Industrial Biotechnology

Minimum Units Required: 60.0 units

This program prepares graduates to work in the biotechnology industry as production technicians. A production technician operates and maintains the equipment used to manufacture protein pharmaceuticals or other products. Students will grow bacterial, yeast, and mammalian cells and recover the proteins that they produce. They will follow good manufacturing practices by maintaining records in order to comply with quality assurance procedures and government regulations. Students in the program must be able to adjust their time to a flexible schedule. The Associate in Science Degree can be obtained upon completion of the 22-24 unit major, general education requirements and electives as needed to complete a minimum of 60 units. All courses in the major must be completed with a minimum grade of C or a P if the course is taken on a Pass/No Pass basis.

Program Learning Outcomes

• Explain how the manufacture of pharmaceuticals is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration and other international regulatory agencies and how quality systems assure the safety, purity, identity, consistency, potency, and stability of a product.

• Explain how the structure and function of protein pharmaceuticals and evaluate which protein properties a production facility can exploit to purify a particular protein from other cellular components.

• In preparation to working at a biotechnology company, a successful student should be able to construct a pathway analyzing how a drug or biologic is produced by genetically engineered cells and subsequently purified.

Program Requirements