Albany program was one of several such experiences organized across the U.S., produced by the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL). Student participants represented colleges and universities throughout the region, with a focus on Upstate New York.

Last week the NIIMBL students first visited SUNY Poly, where they learned about nanoscale medicines, made nanoparticles in the laboratory and toured the Albany NanoTech Complex.

Next, the students headed across the street to tour UAlbany’s Life Sciences Research Building and the RNA Institute, where they had the opportunity to investigate nucleic acids using physical and computational techniques and participate in a graduate school panel discussion led by faculty from the RNA Institute and the Biology Department.

The panel discussion was led by Tom Begley, associate director of the RNA Institute, John Cleary, assistant director of research, Gabriele Fuchs, assistant professor, Arun Chandrasekaran, senior research scientist, and Humphrey Omeoga, PhD candidate and graduate research associate in the RNA Institute. Pauline Carrico, laboratory instructional support specialist, and Begley led the students in conducting hands-on lab experiments.