BE Seminar: Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing: Bridging the Skillset Gap by Training the Next Generation Workforce

Speaker: Dr. Shalu Suri
Co-Director of Engineering Workforce Development (EWD) NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) Georgia Tech, USA.

Date: 13th December
Time: 11.00 AM
Venue: IDR Classroom – 3: G12

Title: Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing: Bridging the Skillset Gap by Training the Next Generation Workforce

Abstract: With the approval of the multiple cell and gene therapies by the FDA in the past few years and the tremendous promise of emerging biopharmaceutical drugs – biomanufacturing, especially the transformative areas of cell and gene-therapy manufacturing, has rapidly become one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing sectors of the biotech and pharma industry in the United States, and around the world. However, the growth of the field can only be realized by the successful development of a well-trained workforce. The lack of an adequately trained workforce has already been identified as a major barrier hindering the growth of biomanufacturing and biotherapies today and this situation will only worsen as the field continues to expand. Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), the NSF funded multi-institute Engineering Research Center in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, is the first and only comprehensive multi-institute center in the world focused on developing transformative tools, technologies, and processes for scalable, quality-driven biomanufacturing of cell therapies, and preparing adequately trained workforce. Dr. Suri was recruited as Associate Director of Engineering Workforce Development (EWD) pillar of NSF CMaT ERC by Georgia Tech and Emory Medicine in Jan 2020 from Cornell University to spearhead the creation of this well-trained and diverse biomanufacturing workforce that could nurture this nascent industry and thus reduce the skillset gap. In the last 4+ years, Dr. Suri has spearheaded multiple high-impact workforce development efforts. Of particular importance is the virtual professional training program entitled “Workforce Development in Biomanufacturing – Training in Cell and Gene Therapy” developed in collaboration with International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT) which has trained 300+ professionals globally. In addition, she has also led the development of a week-long hands-on Cell manufacturing training program in partnership with ISCT. Dr. Suri has championed multiple efforts at K-12 and 2-year college levels towards workforce training. She collaborates with instructors from a number of 2-year technical colleges on cell manufacturing curriculum development and its integration into their curriculum to address the shortage of entry level trained workers. In her talk she will provide a broad overview of the field and highlight the work the center has done in the last 7 years to move this field forward.

About the Speaker: Dr. Shalu Suri is the Co-director of Engineering workforce Development (EWD) pillar of NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) at Georgia Tech. She joined CMaT in 2020 as the Associate Director and became the Co-director in 2022. Prior to joining GT, she was a lecturer in BME at Cornell University where she was instrumental in designing and teaching multiple UG and graduate classes for which she received Cornell’s Teaching Excellence Award. At CMaT, she spearheads multiple high-impact efforts across academic levels (K12-industry) towards curriculum development, professional education, and preparing future cell manufacturing workforce. She has received multiple honors including GT’s 2024 Outstanding Professional Education Award for her contributions to the field of professional education and GT’s 2023 Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching CIOS Honor Roll. She serves on the National Advisory Council of NSF-InnovATEBIO biotechnology education center. She received her undergraduate degree from Kanpur University and her MS from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (India), and her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She received her postdoctoral training from Georgia Tech.